Government aims to halve teen suicide rate amid social media comparison culture

The government plans to expand counseling and treatment support inside and outside schools while building an AI-based monitoring system to detect content that promotes self-harm or suicide. The goal is to bring the youth suicide rate down to 6.5 per 100,000 by 2030 and to 4 per 100,000 by 2035.

The Ministry of Education on Tuesday announced the "Pan-Government Plan for Teen Suicide Prevention" alongside 15 ministries, including the Office for Government Policy Coordination, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. The plan is the first released under the government's broader "Suicide Prevention Measures Across Nine Sectors" initiative.

Teen suicide deaths surged from 273 in 2016 to 396 last year. The number of children and teenagers aged 0 to 19 seeking mental health care at medical institutions is also estimated to rise from 274,000 in 2021 to around 431,000 this year.

The Ministry of Education identified two main factors behind the rise in youth suicides: the severing of in-person relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of a comparison culture driven by social media. Increased exposure to suicide-related content and harmful information online has also deepened psychological distress among teenagers, the ministry said.

In response, the government will pursue 15 detailed tasks under a five-stage strategy — prevention, detection, intervention, recovery and foundation-building. The government set a target to reduce the youth suicide rate from 8 per 100,000 as of 2024 to 6.5 by 2030 and to 4.2 by 2035.

The plan calls for a broad expansion of mental health education for teenagers, parents and teachers. Social-emotional education in schools will be extended from six sessions to 17, and physical and arts activities will be strengthened to build students' emotional resilience.

For parental education, caregivers receiving parental or child allowances will receive age-appropriate child-rearing information and guidance on educational content. Training on student mental health will also be increased for both current teachers and teacher candidates.

The government will build a 24-hour AI-powered monitoring system to filter out content that promotes self-harm or suicide. It will also strengthen correction requests to platform operators and is reviewing a ban on media reporting about youth suicide cases, with sanctions for violations.

To identify high-risk individuals early, the government will improve student screening procedures and expand "life-keeper" training for teachers and students. An AI-based crisis detection system is also set to be in place by the end of 2026.

Counseling and treatment support will be reinforced as well. The government plans to place professional counselors in all schools and expand the functions of Wee Classes and Wee Centers. Hospital-based Wee Centers and dedicated psychiatric wards and beds for teenagers will be added to strengthen treatment referrals for high-risk youth. The government also plans to pursue legislative amendments allowing police and fire departments to share information on suicide attempt survivors with regional education offices, strengthening crisis management at the school level.

However, the Ministry of Education said it has no separate statistical evidence verifying the effectiveness of expanding social-emotional education and suicide prevention programs. "Teachers in the field and experts have consistently raised the need to expand such education," a ministry official said. "We developed the policy reflecting the views of those on the ground."

The government also decided to expand mental health treatment infrastructure for youth, though detailed plans have yet to be drawn up. It currently views dedicated psychiatric beds for teenagers as in effect nonexistent, and plans to conduct a demand survey before reviewing options to secure dedicated beds at regional psychiatric institutions.

"Teen suicide is not a problem that schools alone can solve," Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin said. "We will build a social response system in which families, schools, communities and the media work together." If you're thinking about self-harm or suicide, contact the Ministry of Health and Welfare's helpline 1393, available 24/7. Please request a translator for English-language services.