Students and parents in South Korea are staying away from school group chats amid mounting cyberbullying concerns.
Advice circulating on social media warns that students who stay silent in group chats could still become involved in school violence cases, the Korea Herald reported.
An Instagram post titled “How to avoid being accused of school violence on group chats” advises users not to respond even with brief reactions such as “lol” or “oh” and has drawn more than 2,500 likes.
Students attend a cyber bullying prevention class by the National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea, November 27, 2019. Photo by Reuters |
On Threads, one user said she tells her students to avoid using school group chats altogether, and a parent expressed a similar concern, saying she advises her middle school-aged daughter that “it is better to be alone.”
Some elementary school teachers in Gyeonggi Province have reportedly banned group chat in their classrooms over concerns about school violence.
A government survey of 3.97 million elementary, middle and high school students in South Korea found that 7.8% of school violence cases involved cyberbullying, up from 7.4% in 2024 and 6.9% in 2023.
Another survey by the National Information Society Agency and the Korea Media and Communications Commission found that 43.3% of students had experienced cyberbullying as perpetrators or victims.
In response, the country has moved to incorporate school violence records into college admissions criteria.
Of 3,273 applicants with such records, 2,460 were not admitted, according to a report by politician Jin Sun-mee in Jan. 2026.
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