File photo: South Korean high school students play games on their smartphones on a bench on the sidewalk in Seoul, South Korea. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
South Korea is deciding whether it will allow parents to opt out of installing a monitoring app on their children's smartphones.
Korea Communications Commission chairman Choi Sungjoon said Friday that parliament is considering the issue.
Enacted in April, the law requires mobile companies and parents to install one of about a dozen apps that filter objectionable material when people aged 18 or younger purchase a smartphone.
Critics said the law legalized surveillance of children and jeopardized privacy.
The commission faced heavy criticism when government-sponsored Smart Sheriff, the most popular of the apps, was revealed to have serious security flaws.