The National Human Rights Commission has ruled that collecting cellphones en masse from high school students is not a human rights violation.

The human rights watchdog held a plenary session Monday and issued the ruling after an eight-to-two vote, reversing the stance it had maintained for a decade.

Though the dissenters argued that disallowing cellphone use could limit students’ self-expression, other human rights commissioners said cellphone use interferes with classwork.

In March 2023, a student at a high school in South Jeolla Province filed a complaint with the rights body saying that collecting cellphones during school hours and prohibiting their use even during recess and lunch hour violated their human rights.