YouTube steps up digital safety for teens with ‘Hit Pause’ campaign

[Financial News] YouTube is stepping up efforts to strengthen teens’ digital literacy amid the spread of generative artificial intelligence (AI). It is expanding its existing campaign, which focused on preventing cyberbullying and abusive comments, to include education on identifying AI-generated information and critical thinking, while also increasing mental health content for teens. The move is seen as an effort to strengthen the platform’s responsibility for teens’ ability to assess information and stay safe online in the AI era.
According to industry sources on the 2nd, YouTube will unveil its digital literacy campaign, ‘Hit Pause 2026.’ This year’s campaign focuses on improving the critical thinking and media discernment needed in the AI era.
Hit Pause is YouTube’s global campaign to help users create content responsibly and consume information critically. It has been running in 74 countries around the world since 2022, and in South Korea it began in 2023 with the CDL Digital Literacy Association, focusing on preventing cyberbullying. Last year, YouTube partnered with the Sunfull Foundation on the ‘Leave Good Comments, Not Hate Comments’ campaign to promote a positive commenting culture.
This year, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Press Foundation are participating as partner organizations. YouTube plans to co-publish campaign videos with the two organizations and promote the Korea Press Foundation’s media education platform, MECA (Mika). The initiative aims to help teens access structured media literacy education. Collaboration with the Sunfull Foundation, EBS, and Hyeri, a member of Girl’s Day and an actress, will also continue.
The campaign’s key message is ‘Pause before you press the button!’ It will launch with videos featuring Hyeri and EBS’s Giant Peng TV, followed by social media content and challenges involving creators. With the Sunfull Foundation, it will run educational programs linked to classroom lessons in elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as contests related to the Sunfull movement and participatory events.
The campaign will also expand its mental health content for teens. YouTube will broaden its dedicated video sections featuring content from credible sources so teens can easily find reliable mental health and well-being information suited to their developmental stages. After launching the ‘Taking Care of Teens’ Minds’ series last year in collaboration with Korea University Medical Center, with information on depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), eating disorders, suicide, and self-harm, YouTube plans to expand the topics to include addiction, body dysmorphic disorder, loneliness, oppositional defiant disorder, and schizophrenia.
Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, will also provide $1 million this year to South Korean civil society organizations to strengthen digital safety for teens in the country. The funding will support expanded education on AI safety and digital citizenship, and help teens and their guardians develop healthy digital habits.
[email protected] Jang Min-kwon Reporter