Kakao said on Dec. 31 it published the 2025 Kakao Group Technology Ethics Report, a record of the Kakao Group’s technology ethics practices over the year.

The report has been published annually since 2023 and includes the achievements and activity details of the group’s technology ethics subcommittee. Kakao launched the Kakao Group Technology Ethics Subcommittee in July 2022, the first such initiative among South Korean companies, to review technology ethics across the group and to continuously study ways to develop it together with society.

The report includes the subcommittee’s and affiliates’ technology ethics governance and practices, focusing on key issues facing the Kakao Group. These include safety and trust, transparency, inclusiveness and fairness, privacy protection and security, and literacy to support user agency.

This year, the subcommittee developed a Digital Child and Youth Protection Checklist to establish a system to protect minors. The checklist was produced with reference to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and UNICEF’s Digital Child Rights Impact Assessment (D-CRIA), and it also reflects the Korea Communications Commission’s self-inspection standards for youth protection officers.

To improve employees’ technology ethics literacy, Kakao produced a Kakao Group technology ethics training video and encouraged its affiliates to use it as well. It set up easy access through an internal training platform so the audiovisual materials, which comprehensively cover the importance of technology ethics and related key policies, can be shared.

Kakao also sought to broaden the Kakao Group’s technology ethics efforts through a range of activities. These included publishing the online monthly Tech Ethics to deliver technology to users more easily and transparently, engaging with external parties through participation in technology ethics forums at home and abroad, and cooperating with global institutions.

Lee Sang-ho, chair of the Kakao Group Technology Ethics Subcommittee, said in a preface that Kakao aimed to share its concrete efforts in the hope that technology can contribute to the sustainable development of people and society. He said the subcommittee will continue to work with affiliates, reflect on how Kakao Group technology can be technology for people, and steadily put technology ethics into practice.