South Korea moves to criminalize AI-glasses cheating on college entrance exam

On October 29, 2026, South Korea's Ministry of Education announced a response plan under which it will seek to hold candidates who cheat with AI smart glasses criminally liable and extend the exam ban from one year to three. The ministry framed the conduct as deliberate, premeditated interference with a national examination, and plans to press charges or request an investigation on grounds such as obstruction of official duties.

Under the current rules, a candidate who wears or uses smart glasses has the results voided and is barred from taking the exam the following year. Refusing an invigilator's check of the glasses carries the same penalty after verification, and even bringing smart glasses into the exam site without using them is enough to void the results. The new plan tightens those standards further.

Detection measures are to be scaled up alongside the penalties. From this year's exam onward, each test site will assign staff specifically to spot smart glasses, and the government is considering deploying signal-detection equipment next year. IT Home reported that cheating cases involving smart glasses had surfaced at exams in multiple regions, and that the ministry's plan aims to raise the cost of cheating while easing the burden on invigilators who must identify and judge violations. The ministry's materials also cite a 2005 case in which a candidate who joined a phone-based group cheating scheme was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended for two years. As of now, the plan remains an announcement: the amendment to the Higher Education Act has yet to be enacted, and the detection equipment has not yet been deployed.