Freedom of Political Activities 37. Under the national legislation, the right of election is given to those aged 19 or older. It has been suggested that the age threshold of the election right should be lowered to 18. NHRCK also recommended in 2004 that the age threshold should be appropriately revised downward. 38. The Government needs to fully consider lowering the age threshold of the election right to an appropriate extent. Furthermore, it needs to take actions to ensure that children's freedom of political activities is not restricted under the arbitrary judgment of the school authorities and the school regulations restricting the freedom are revised and improved. 2. Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion (Article 14 of CRC) Freedom of Religion at Schools and Other Institutions (CRC/C/KOR/3-4, para. 155 and 188) 39. In reality, the schools established by religious foundations require the students to join the religious activities at school, but the Government has not taken sufficient actions to resolve this problem. In May 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that compulsory religious education for students is illegal. The Court determined, in the ruling, that "in case a student's freedom of religion collides with a private school's freedom of education, the rights of both parties should be respected", adding that "the school should prepare alternative subjects for the students who refuse to take religious lessons". Despite this ruling, the students in some schools founded by religious groups are still forced to join religious functions. According to the 2010 Survey on the Situation of Human Rights in Child Welfare Facilities by NHRCK, 47.1% of the childcare facilities and 74.3% of the institutions for children's protection and treatment require the children to participate in religious activities, and 8.3% of the children in the childcare centers and 10.8% of the children in the institutions for children's protection and treatment replied that they had been victimized for not having joined a religious activity. 40. The Government should ensure that the schools and institutions established by religious foundations develop alternative programs or take other actions to guarantee children's freedom of religion. 3. Protection of Privacy (Article 16 of CRC) (CRC/C/KOR/3-4, para. 155) 41. Recently, the education offices in some local governments have adopted the Student Human Rights Ordinance which provides for a ban on the hair length control and the guarantee of children's privacy, but many schools are still restricting children's freedom of privacy, as they apply the school regulations that control the students' hair length or style and clothing or prohibits them from carrying a cell phone at school. In particular, in some cases, school authorities use the school regulations to the detriment of student's privacy, emphasizing that the students participated in the process of devising or revising the regulations, although their participation, in effect, was no more 10