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Korean kids addiction to the Internet

Kim Yeon-ju, a housewife, has to struggle every day with her 7-year-old daughter who throws a tantrum all day long to use a computer. But once the kid gets on a computer, she does not leave the computer for hours. Kim said, A few days ago, my daughter asked me to buy something for her while pointing to the computer. On the computer screen, I found a lot of toys in a shopping cart. Im worried if I can let her be like this.

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Many Korean children aged six through nine are found to have developed high dependence on the Internet. The Korea Internet Security Agency conducted a study on the Internet use of 5,000 children aged six or older across the country, which was titled The 2012 Survey of Information and Culture. According to the study, children aged six through nine use the Internet an average of 2 hours per day.

The study also found that those kids are active in posting their writings, pictures and videos on the Internet. Almost half (42.5 percent) of the respondents said they had posted writings on the Internet while 25.1 percent said they had posted pictures or videos, which is equivalent to adults in 50s, says the report.

In the meantime, these kids have found to accept all the information on the Internet without critical thinking due to lack of experience. More than half of the kids said they trusted the information on portals, while 41.9 percent said they believed the information on social networking services and 34.7 percent believed the information on shopping and commercial websites. These kids trusted the information on the Internet more than any other age groups.

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