By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter

More than 70 percent of middle and high school students view society as corrupt, according to a survey released by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) Tuesday.

When compared to a poll released last year that found that 60 percent of respondents aged 20 and older said that society is dishonest, it would appear to indicate that teenagers tend to be more negative about the honesty of society ― although the two polls were held a year apart.

The anti-corruption watchdog plans to offer education programs aimed at making society more transparent and to prepare a range of events to raise integrity.

``In a bid to strengthen transparency-related education, we will discuss ways to add transparency-making programs into schoolbooks with the ministries concerned,'' the commission said in a press release.

``In addition, the commission will conduct a campaign to raise integrity by holding an essay contest and forming a youth publicity team to promote transparency-making efforts,'' it added.

In the poll of 1,328 students last month, 76.8 percent said they see the society as corrupt and 51.7 percent said that corruption would be worse in two to three years.

Only eight percent responded that they believe society was transparent.

According to the survey, the areas considered most corrupt include politics, administrative agencies and the media.

More than 80 percent of students picked political parties and the legislature as the most corrupt field, 24 percent chose administrative agencies and 23.3 percent pointed at the media in the survey, which allowed respondents to name multiple groups.

They said social corruption is mainly attributable to the atmosphere emphasizing old boy networks and regionalism.

Insufficient punishment for corruption was chosen as a major reason why it will continue in society, the survey said.

The poll also found that 30.1 percent of respondents said making a lot of money was more important than living an honest life.

Some 23.9 percent said they pretend to be unaware of corruption unless it affected them.

The rate of the teenagers who would chose to offer bribes if it would help them solve problems stood at 14.2 percent, up about 1 percent point from a 2007 poll conducted by the commission.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percent.

ksy@koreatimes.co.kr