By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
One of two South Korean teenagers has ever received adult spam messages through their cellular phones, according to a domestic civic group Tuesday.
The Green Consumers Network conducted a survey of 538 middle- and high-school students in Seoul and found that 46.2 percent of them had been plagued by obscene cell phone messages.
Plus, 67.9 percent of the respondents said they had been baffled after running up huge mobile phone bills due to excessive access to the wireless Internet.
``More than 12 percent of the respondents said they called back in response to the obscene messages,’’ said an activist at the Green Consumer Network. ``Adult content is too easily available to Korean students. We need to take steps to address obscene cell phone spam, which is mostly illegal,’’ he said.
Under current regulations, mobile marketers are required to obtain prior permissions of potential recipients before sending commercial messages.
Violators of the so-called opt-in system, which was introduced in 2005 to bring the emerging nuisances under control, are subject to a maximum of 30 million won in fines.
Despite the strict measures, however, mobile spammers continue to rage.
The obsessive use of the wireless Internet services on handsets, which even cost lives, also generates big concerns.
Early last year, a 17-year-old high-school student killed himself in Iksan, North Cholla Province, after being called on by a mobile operator to pay his two-month data service fees amounting to 3.7 million won (about $4,000).
Currently, more than 40 million of the nation’s 49 million population subscribe to the mobile telephony services and the penetration rate is expected to be higher for teenagers.