By Grace Kim
Two out of five students have watched pornography, 14.2 percent of whom felt the impulse to imitate what they saw, according to a survey.
In the survey conducted by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, about 40 percent of the 12,251 students in grades five through 11 questioned replied that they have had contact with porn,
Among them, 14 percent have developed an addiction and 16.2 percent experienced symptoms of withdrawal when they stopped watching porn.
Nearly one third of the respondents or 31.7 percent replied that they felt disgusted after watching porn, followed by 27.4 percent who said they were aroused, and 14.2 percent, who wanted to imitate the porn stars.
The alarming number of porn users among teens raises concern that they might turn into sexual predators, according to the survey outcome. Among those who have watched porn, 16.5 percent answered that the perverted scenes seem natural and five percent confessed to feeling the urge to sexually harass or rape someone.
This resulted in 4.9 percent of teenagers logging into obscene chat sites and 4.7 percent sending sexual text messages or pictures after watching porn.
“The widespread use of the Internet and smartphones makes it easier for teenagers to access porn,” said Hwang Seo-jong of the ministry.