Nearly 40 percent of teenagers in Korea have used other people's personal information without permission to gain access to online game services, a poll showed Tuesday.
According to the survey of 1,500 adolescents nationwide, 39.4 percent said they had used personal identification numbers or other private information of their parents or acquaintances in order to play computer games.
Online game operators often require service users to enter their personal identification numbers in order to restrict minors from subscribing to their services or to limit their gaming time and period.
Of those who have committed such identity theft, 74.8 percent said they were aware that doing so is illegal but were not worried because they used the personal information of their friends or family members, according to the survey taken by the Consumers Union of Korea, a consumer advocacy group.
Nearly 47 percent of male respondents said they had committed identity theft, with the corresponding figure for females standing at 28.1 percent.
Of adolescents who frequent Internet cafes after school, 65.7 percent said they had used someone else's identity to play online games.
Regarding the content of computer games, 59.2 percent said lots of harmful slangs are used, and 27.9 percent said the games are violent. Some 21.9 percent answered they are indifferent to the criminal acts depicted in the games, according to the survey.
Korea is one of the world's most wired nations with almost all homes linked with high-speed Internet connections, and Internet cafes abound in cities. (Yonhap)