By Park Si-soo
Nearly one in five smartphone users in South Korea is addicted to their device at “dangerous levels,” a study revealed on Wednesday. What is worrisome is the ever-increasing portion of preschoolers.
Boys are more vulnerable than girls, and children of working parents have a higher addiction risk than those from families with a single breadwinner, according to the study. More seniors also find it hard to live without a smartphone, it discovered.
Those addicted at “dangerous levels” find it “difficult to have a normal life at home, school or work because of their out-of-control use of smartphones,” the study's organizers, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Information Society Agency, said.
The two organizations surveyed 28,575 smartphone users aged three-69 last year, with a margin of error of plus/minus 0.46 percent at a 95 percent confidence level
Nineteen percent were found to be in the dangerous addiction zone, up from 18.6 percent in 2017 and 17.8 percent in 2016. The increase was driven by addicts in their 10s and 60s
Among users aged three to nine, 20.7 percent were in the zone last year, up from 19.1 percent in 2017 and 12.4 percent in 2015.
People aged over 60 were not immune to this trend ― 14.2 percent of those surveyed were dangerously addicted to smartphones, up from 12.9 percent in 2017 and 11.7 percent in 2016. Males were more vulnerable than females and employed seniors had a higher chance of being addicted. The most vulnerable group was employed seniors in their 60s with a monthly income of 4-6 million won ($3,560-$5,340).