Campaign Against Cell Phone Addiction In Korea

Accoding to a report by the Korea Times, a civic group called School Beautiful Movement has launched a campaign to teach the youth proper cell phone use in South Korea.

South Korea has one of the world's most advanced cell phone systems and services. However, the wide use of the handsets has resulted in addiction, especially among teenagers, with cell phones dominating their daily lives.

According to a survey by the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion (KADO) on students aged between 14 and 19 in 2005, 90 percent had mobile phones; 38.2 percent sent more than 1,000 text messages per month. And in another in 2001 showed 74.9 percent of young people felt nervous without their handsets.

Such enthusiasm for the mobile phones and its side effects have led to an education program designed to prevent cell phone ``abuse.''

The program is aimed to help prevent mobile phone abuse through research and education, and that students will willingly learn to properly manage their cell phones, said the report.

Twelve elementary, middle and high schools were selected for the pilot program.``For the next two months, students of these schools will speak about their phone use, discuss the symptoms they experience when they are without a mobile phone, and consider proper use of the phones as consumers,'' citing the member, reports the paper.

(November 26, 2007)