Internet and Smartphone Usage Habit Survey for Youth Starting from the 4th

Online Survey of Over 130 Nationwide 4th Graders, 1st Year Middle and High School Students
Purpose: Customized Counseling and Treatment Support for Excessive Users

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced on the 3rd that it will conduct the "2022 Youth Internet and Smartphone Usage Habit Diagnosis Survey" targeting adolescents in the school transition period from the 4th to the 20th.

The survey will be conducted online targeting 1.3 million students in 4th grade of elementary school, 1st grade of middle school, and 1st grade of high school. The purpose is to encourage voluntary improvement by checking adolescents' internet and smartphone usage habits, and to detect excessive usage problems early to provide customized counseling and treatment support. It has been conducted annually since 2009 in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, metropolitan and provincial offices of education, and others.

After notifying guardians in advance of the survey contents through elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide, adolescents will conduct self-diagnosis. To increase the understanding of guardians of multicultural adolescents, home letters in four languages?English, Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese?will also be produced and distributed.

Depending on the level of risk of overdependence, individual counseling and group counseling will be conducted, and if psychological or emotional difficulties are found through additional psychological tests, comprehensive psychological tests and hospital treatment connections will be supported. For the high-risk user group, individual counseling will be provided at youth counseling centers; for the caution user group, visiting group counseling will be conducted at each school; and if there are comorbidities, connections with treatment cooperative hospitals will be made and treatment costs (400,000 to 600,000 KRW) will be supported.

For adolescents requiring intensive healing, a residential healing camp program at a permanent healing institution that provides professional counseling and alternative activities in an environment with restricted media use will be supported.

Kim Gwonyoung, Youth Policy Officer at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, said, "Since this is a period when media use has surged due to COVID-19, we hope the diagnosis survey will serve as an opportunity to check your child's media usage habits," and added, "We ask for the interest and cooperation of guardians so that adolescents who need help due to media overdependence can be detected early and develop media usage control skills through professional counseling and healing programs."