"Metaverse Bullying and Sexual Crimes, Confide in Youth Counseling 1388"

Zepeto Opens 'Cheongsonyeon Sangdam 1388' Promotion Booth

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Korea Youth Counseling and Welfare Institute announced on the 6th that they have opened the 'Youth Counseling 1388' promotional center on the metaverse platform Zepeto to facilitate connections to cyber counseling.

Youth Counseling 1388 is a non-face-to-face online youth counseling service available 24 hours a day via phone, computer, or smartphone.

Youth who are troubled by issues such as online bullying and digital sex crimes occurring in metaverse spaces can also receive counseling through the Youth Counseling 1388 service.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family operates a 'Visiting Online Counseling Service' (Cyber Outreach) to help youth in crisis. The number of counseling cases through cyber outreach increased about threefold from 8,484 in the previous year to 26,608 in 2021.

Counselors conduct online counseling via messenger chats or comments when they detect youth in crisis between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. the next day, a time when internet and social networking service (SNS) usage is high.

Along with the opening of the Zepeto Youth Counseling 1388 promotional center, an online participation event is also being held. Users can find the ‘Youth Counseling 1388 Promotional Center’ on Zepeto’s world map, take a visit verification photo in the event zone, and share it on their Zepeto feed.

Yoon Hyo-sik, director of the Korea Youth Counseling and Welfare Institute, said, "We have opened the Youth Counseling 1388 promotional center to support youth experiencing difficulties in virtual reality, and we will prepare various measures to activate youth counseling so that it can directly contribute to youth protection and prevention activities."