KT Digital Citizen One Team Opens 'Maeumkiwoom Classroom'

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] KT announced on the 15th that the ‘Digital Citizen One-Team’ and Severance Hospital have opened the 'Maeumkiwoom Classroom' to resolve and heal the side effects of the digital world. The Digital Citizen One-Team is a private organization launched last year by 22 institutions and companies coming together to create a safe and secure digital world.

The Maeumkiwoom Classroom was established to address one of the various problems arising in an advanced technological environment?digital overdependence among adolescents?and to support the daily recovery of youth through group psychological counseling. Severance Hospital, the most prestigious in Korea, and the Digital Citizen One-Team plan and operate the Maeumkiwoom Classroom.

Since 2012, Severance Hospital has been conducting the ‘Sori Chatgi (Finding Sound)’ project with KT to support children with hearing impairments. They aim to operate the Maeumkiwoom Classroom leveraging their expertise in protecting socially vulnerable groups. Professor Cheon Geun-ah of Severance Hospital’s Department of Child Psychiatry, who was appointed as the head of the damage support division at the launch of the Digital Citizen One-Team, oversees the Maeumkiwoom Classroom.

The Maeumkiwoom Classroom will be operated on a pilot basis this year with 10 to 12 participants per cohort, once a week for 15 sessions, and three cohorts annually. In addition to treatment, a child psychiatrist from Severance Hospital will visit schools directly to provide preventive education targeting potential risk groups.

Furthermore, five sessions of parental education, which play the most crucial role in the treatment process, will be conducted to support the continuation of the program at home through parental participation.

A representative from the Digital Citizen One-Team Secretariat stated, "The goal of the Maeumkiwoom Classroom this year is to prove the effectiveness of group psychotherapy for adolescents with overdependence. The program participants will be selected through close cooperation between the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education, and the Secretariat, all members of the Digital Citizen One-Team."