Survey: One in five South Korean students rely too much on smartphones and the Internet

The survey found that Internet and smartphone use interferes with the lives of nearly one in five students in South Korea.

According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family on teenagers' media habits, more than 211,000 teenagers, or 18 percent of the total, had difficulty managing their daily lives due to uncontrolled use of the Internet and smartphones in 2024.

Each year since 2009, the Department of Families has conducted similar surveys of more than 1.2 million young people in transition, such as first and fourth graders and first year middle and high school students.

According to the latest survey, by age group, middle school students were the most affected by the Internet and smartphones, with 89,812, followed by high school students and primary school students. Boys were disturbed more than girls.

The number of adolescents at risk of over-dependence fell, from 236,340 in 2023 to 220,129 this year.

However, the number of primary school students at risk of smartphone dependence has increased. Smartphone dependence means a person needs to be guided to control smartphone use and may have trouble complying with scheduled screen time or experience vision and posture problems.

This year, 16,942 primary school students are at risk of over-reliance on smartphones, a slight increase from 16,699 last year. Compared to last year, the number of female students facing difficulties decreased from 7,091 to 6,855, while the number of male students increased from 9,608 to 10,087.