Real name policy
 | This section needs to be updated.(January 2024) |
There is a government-level proposal to stamp out anonymity in the South Korean internet environment. [15] The Korea Communications Commission is considering this proposal. [16]
About 49 million people in South Korea (or 97.0% of the population) use the Internet. [1] The country has the world's fastest average internet connection speed. [2] [3] South Korea has consistently ranked first in the UN ICT Development Index since the index's launch. The government established policies and programs that facilitated the rapid expansion and use of broadband. The country has 97.6% of the population owning a smartphone, which is the highest in the world.
It is recorded that Kilnam Chon played a major role in the introduction of the Internet to South Korea. Kilnam Chon said in an interview that in 1982 he started a South Korean network development project. [4] The first Internet message sent from South Korea to the world was done by Hyunje Park in 1990. [5] It is recorded that the e-mail—"I am Hyunje Park from Korea. Anyone who sees this e-mail, please reply."—sent by Hyunje Park received a reply—"I am Torben at the University of Hawaiʻi, United States. Congratulations. You are now connected to the Internet."—soon after. [6]
South Korea has the most DSL connections per capita worldwide.[ citation needed ] ADSL is standard, but VDSL has started growing quickly. ADSL commonly offers speeds of 3 Mbit/s to 8 Mbit/s, with VDSL accordingly faster. The large proportion of South Korea's population living in apartment blocks helps the spread of DSL, as does a high penetration of consumer electronics in general. Many apartment buildings in built-up metropolitan areas have speeds of up to 100 Mbit/s such as the capital Seoul and Incheon [ citation needed ]. VDSL is commonly found in newer apartments while ADSL is normally found in landed properties where the telephone exchange is far away.
The Internet has a higher status for many Koreans than it does in the West and the government actively supports this. [7] According to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, South Korea's internet is the most developed in the world. [8] Seoul has been called "the bandwidth capital of the world". [9]
There are three major ISPs: KT Corporation, SK Broadband (previously Hanaro Telecom), and LG Uplus (previously Powercomm and DACOM). They provide broadband and Internet circuit including Ethernet and operating Internet data centers in Seoul. Major MSOs are LG Hellovision, SK Broadband Cable , DLIVE, HCN and CMB.
As of 2017, South Korea had the fastest average internet connection in the world at 28.6 Mbit/s, according to the report State of the Internet published by Akamai Technologies. [10] South Korea's speed is four times faster than the world average of 7.0 Mbit/s. [11] It is important to note that 100 Mbit/s services are the average standard in urban South Korean homes and the country is rapidly rolling out 1Gbit/s connections or 1,024 Mbit/s, at $20 per month,[ citation needed ] which is roughly 142 times as fast as the world average and 79 times as fast as the average speed in the United States. [12]
South Korea has pulled ahead of every other country when it comes to broadband Internet in all categories including Speed and Quality, Adoption, Price, and Literacy according to Internet Monitor. [13] As many large, powerful countries begin to fall behind broadband experts look to South Korea for solutions. However, there are multiple reasons why South Korea's broadband is successful, such as, "Government planning, healthy competition, urban population density, private-sector growth, and Korean culture", [14] which have made it difficult for other countries to mimic their success.
| This section needs to be updated.(January 2024) |
There is a government-level proposal to stamp out anonymity in the South Korean internet environment. [15] The Korea Communications Commission is considering this proposal. [16]
The government is considering passing a bill, wherein online services (e.g. Netflix, YouTube) will have to pay a 'Network Fee' to ISPs depending on how much internet traffic they generate. It is supposed to compensate ISPs for the increased maintenance costs due to increased internet usage. This bill will also infringe upon Net Neutrality. [17] [18]
South Korean web culture indicates distinct activities that South Korean Internet users enjoy on the web[ citation needed ]. Synonyms include cyberculture, technoculture, virtual community culture, post-human culture, and high tech culture. Cyberculture in South Korea is more like a virtual community culture than anything else. Most of the Internet users are in the 13–50 age range[ citation needed ]. People often access the Internet through cyber cafes (Korean: PC방; PC bang).
Most of the activities are targeted to teenagers and college students. Youngsters who feel more comfortable texting than talking are known as the "thumb tribe". [19] The LG Mobile World Cup, an international competition held on January 14, 2010, in which participants competed using their texting speed and accuracy was won by a pair of South Koreans.
Cyberculture is prolific in South Korea, both in streams and in internet communities. South Korea's cyberculture is quite aggressive because of anonymity and trolls. To prevent this from getting worse, the South Korean government decided to regulate streaming platforms, especially Afreeca TV, which has become a controversy as to whether it corrupts cyberculture or not. [20] [21]
Highly urbanized at 92%, [22] South Koreans lead a distinctive urban lifestyle; half of them live in high-rises [23] concentrated in the Seoul Capital Area with 25 million residents. [24] The rise of online social activities closely mirrors the wider cultural trend towards shared spaces, such as the habitual use of coffee houses. [25]
South Korea enjoys the world's swiftest Internet speeds and the highest rate of Internet penetration [26] [27] but also suffers from very high censorship of content. |
Internet addiction is very common across the world. Factors of internet addiction be anything online, whether excessively playing video games, compulsive shopping, going back and forth with social media, etc. (Gregory, 2020). Major symptoms of internet addiction consist of "depression, anxiety, isolation, avoidance of work, and some physical conditions of backache, headaches, insomnia, neck pain, etc. (Gregory, 2020, par. 4). Particularly in South Korea, almost 95% of adults own a smartphone which some experts say is becoming increasingly addicted to the Internet (Sullivan, 2019). This is because the South Korean environment allows easy access to the internet to almost any online users in the country. Any ages of Koreans can access the internet easily from one neighborhood to another. Almost 20% of the South Korea population are in major risk of internet addiction which advocates to nearly 10 million people according to a 2018 government survey.
In South Korea, there are places where anyone can access the internet easily at common places known as "PC Bang" in American terms known as "PC Café". PC Bangs are often "shiny places with big, comfy chairs, huge screens and fast Internet, all for about a dollar an hour" (Sullivan, 2019, par. 3). Most of the PC Bangs are open 24 hours a day which is a major cause to internet addiction from ages type ranging from young teenagers to adults. A PC Bang owner in Seoul's upmarket Gangnam neighborhood stated the following "some customers who play too long gets smelly, and other customers start to complain, so we have to ask them to leave" (Sullivan, 2019, par. 5). Due to major issues similarly to the owner stating above, Seoul's Hanyang University psychiatrists who studies internet addiction believes that South Korea is facing a public health crisis.
Although there's major disagreements whether Internet Addiction causes symptoms, "most authors agree that the preoccupation with the Internet and withdrawal symptoms (e.g., dysphoria, anxiety, irritability) when unable to access the internet must be present" (Uribe & Schub, 2018, par. 4). Just like many common addictions, symptoms occur whether its alcohol, drugs, gambling, shopping, and many more. Every addiction is unique from one another due to its nature of addiction but behind the addiction are almost too similar due to what it is doing with the brain controlling and manipulating the human to do a certain act based on the type of addiction.
Other symptoms of internet addiction can consist "development of tolerance, repeated inability to cut back on Internet use, disregard for the consequences (physical, psychological, and/or social) of overuse, loss of interest in other activities in favor of Internet use, and Internet use as a means of escape or mood elevation (Tao et al., 2010)" (Uribe & Schub, 2018, par. 4). Just like all addictions, there are treatments that are created to treat and solve an addiction.
Some ways that internet addiction can be solved especially for younger children is for parents to be more proactive when letting children having access to the internet on the daily as well as the number of devices. Parents are critical when it comes to children being addicted to the internet due to the responsibilities it has on the daily usage of internet (Young & Nabuco 2017, p. 155).
In South Korea, there are "regional education offices that provide services such as in-school counseling, screening surveys, preventive disciplines and, for severe cases, addiction camp" (Sullivan, 2019, par. 10). The South Korean government provides and finances most of the camps through the national or municipal levels, which it has been doing for more than a decade.
The internet addiction camp is a place "where people can go to receive help for the unhealthy relationship that they have with the internet" (Newsround, 2019, par. 3). Its purpose is to support those who are in need by becoming more independent from the internet and depict their views when using the internet. The rules are very strict as it does not allow phones and any devices are must be given to the instructors immediately especially like hair straighteners. Its goal is to help the people to find ways to be happier when doing other types of activities like craft sessions, games and activities rather than using the internet. Over 1,200 young people have attended the internet addiction camp since 2014.
Communications in Hong Kong includes a wide-ranging and sophisticated network of radio, television, telephone, Internet, and related online services, reflecting Hong Kong's thriving commerce and international importance.
Digital subscriber line is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), the most commonly installed DSL technology, for Internet access.
Very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) and very high-speed digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) are digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies providing data transmission faster than the earlier standards of asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) G.992.1, G.992.3 (ADSL2) and G.992.5 (ADSL2+).
A digital subscriber line access multiplexer is a network device, often located in telephone exchanges, that connects multiple customer digital subscriber line (DSL) interfaces to a high-speed digital communications channel using multiplexing techniques. Its cable internet (DOCSIS) counterpart is the cable modem termination system.
Bell Internet, originally and frequently still called Sympatico, is the residential Internet service provider (ISP) division of BCE Inc. As of May 3, 2012, Bell Internet had over 3 million subscribers in Ontario and Quebec, making it the largest ISP in Canada.
Internet access is a facility or service that provides connectivity for a computer, a computer network, or other network device to the Internet, and for individuals or organizations to access or use applications such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is offered for sale by an international hierarchy of Internet service providers (ISPs) using various networking technologies. At the retail level, many organizations, including municipal entities, also provide cost-free access to the general public.
South Korean web culture indicates distinct activities that South Korean Internet users enjoy on the web. Synonyms include cyberculture, technoculture, virtual community culture, post-human culture, and high tech culture. Cyberculture in South Korea is more like a virtual community culture than anything else. Most of the Internet users are in the 13–50 age range. People often access the Internet through cyber cafes.
Telkom SA SOC Limited is a South African wireline and wireless telecommunications provider, operating in more than 38 countries across the African continent. Telkom is majority state-owned (55.3%) with the South African government owning 40.5% of Telkom, while another 14.8% is owned by another state-owned company - the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), which is closely linked to the South African government.
WiBro is a wireless broadband Internet technology developed by the South Korean telecoms industry. WiBro is the South Korean service name for IEEE 802.16e international standard. By the end of 2012, the Korean Communications Commission intends to increase WiBro broadband connection speeds to 10Mbit/s, around ten times the 2009 speed, which will complement their 1Gbit/s fibre-optic network. The WiBro networks were shut down at the end of 2018.
G.992.5 is an ITU-T standard for asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) broadband Internet access. The standard has a maximum theoretical downstream sync speed of 24 megabits per second (Mbit/s). Utilizing G.992.5 Annex M upstream sync speeds of 3.3 Mbit/s can be achieved.
TransACT is the trading name of TransACT Capital Communications, an Australian telecommunications company based in Canberra which provides broadband internet access, fixed telephony, cable television services, and mobile phone services in Canberra and a subset of these services in Queanbeyan, throughout South-east New South Wales and in Victoria.
Internet in Australia first became available on a permanent basis to universities in Australia in May 1989, via AARNet. Pegasus Networks was Australia's first public Internet provider in June 1989. The first commercial dial-up Internet Service Provider (ISP) appeared in capital cities soon after, and by the mid-1990s almost the entire country had a range of choices of dial-up ISPs. Today, Internet access is available through a range of technologies, i.e. hybrid fibre coaxial cable, digital subscriber line (DSL), Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and satellite Internet. In July 2009, the federal government, in partnership with the industrial sector, began rolling out a nationwide fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) and improved fixed wireless and satellite access through the National Broadband Network. Subsequently, the roll out was downgraded to a Multi-Technology Mix on the promise of it being less expensive and with earlier completion. In October 2020, the federal government announced an upgrade by 2023 of NBN fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) services to FTTP for 2 million households, at a cost of A$3.5 billion.
Internet access is widely available in New Zealand, with 94% of New Zealanders having access to the internet as of January 2021. It first became accessible to university students in the country in 1989. As of June 2018, there are 1,867,000 broadband connections, of which 1,524,000 are residential and 361,000 are business or government.
Internet in Brazil was launched in 1988. In 2011 Brazil ranked fifth in the world with nearly 89 million Internet users, 45% of the population. In March 2022, Brazil ranked 33rd in the Ookla Broadband Ranking, with a median fixed broadband speed of 90 Mbit/s. Also, as per December 2021, Brazil had 41,4 million fixed broadband accesses, most of them FTTH. However, as per 2020, most Brazilians access the Internet through a mobile connection, with more than 200 million mobile internet access.
In Singapore, there are 11,512,900 broadband Internet subscribers. There are three major Internet service providers in Singapore, namely, Singtel, StarHub, and M1 and other growing providers like MyRepublic and ViewQwest. Over the years, the Singapore Government has been promoting the usage of broadband Internet access, as part of its Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) and Smart Nation initiative.
The prevalent means of connecting to the Internet in Germany is DSL, introduced by Deutsche Telekom in 1999. Other technologies such as Cable, FTTH and FTTB (fiber), Satellite, UMTS/HSDPA (mobile) and LTE are available as alternatives.
The term "Internet in Poland" refers to various aspects related to the state of the Internet in the Republic of Poland. This encompasses issues such as Internet access, governance, freedom, and infrastructure, as well as social, economic, and political factors that contribute to the digital landscape in Poland.
The United Kingdom has been involved with the Internet throughout its origins and development. The telecommunications infrastructure in the United Kingdom provides Internet access to homes and businesses mainly through fibre, cable, mobile and fixed wireless networks, with the UK's 140-year-old copper network, maintained by Openreach, set to be withdrawn by December 2025.
Thailand's connection to the Internet began in 1987 via the Australian Research and Edcuation Network using UUCP and SUNIII which transformed to full TCP/IP in 1992 to UUNET. This marked Thailand as an early participant in bringing the Internet to Asia.
31. Gregory, C. (2020, November 11). Internet Addiction Disorder. Psycom. https://www.psycom.net/iadcriteria.html 32. South Korean internet addiction camp: What is life like there? (2019, July 8). BBC NewsRound. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/48855182 33. Sullivan, M. (2019, August 13). Hooked on the Internet, South Korean Teens Go Into Digital Box. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2019/08/13/748299817/hooked-on-the-internet-south-korean-teens-go-into-digital-detox 34. Nabuco, C. & Young, K. (2017). Internet Addiction in Children and Adolescents: Risk Factors, Assessment, and Treatment. Springer Publishing Company. 35. Uribe, LM., & Schub, T. (2018, September 28). Internet Addiction. CINAHL Nursing Guide EBSCO Publishing.
