Internet in South Korea

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]

National program

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]

ISP and IDC

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.

Internet speed

As of July 25, 2024, South Korea had the 6th fastest mobile internet and 31st fastest broadband speeds at 139Mbit/s and 150Mbit/s respectively. ^[10]

Real name policy

There was a government-level law to stamp out anonymity in the South Korean internet environment. ^[11] It was overturned by the constitutional court. ^[12]

Network Fee policy

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. ^{[13] [14]}

Cyberculture

This section is an excerpt from South Korean web culture.[ edit ]

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". ^[15] 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.

Highly urbanized at 92%, ^[16] South Koreans lead a distinctive urban lifestyle; half of them live in high-rises ^[17] concentrated in the Seoul Capital Area with 25 million residents. ^[18] The rise of online social activities closely mirrors the wider cultural trend towards shared spaces, such as the habitual use of coffee houses. ^[19]

South Korea enjoys the world's swiftest Internet speeds and the highest rate of Internet penetration ^{[20] [21]} but also suffers from very high censorship of content. Internet culture is particularly prominent in South Korea with its influence of video games, video content, and streaming services.

Internet addiction

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. ^[22] Major symptoms of internet addiction consist of "depression, anxiety, isolation, avoidance of work, and some physical conditions of backache, headaches, insomnia, neck pain, etc. ^[22] Particularly in South Korea, almost 95% of adults own a smartphone which some experts say is becoming increasingly addicted to the Internet. ^[23] 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.

Issues within the community

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". ^[23] 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". ^[23] 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.

Symptoms

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". ^[24] 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)". ^[24] Just like all addictions, there are treatments that are created to treat and solve an addiction.

Outlook & treatments

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. ^[25]

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". ^[23] 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". ^[26] 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.

See also

• Internet censorship in South Korea
• Net neutrality
• Digital divide in South Korea
• Ministry of Science and ICT

References

1. "Asia Internet Usage Stats Facebook and Population Statistics". www.internetworldstats.com. Archived from the original on 2012-01-30. Retrieved 2015-08-05.
2. "South Korea is still number one – has fastest Internet speed worldwide". 31 January 2012. Archived from the original on 26 August 2018. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
3. Mcdonald, Mark (21 February 2011). "South Korea Seeks Internet Speed of 1 Gigabit a Second". The New York Times– via NYTimes.com.
4. 한, 세희 (2012-09-17). "[100대 사건_003] 우리나라 최초 인터넷 연결 <1982년 5월>". www.etnews.com. Retrieved 2022-07-19.
5. Cyrus, Farivar (2011). The Internet of Elsewhere : the emergent effects of a wired world. pp. 45, 215.
6. 안, 규영; 이, 형민 (2017-06-01). "27년전 오늘, 한국 최초 인터넷 '접속'... "누구든 응답하라"". Kukmin Ilbo . Retrieved 2022-07-19.
7. Whitney, Lance (14 January 2010). "Akamai: World's Net connection speeds rising". CNET News. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
8. "South Korea's broadband network most developed". People's Daily Online. 5 May 2008. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
9. Hertz, J.C. (August 2002). "The Bandwidth Capital of the World". Wired.com. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
10. "Speedtest Global Index – Internet Speed around the world". Speedtest Global Index. Retrieved 2024-07-25.
11. Pfanner, Eric (2011-09-04). "Naming Names on the Internet". The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-09-24.
12. "Real names no longer required online: South Korean court". NBC News. 2012-08-23. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
13. "[넷플릭스 韓패싱] ③ 망중립성과 망이용대가 상관관계?...'공유지 비극' 부른다". inews24 (in Korean). 29 September 2022. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
14. "구글‧넷플 vs 국내 이통사...불 붙는 '망 이용료' 신경전". No Cut News . 2022-09-29. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
15. Sang-Hun, Choe (28 January 2010). "Rule of Thumbs: Koreans Reign in Texting World". The New York Times .
16. 지표상세. Index.go.kr. July 24, 2015. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
17. [수도권]‘응팔 아파트’ 만들기 서울시의 이색 도전 : 뉴스 : 동아닷컴. News.donga.com (January 7, 2016). Retrieved on June 20, 2016.
18. "Current population of the Seoul National Capital Area". Statistics Korea.
19. "In Korea, coffee shops just keep on multiplying". 29 August 2010.
20. "Why South Korea is really an internet dinosaur". The Economist . 10 February 2014.
21. "Digital Populism in South Korea? Internet Culture and the Trouble with Direct Participation | KEI | Korea Economic Institute". Archived from the original on 2011-10-11.
22. "Criteria for Internet Addictive Disorder". psycom.net. 2002-08-08. Archived from the original on 2002-04-10.
23. Sullivan, Michael (2019-08-13). "Hooked On The Internet, South Korean Teens Go Into Digital Detox". NPR. Retrieved 2024-08-05.
24. Uribe, LM.; Schub, T. (September 28, 2018). Internet Addiction. CINAHL Nursing Guide. EBSCO Publishing.
25. Young, Kimberly S.; De Abreu, C.N. (2017). Internet Addiction in Children and Adolescents: Risk Factors, Assessment, and Treatment. Springer Publishing Company. p. 155. ISBN   978-0-8261-3373-1.
26. "South Korean internet addiction camp: What is life like there?". BBC Newsround. 2019-07-07.

Further reading

• McCurry, Justin (July 13, 2010), "Internet addiction driving South Koreans into realms of fantasy", The Guardian
• Ramstad, Evan; Woo, Jaeyeon (June 30, 2010), "South Korea Relaxes Curbs on Web Browsers", Wall Street Journal