<Anchor> It is a
friendly economic time.
Today (11th) will also be with reporter Kim Hye-min.
Hello, reporter Kim.
These days, students can't go to school because of corona.
Of course, the lower grades are going, but as this situation is getting longer, side effects are appearing?
<Reporter>
School has started this month, but there are still many students taking distance classes.
It's also dangerous to go outside the house.
There is no choice but to increase the time to access digital devices, and it is said that the number of people at risk of being addicted to smartphones has increased significantly compared to the previous year.
Last year, the Ministry of Science and ICT conducted an interview survey of 10,000 households across the country about the use of smartphones.
Adolescents had more than 1 in 3 people at risk of overdependence.
It is 5.6% higher than the previous year.
Smartphone addiction was at risk for 27.3% of infants and children aged 3 to 9, up 4.4% from the previous year.
In particular, minors were becoming addicted to smartphones more and faster than adults.
<Anchor>
There are so many words that you are getting addicted faster.
But you all know that this is an addiction when you see a lot of smartphones.
But it's not easy to change your habits.
But is there a way to do this?
<Reporter> In
fact, I know that the majority of people have a serious level of addiction to this smartphone.
More than 80% of the people surveyed this time said they were somewhat or very serious, which is also an increase from the previous year.
Smartphone addiction is important at home. First of all, how do you know if your child is overdependent on smartphones?
It is said that the judgment is based on whether the child is using a smartphone enough to interfere with daily life.
It is said that smartphone addiction is suspected if the smartphone prevents you from sleeping until dawn or wakes up in the morning, or if you are unable to concentrate on the conversation properly while looking at the smartphone.
<Anchor>
So, what do parents need to do to their children to prevent such smartphone addiction?
<Reporter>
I sought advice from experts on this part, but in the case of infants and toddlers, parents' attention and effort are required.
When I go to a restaurant, I often hold my smartphone in my hand because my child needs to be quiet.
He pointed out that this is a very bad habit for children to become addicted to smartphones.
Also, it is said that communication with parents is important for adolescents.
Let's listen to an expert interview.
[Park Jong-seon/National Intelligence Service Digital Inclusion Service Team Leader: It is important to induce them to follow rules with parents to remove unnecessary alarms or keep smartphones in a promised place for a certain period of time. Not only do we need to stick to it, but we need to make an effort for parents to follow the rules together.]
<Anchor> I see
.
Telling children not to use smartphones, but if you do it, it won't work.
It seems like adults should also take a lead.
But he said there are other side effects besides this smartphone addiction.
<Reporter>
Last year, you couldn't go to school and hardly go to academy.
So, there were students who were forced to take private education, but they are high school students who are in an urgent need for a career path and further education.
As private education fills the gap of not being able to go to school, the rate of participation in private education itself has also increased compared to the previous year.
The academy and tutoring expenses per student have also increased.
The bigger problem is that private education costs are polarizing.
Houses with an average monthly household income of 8 million won or more spent about 504,000 won per student per month for private education.
Conversely, private education expenses for households with monthly incomes of less than 2 million won were only 99,000 won, which is more than five times the difference.
The public education gap was created due to Corona 19, but low-income households are not able to replace this with private education.
So, there are even concerns that the gap in education will become even deeper in the future.