<Anchor> It is a
friendly economic time. Reporter Kim Hye-min and today (26th) will be with you. Reporter Kim, last year, statistical data came out that allows us to infer how our youth and our children have been.
<Reporter>
This is the data released by the National Statistical Office every year, and this data shows how the spread of Corona 19 last year made a difference in the lives of our youth.
First, let's look at the areas that have had a negative impact. The number of teenagers who are satisfied with school life has decreased compared to the past.
In addition, the percentage of responding that negative changes in school life due to Corona 19 were also significantly high. It's probably a natural result because the youth didn't go to school last year.
However, they answered that many parts of Corona 19 have changed negatively, in addition to school life, including trust in society, prospects for careers, employment, and friendships.
<Anchor>
Reporter Kim, and because I couldn't go to school and meet a lot of friends, wouldn't I have had a lot of time at home? In the end, I think that the use of smartphones and digital devices, and this problem, may have had a little bad influence.
<Reporter> In a
way, it was the expected result. It seems to be the aftereffect of Zipcock's life, and our youth's internet time has increased significantly in the last year compared to the previous year.
Last year, teens spent an average of 27.6 hours a week and their 20s spent 29.5 hours more on the Internet.
If you calculate this, it means that you only use the Internet for about 4 hours a day. That is why there are many teenagers who are at risk of over-dependence on smartphones.
The term'smartphone over-dependence' refers to a condition in which users experience problems due to excessive use of smartphones and lack of control power. Nearly 4 out of 10 teenagers belong to the risk group of over-dependence on smartphones.
This is an increase of 5.6 percentage points compared to the previous year. In particular, women were at higher risk for overdependence than men. Also, by grade, middle school students were the most vulnerable than elementary and high school students.
<Anchor>
Middle and high school students also reached a dangerous level of depression. I also talked about this.
<Reporter>
One in four middle and high school students in Korea felt depressed enough to stop their daily life.
Depression here is not simply emotionally depressed, but when you feel sad or desperate enough to be unable to do your daily routine for two weeks.
By gender, female students were much more likely to experience depression than male students.
So, what kind of worries do youths have a lot? Nearly half of adolescents answered that studying, such as grades and aptitude, is the biggest concern.
Appearance problems followed. Job and health were in order. There were more friends and co-workers than parents who consulted on concerns.
And this is a bit unfortunate statistic, the most common cause of death among teenagers between the ages of 9 and 24 as of 2019.
This is not yesterday and today. Until 2010,'safety accidents' were the number one cause of death for youth, but since 2011, suicide has been the number one. And the rate of death from suicide is increasing every year.
<Anchor> We
talked a lot about negative things, but did Corona have a positive effect on youth's lives?
<Reporter>
There was a part where teenagers staying at home for a long time had a rather positive effect. First of all, because the time leaving the house was short, the number of smoking or drinking alcohol avoided my parents' eyes.
Last year, about 4 out of 100 middle and high school students smoked in a month. About 11 out of 100 answered that they drank alcohol.
It seems like a lot of this, but if you put the numbers together in recent years, you can see that they have decreased considerably over the past year. In addition, the rate of runaway experience among elementary, middle and high school students dropped significantly last year.
The most decisive part was over 22% of teenagers who reported that Corona 19 had a positive change in family relationships. On the other hand, less than 10% said it was a negative change.
Also, about 3 out of 4 middle and high school students were satisfied with the overall family relationship.
In particular, the percentage of being satisfied with the relationship with the parents
It was very high at 76.6%.
It is showing that spending more time with the family may have been necessary for young people.