15% of Internet users addicted to sex sites

Some 15 percent of Internet users in their teens to 30s, the main age group of Web surfers, were found to be addicted to online sex sites.

This was the result of an online survey of 2,261 netizens done by a team from the sociology department at Hanyang University. The team was led by Prof. Shim Young-Hee. Eleven percent of teenagers, 10 percent of those in their 20s and 16 percent of those in their 30s said they looked for cyber sex partners every time they accessed the Internet.

Five percent of respondents said they had made telephone calls to cyber sex partners and had sometimes met them.

Asked if they enjoyed sexual fantasies that they cannot experience in real life, 14 percent of teenagers said they did, compared to 11.5 percent of those in their 20s and 30s, according to the survey.

Ha Joon-Woo hawoo@donga.com