Teens Play PC Games, Watch TV During Holidays

Teenagers mostly spend their free time playing computer games or watching television though they say they want to travel or play sports, a study said yesterday.

The Statistics Research Institute, an affiliate of the National Statistical Office, also said in its youth statistics report that sexual abuse of children has tripled in frequency over the past five years.

○ Youths like movies or sports

Twenty-eight percent of teenagers between ages 15-19 said traveling is their most desirable way to spend weekends or holidays. Many also said they like watching plays or movies (15 percent), playing sports (13.1 percent) or doing creative activities such as painting or playing instruments (5.9 percent). This shows that teenagers seek to blow off stress from studies through outdoor activities or hobbies.

In contrast, however, most teenagers spend their free time playing computer games (25.1 percent) or watching television (23.3 percent).

The percentage of those who said they travel during holidays was the lowest with 0.7 percent. What they want to do most is apparently what they do least.

The reason most teenagers are unable to rest as they want is because of the excessive burden of private education fees.

The percentage of elementary, middle and high school students who take private lessons was 77 percent on average. That of elementary school students was 88.8 percent, far higher than that of high school students. The report said that the lower the age, the more time students seemed to spend on private lessons.

The average monthly private tuition in Seoul was 284,000 won, the highest nationwide and 2.3 times higher than that in rural villages or towns (121,000 won). Private lessons for high school students in Seoul averaged 375,000 won per month.

○ Rapid rise in sexual abuse of children

In 2006, the number of sexual abuse cases against children was 5,202, 2.5 times higher than 2,105 in 2001.

Sexual abuse cases involving children out of all abuse cases of children nationwide rapidly rose from 86 in 2001 to 249 in 2006. The seriousness of sexual violations against elementary school students also worsened.

While the rise in child abuse gave cause for alarm, the number of children adopted by Korean homes was 1,388 last year, higher than that of children adopted abroad 1,264. This is the first time adoption by Korean homes surpassed that of families abroad.

The report also said 21.5 percent of middle or high school students were abused either physically or verbally by students of similar age.

Twenty percent of students who suffered abuse said they never told anyone about the experience, implying many still keep school bullying to themselves.

○ Male smoking in high schools drops

The majority 73.5 percent of teenagers aged 15-19 said Korean society is not equal in income distribution. They either said society is bipolarized based on income statistics or expressed vague dissatisfaction.

Among students who drank alcohol, 1.3 out of 10 drank more than a bottle of soju every time they drank on average.

The percentage of smoking male high school students was 16.2 percent last year, down from 20.7 percent in 2006. The percentage of smoking female high school students stayed unchanged at 5.2 percent.

The percentage of students who read throughout the year was 78.1 percent last year, down from 81.5 percent in 2004. The number of books read per person was 31.8 in 2004 but dropped to 25 last year.

legman@donga.com