Mobile Korea

In connection with yesterday’s posting I have found another interesting article in the New York Times. “In Korea, a boot camp cure for web obsession”, shows another example for my statement yesterday that Korea is leading in facing the challenges of digital society.
This article describes boot camp like institutions for young people who are addicted to the internet. I do not want to give a summary of the article but instead give you some interesting excerpts.

“South Korea boasts of being the most wired nation on earth. In fact, perhaps no other country has so fully embraced the Internet.”
“Compulsive Internet use has been identified as a mental health issue in other countries, including the United States. However, it may be a particularly acute problem in South Korea because of the country’s nearly universal Internet access.”
““Korea has been most aggressive in embracing the Internet,” said Koh Young-sam, head of the government-run Internet Addiction Counseling Center. “Now we have to lead in dealing with its consequences.”
“Korea is on the leading edge,” Dr. Block said. “They are ahead in defining and researching the problem, and recognize as a society that they have a major issue.”

I can only repeat myself: Korea is not only the place to look for business opportunities in the TMT sector but also if you are interested which challenges arise for the digital society and how they can be tackled.

Recently I have read the case of little Megan who has committed suicide over a fake virtual boy friend created by some peers. Apart from the human tragedy behind the story what struck are two facts. Firstly the careless abuse of MySpace by peers, who considered the whole thing being a joke. Secondly the fact that often laws do not seem to be ready for the challenges of digital society. In Megan’s case e.g. no law has been violated because no such law exists.
Since Korean society is more “wired” than any other in the world, we encounter similar problems or have encountered them even earlier. At this Korean government and society try to be proactive as possible in facing the challenges of digital society. One example, which is also applicable to the case above, is the anonymity of the internet in social networking sites and forums, which has been a serious problem in Koreain the past. Government addressed this issue by introducing an obligation to verify your internet egos with your real ID. This is to prevent abuse because people are aware of the fact that they are not anonymous anymore (in the light of privacy security this may not be the best solution though). However punishing is one thing but creating a feeling of unethical behavior is a completely different one and in Megan’s case both had been missing. Concerning the latter a good example is a media campaign which had been launched in order to sensitize people that cyber bullying is unethical behavior and can have serious consequences. Below you may find an ad out of this campaign, the spoken text is something like: “Destroying one’s soul is terror which is crueler than terror”.







So overall Korea is not only a place for business opportunities but it is also worth having a look at if you are searching for examples how policy can tackle the challenges of digital society.