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Therapeutic Interventions for Treatment of Adolescent Internet Addiction—Experiences from South Korea

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Internet Addiction

Abstract

This chapter introduces several intervention programs that have been developed and implemented for adolescents and younger Internet addicts. A few individual and group counseling programs currently operating in Korea will be outlined, and residential camps and integrative long-term therapy programs will also be introduced. The author also includes a summary of the characteristics of Internet-addicted youth in Korea.

Assistant professor of The University of Suwon. Previous director of the Myungji Internet Addiction Prevention and Intervention Center (“I Will Center”) in Korea.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Korea National Information Society Agency (NIA) is one of the focal institutions of Korean government which was devoted to Internet addiction related research and the public response.

  2. 2.

    Internet addiction was measured by KS Scale (Kim et al. 2008).

    % of high risk group: 1.8(elementary), 3.3(middle), 1.7(high school students)

    % of addicts (% of high risk and potential risk group): 9.4(elementary), 11.7(middle), 9.6(high school students).

  3. 3.

    The ‘CBT & medication’ group showed the reduction of internet addiction score more compared to the ‘medication only’ group (Kim et al. 2012).

  4. 4.

    Park (2009) evaluated the 195 effect sizes of the 41 group counseling programs and got 1.04 mean effect size which means quite high effectiveness.

  5. 5.

    For now, there is only one residential treatment center in Korea, which is funded by a Christian church. Another one will be opened soon, which is operated by government.

  6. 6.

    “I WILL Center” is the Internet addiction prevention and intervention center run by Seoul Metropolitan Government, Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Suwon, Hwaseong, South Korea

    Eunsuk Cho

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  1. Eunsuk Cho
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Correspondence to Eunsuk Cho .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universität Ulm, Molekulare Psychologie, Ulm, Germany

    Christian Montag

  2. Differentielle & Biologische Psychologie, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    Martin Reuter

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Cho, E. (2015). Therapeutic Interventions for Treatment of Adolescent Internet Addiction—Experiences from South Korea. In: Montag, C., Reuter, M. (eds) Internet Addiction. Studies in Neuroscience, Psychology and Behavioral Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07242-5_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07242-5_11

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