Four out of 10 adolescents in Korea were found to be at risk of smartphone overdependence. However, the digital informatization level of digitally vulnerable groups, such as older adults and people with disabilities, improved for the fifth consecutive year, and the overall level of digital inclusion was found to have risen.
The Ministry of Science and ICT on the 26th announced the results of a 2025 survey on key aspects of digital inclusion with these findings. The survey was conducted by assessing digital information gaps, web accessibility, and levels of smartphone overdependence among residents in 17 cities and provinces nationwide.
The digital informatization level of digitally vulnerable groups was 77.9% of the general public, up 0.4 percentage points from the previous year. By institutional sector, all categories rose slightly, with digital competency at 65.9%, use at 80.5%, and access at 96.6%. By group, older adults were the lowest at 71.8%, followed by farmers and fishers at 80.6%, people with disabilities at 84.1%, and low-income groups at 97%.
The average score in the web accessibility survey was 70.4, up 3.7 points from the previous year. Finance and insurance scored the highest at 79.0, while wholesale and retail scored the lowest at 65.7. The overall share of those at risk of smartphone overdependence fell 0.2 percentage points to 22.7%, but among adolescents it rose 0.4 percentage points to 43%. The government said it views the spread of short-form content and the growth of Generative AI services as the backdrop and plans to strengthen digital detox and counseling support.