Let’s increase the reclusive youth… Online community users such as DC Inside↑

As the number of young people who claim to be socially isolated (reclusive) due to factors such as job failure is increasing, the number of online community users is also increasing. The reclusive young people cut off social exchanges in reality and chose to communicate in the Internet space. However, it is pointed out that deviance is going too far as side effects such as sexual exploitation of minors, misuse of drugs, and encouragement of suicide, as well as postings warning of murder, have recently occurred in the online community.

According to Mobile Index on the 21st, the number of monthly active users of the DC Inside app, the largest online community service in Korea, was 640,000 last month, more than doubling from 280,000 in July 2020, three years ago. 330,000 in 2021 and 500,000 in July of last year, increasing steadily every year.

The increase in visitors through app installation, rather than simply a one-time web access, means that the number of hard users who regularly use DC Inside has increased. Last month, the average usage time per person at DC Inside was 1222 minutes, an increase of 136 minutes compared to 1086 minutes three years ago.

The number of users who use DC Inside is much higher if we include web users rather than app access. According to SimilarWeb, DC Inside ranked 5th after Naver, Google, and YouTube in terms of domestic site traffic last month. About 80% of all users are in their 10s to 30s, with male users accounting for 79% and female users안전놀이터 accounting for 21%.

It’s not just DC Inside. In the case of Efem Korea, which has the largest number of users following DC Inside among domestic communities, the number of monthly active users of the app last month was 45,000, a more than fourfold increase compared to three years ago (11,000). The Qoo, Korea’s representative female community, also had 9,739 monthly active users last month, up from 6,795 three years ago. During the same period, the average usage time per person also increased from 461 minutes to 583 minutes.

The increase in the number of online community users means that the number of reclusive young people is increasing. According to a fact-finding survey by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, about 4.5% of young people residing in Seoul last year were secluded. If the scope is expanded to target young people nationwide, it is estimated that the number of reclusive young people in Korea will reach about 610,000.

In a survey by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs announced in May, the proportion of isolated young people, which was counted at 3.1% in 2019 before the pandemic, increased to 5.0% in 2021.

In particular, recently online communities are flooded with posts that show off or encourage crime, such as posting so-called ‘murder notices’. On the 1st, a post foreshadowing the murder was posted on DC Inside with the title of ‘Sillim Murder Notice’, and it seems to mimic the motive of the murder of Chosun (33), a suspect in the Sillim-dong murder case.

In addition to this, numerous crime notices have been posted. According to the police, there are at least 25 murder notices in the Internet community that have arrested or are tracking the author after the shooting rampage at Sillim Station on the 21st of last month.

Criminal psychology experts analyze that there is a deep relationship between reclusive young people and the increase in ‘don’t ask crimes’. The suspect, Mr. Choi (30), who indiscriminately assaulted and sexually assaulted women on a hiking trail near a park in Sillim-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, was also found to be a reclusive loner who had no particular job and only went back and forth between home and internet cafes.

Sujeong Lee, a professor of criminal psychology at Kyonggi University, said, “It is also an objective fact that hate speech and the like are commonplace in online communities, and that these posts are not managed.” have to,” he said.