Adolescent Deviant Leisure Activities on the Internet

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to analyze the attitudes and perceptions of adolescents with regard to sexual chat, a common deviant leisure activity carried out on the Internet, and suggest what information is needed to assist the establishment of education material for teachers and parents, and establish policies for schools and other education organizations. The research is limited to middle and high school students and focuses on sexual chatting in cyber space. Stratified sampling was conducted in 18 cities and counties in Gangwondo, and 2023 useful samples were obtained. Approximately 8% (138 students) of the respondents had experienced online sexual chatting and the average time (duration) of use was 12 minutes per week. Fifty five percent of the students had the motivation of simple curiosity, 24.5% emotional excitement, 11.9% killing time, 10.7% entertainment, 8.8% stress release, and 6.0% were imitating adult sexual activity. The adolescents reported feeling nothing special after the chatting (50.3%), the instinct to imitate (16.9%), stress release (16.6%), abhorrence (15.1%), and guilt and shame (12.9%). Several recommendations for adolescent education in relation to deviant leisure activities are suggested.