INCHEON, South Korea
(Reuters) - Four months ago, the parents of a teenage South Korean girl
were at their wits' end over her addiction to surfing the Internet for
pornography.
But now, thanks to a horse riding therapy programme, their daughter appears to be back in control of her life.
In South Korea, the world's most wired country and
where almost two-thirds of the population owns a smartphone, addiction
to the Internet has become a major problem. Government data says 680,000
children aged between 10 and 19 are Internet addicts, or around 10 percent of the age group.
"I used to play with computers for seven hours a day,
even overnight if my mother went on a trip," said the 14-year old girl,
who preferred to be identified only by her surname, Kim.
To counter this sort of situation, the government
introduced a so-called "Shutdown Law" last year, which blocks gamers
under 16 from playing between midnight and 6 a.m. But its effect has
been limited as teens circumvent the restrictions by using their
parents' accounts.
Kim's parents tried art, music therapy and persistent nagging to try and stem their daughter's addiction.
When none of these worked, her school suggested the Riding Healing Center,
a therapy organisation that uses horse-riding to cure emotional and
behavioral disorders, which it believes are an underlying cause of internet addiction.
"I care about horses and think about how I could ride
them better, which has made me lose interest in computers and the
Internet," said the bespectacled teen at the centre, some 40 km (25
miles) from Seoul.
She has had different types of professional counseling
at the centre, but Kim believes the horses help most. They certainly
have built a bond, shown as she affectionately stroked her horse prior
to heading out to ride on a snowy field.
"A horse is an animal that anyone can easily make
emotional connection to," said Yoon Ga-eun, a riding instructor at the
center.
The Korean Riding Association has two therapy centres
and about 50 people a day go through its programmes to treat a range of
issues such as depression, attention hyperactivity deficit disorder
(ADHD) and internet addiction.
The association plans to build 30 more centres across
South Korea, which has a population of 50 million, by 2022 to meet the
rising demand for its therapy.
Kim's parents are pleased with the results.
"After the therapy, she barely goes on the Internet. If
she does, she makes a promise to me first about how long she will play
on the computer," her mother said.
