Taipei, June 28 (CNA) A local educational foundation on Wednesday warned of the issue of smartphone addiction among adolescents with the summer vacation just around the corner, citing a recent survey that found playing mobile phone games is their favorite pastime and that most young people stay home on weekends.
The Taipei-based King Car Cultural and Educational Foundation conducted a survey among students in elementary and junior high schools in early June, in which 49.9 percent of respondents said that playing mobile phone games is their favorite activity, while another 46 percent chose listening to music as their favorite pastime.
Asked about places they most frequently visit on weekends, the top three places were home (82.7 percent), parks (37.2 percent) and department stores (31.2 percent), the survey found.
The survey also revealed that asked about vacation activities, 60.9 percent of respondents want to go on family trips, 35.3 percent prefer overseas short-term study programs and 29.4 percent hope to attend local summer camps.
Commenting on the results of the survey, the foundation noted the tendency among adolescents to stay home as much as possible due to their high use of smartphones and the Internet.
It encouraged parents to organize family trips for their children during the vacation.
An elementary school principal also suggested schools should design summer vacation assignments that encourage students to take part in community services or travel with their family during the vacation.
Meanwhile, the foundation said that it has allocated a budget of NT$1.5 million (US$49,271) this year to sponsor 60 high school and university teams to organize summer camps in remote areas to serve children there.
The survey collected 1,912 valid samples and had a confidence level of 97 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
