By Lee Chi-dong
Staff Reporter

SEOUL With the number of domestic Internet users approaching 20 million, Korea is emerging as a dark horse in the international information technology (IT) industry.

At the same time, the nation has been shocked recently by some of the darker side effects that lurk in the new media.

Among the recent events, two female entertainers a movie star and a pop diva were ostracized from their job circles because their bedroom lives were opened to the public via the Internet, and a variety of hard-core porn scenes have been exposed to children.

More disturbing, a contract murder website, also called a "suicide site," sent shockwaves throughout the nation, showing Korea is rapidly catching up with more advanced countries in terms of cyber crimes, as well as in IT.

Topping the fears off this Feb. 3 - 4, people were stunned by the detonation of a bomb in the middle of a major city.

Amid the ongoing police investigation into Feb. 3 bomb explosion in Taegu, concerns over similar crimes are mounting as a growing number of netizens are visiting "bomb-making sites."

"There? a good chance that the explosion has something to do with websites for bomb making since the bomb was not a manufactured type but a mix of chemical products, which are easily accessible," said one police official.

Titled "Textbook for Making Explosives," one site is providing the ABCs for making bombs with every-day items like ballpoint pens, paint and spools of film.

Currently, a total of 270 messages are posted on the site, which has attracted some 14,000 visitors.

Since sprouting up primarily in the United States a couple of years ago, these kind of websites have shaken the public as angry students and criminals have used them to destroy buildings and kill people.

The so-called "bizarre sites" are mushrooming in cyber space and are often used as locations for sharing information for committing crimes.

Despite various cyber-related crimes, local law enforcement authorities remain in a basically helpless position.

"We suffer from a lack of manpower and crimes are becoming more sophisticated and intelligent," said an officer from the cyber crime investigation bureau of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

More problematic is that people have easy access to such sites by just using a search engine.

In particular, teenagers are more vulnerable to the temptations of these sites as the Internet has secured a firm status as a favorite time killer.

"Students usually make their first visit to these sites out of curiosity and are caught in the abyss of crimes," said Kim Song-i, head of the Commission on Youth Protection. "Furthermore, it is hard to control their misdeeds due to their parents busy work schedules and lack of knowledge about computers and the Internet."

Emphasizing that some websites are harmful to youths and that they actually are abusing them in a sense, he added that ethical education which is suitable for the Internet era should be carried out both at home and at school.

"We have already experienced many evils, including the loss of human dignity and the destruction of the environment, brought by science? development, while the ethics doesn? keep abreast of it," said Lee Yoo-sun, a professor at Korea University.

He warned that the progress of the cyber network without ethical education might lead to serious consequences in the near future.