청소년 소비자의 이동통신 계약관련 지식 및 소비자문제 연구 (A Study on Contract Knowledge and Consumer Problem of Young Consumer in Buying and Using Mobile Phone Service)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국소비자학회
· 수록지 정보 : 소비자학연구 / 20권 / 2호 / 173 ~ 201페이지
· 저자명 : 송인숙, 양덕순

초록

본 연구에서는 청소년과 청소년 자녀를 둔 부모들이 이동통신 서비스를 구입하고 사용하는 과정에서 기본적으로 알아야 할 계약관련 지식을 얼마나 알고 있는지, 처음 가입 당시와 현재의 지식을 비교하고, 또한 이동통신 서비스 계약관련 지식이 없어서 겪은 문제가 무엇인지 실증적 조사를 통하여 이동통신 서비스의 청소년 소비자 교육방향 및 이동통신 정책방향 설정에 필요한 기초자료로 활용하고자 하였다. 청소년 이동통신 소비자문제의 감소를 위해서는 청소년뿐만 아니라 부모도 함께 고려할 필요가 있어 조사대상자에 부모도 포함시켰다. 연구의 자료는 첫째 자녀인 청소년과 휴대폰을 사용하는 첫째 자녀인 청소년의 어머니 또는 아버지 중에서 자녀의 이동통신 서비스 가입이나 이용에 대하여 잘 알고 계시는 분을 대상으로 온라인 설문조사를 통하여 수집하였으며, 부모 350부, 청소년 349부의 자료를 분석에 사용하였다.
연구결과는 첫째, 청소년 소비자의 이동전화 계약관련 지식 수준이 청소년 본인(정답률: 50.5%) 및 부모(정답률: 54.9%) 모두 낮은 편으로 나타났다. 전반적 수준이 낮을 뿐 아니라 현재 지식 수준보다 첫가입 당시의 수준은 더욱 낮았다. 본 문항의 구성이 이동전화 서비스 이용시 알아야할 기본적인 지식임을 고려해볼 때 문제의 심각성이 있다고 할 수 있다. 둘째, 소비자들이 가입 전에 미리 알기 원하는 정보이면서 동시에 가장 기본적으로 제공되어야 할 정보는 가입비, 약정할인제, 가장 저렴한 요금제 및 청소년 정액요금제, 게임이나 음악 다운로드 및 인터넷 접속요금 등 요금부과체계, 부가서비스 가입 및 유무료 구분, 무선 인터넷 차단서비스 등 차단서비스의 존재, 부모 알리미 서비스, 청구서의 용어 등 기타 어려운 용어, 휴대폰 기기의 기능/장단점 및 가격비교정보 등이다. 본 연구결과를 토대로 이동통신 서비스 관련 소비자교육 및 정책적 제언을 하였다.

영어초록

The purpose of this study is to examine how much contract knowledge for mobile phone services young people and their parents have, to investigate what kind of problems they experience due to the absence of the knowledge, and to explore what kind of knowledge they want to know before their buying and using mobile phone services. Based on results of our survey study, we try to suggest policy direction and necessary education for young consumers and their parents in mobile phone service.
Because parents play usually important roles for the reduction of young consumers’ problem in using mobile phone service, they also were included in the survey. Data were athered through the internet survey and total 699 samples from 350 parents and 349 young people were analyzed. The results are as following. First, the young people and parents’ knowledge level of mobile phone service contract is low(the rate of right answer: young consumers 50.5%; parents 54.9%) and in particular, their contract-related knowledge level at the time of first purchasing is even lower. When we consider the questionnaire survey is consisted of basic and important items in purchasing and using mobile phone services, the cognitive problem should be treated as very serious. Second, the difference of contract knowledge level by the social demographic variables is a little. Mothers’ knowledge level about the purchasing and using mobile phone service is slightly higher than that of the fathers. Regardless of social demographic variables consumers’ contract knowledge level about that is low generally, because mobile phone service must be new, professional and rapidly changing service.
Third, the contract knowledge level of young consumers(the rate of right answer: 37.1%) is lower than the parents’ at the time his/her first purchasing. They seem to increase knowledge through experiencing problems.
Fourth, Owing to the lack of knowledge, consumers have paid an excessive charge for the mobile phone service. The important knowledge of the mobile phone service is the charging system. Consumers did not know the charging system at the time of contracting or using the service, and they were getting more knowledge through trial and error.
Fifth, Consumers did not gain knowledge from the explaining of salesperson or searching the information about the mobile phone service for himself, but they were getting more knowledge through the bitter experience. So they have paid expensive education costs for the knowledge.
Sixth, the basic contract-related knowledge’s young consumers and parents want to know before signing up are start-up fee, discount rate, special charge for young people, billing system such as internet acces harge and game(music) download charge, additional services, distinction of charged service and free service, the presence of blocking services such as wireless internet service, a parent alert service, billing terminologies, and comparable price information about the phone deves.
According to the result of this research, we propose the consumer education and policy about the mobile phone service as follows. First, Consumers need to receive information about the purchase and the use of mobile phone services. Second, it needs to introduce the legal duty of confirming who uses it actually. In case a young consumer in fact uses a mobile phone service, we need to review an introduction of mandatory contract as the name of the user. Third, we also should improve the charging system about the wireless internet service and the system to inform of it consumers. Fourth, it should be reviewed the introduction of the system, that the operator obligates to provide the important information for him/her, before a young consumer or his/her parent makes a contract of mobile phone service. We hope to reduce their problems, as young consumers get the important information at the time of the contract of mobile phone service.

참고자료

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