The Ministry of Information and Communication said Wednesday that half of Korean children between the ages of three to five years are using the Internet.

According to a report from the ministry, 85 percent of Korean Internet users were online for an average of five hours a week to enjoy computer games during the first six months of this year.

More than 75 percent of Koreans at ages six or older used the Net in the first half of 2006, up one-point-six percentage points from a year earlier.

But the number of Internet users aged 30 or younger fell by 140-thousand from the end of 2005 to the January-June period of this year, due to a decrease in the population of the age group.