Profanity, Sexual Harassment and Long Calls... 120 Dasan Call to End Calls After '20 Minutes'

Measures to protect counselors and improve service efficiency
Advance notice before connection... warning after 15 minutes
Calls may continue when necessary, depending on the circumstances.

The Seoul 120 Dasan Call Foundation is introducing a “20-minute call termination system” to protect its counselors. The system is intended to address malicious complaints involving verbal abuse, profanity and sexual harassment, while improving operational efficiency by managing consultation times.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on October 18, the changes will take effect at 6 p.m. on October 20. Calls will be terminated 20 minutes after a consultation begins. Before connecting callers, an automated response system (ARS) will inform them of the time limit, and a voice message will announce 15 minutes into the consultation that five minutes remain. Once 20 minutes have passed, callers will be notified before the call is terminated.

However, if additional time is needed to handle a complaint, the consultation can continue so that residents can receive thorough assistance without inconvenience.

Until now, the foundation has taken legal action, including filing complaints and reporting cases to the police, against malicious complainants under its “zero-tolerance principle.” It has also established guidelines for handling unusual complaints and responded in stages to repeated complaints and calls that lasted a long time.

However, counselors faced the psychological burden of having to ask complainants directly to end calls, and lengthy calls from complainants sometimes delayed other residents from getting through. In response, the foundation has revised its system so that calls are terminated automatically after a set period, replacing the previous approach in which counselors had to ask callers to end the call themselves.

Residents who need further assistance after a call ends can call 120 again. To reduce confusion among residents during the initial rollout, the foundation plans to provide ample notice of the time limit and continuously monitor any inconvenience that arises during operation.

Song Jubeom, president of the Seoul 120 Dasan Call Foundation, said, “This measure is intended to ease the burden counselors experience from lengthy calls and provide residents with smoother consultation services. We will continue working to create an environment where counselors can work with peace of mind and enable more residents to receive assistance quickly and conveniently.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.