China could become the first country to classify internet addiction as a clinical disorder and plans to register the condition with the World Health Organisation.
With the world’s largest online population of 253 million people, both China’s urban and rural internet cafés are crowded with people participating in gaming sessions. Research shows nearly half of China’s online population are aged between 18 and 30, with 42 per cent of those claiming to feel addicted to the internet.
Beijing’s Health Ministry is expected to adopt a new manual on internet addiction next year, based on the research of Chinese psychologists. It will recognise the condition as similar to compulsive gambling or alcoholism.
“China finds itself at the forefront of this research because we were among the earliest to set up clinics…we had a sufficient sample of patients so that we could carry out proper scientific analysis,” said Tao Ran, who set up China’s first internet addiction clinic at the Military General Hospital in Beijing.
By studying more than 3,000 people over four years, Dr Tao concluded that an addict spent 6.13 hours online each day. Many addicts have sleep disorders and cease to communicate with family or friends, instead opting to live in front of a computer screen, drifting through cyber chat rooms and playing violent internet games.
Dr Tao says the condition is often merely a symptom of deeper psychological problems. His clinic treats patients who may also suffer from depression and a fear or unwillingness to interact with others. Common to all his patients are family problems.
Unlike drugs, the internet does not create dependency, and Dr Tao places his success rate of curing patients at about 70 per cent. He said: “The increase now is not as rapid as it was a few years ago. However, this was the first such clinic in China when it opened in 2005. Now there are several hundred across the country.”
