Internet Addiction An Official Disorder In China
China has the worlds largest online community with 253 million users. Especially gaming in internet cafés has become extremely popular among young chinese men. Now China may become the first country in the world which classifies internet addiction as a clinical disorder.
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.
According to estimates, about 10% of young users suffer from addiction and of those more than two thirds are male. Chinese specialists say the condition is often a symptom of deeper psychological problems, and the behavioural problems of child addicts become aggravated by their addiction.
However, the specialist remind, unlike drugs internet addiction does not create physical dependency and thus the addicts can be cured in 70 per cent of times.