A new study based on the Finnish Master thesis says that Internet addiction can easily develop to people who have hard time establishing real life social relationships and are perhaps suffering from depression.

The study is based on almost nine thousand participants, and it was made as an online survey. It is estimated that currently about three to four percent of Internet users in Finland are seriously addicted.

About fourteen percent of Finnish online computer users suffer from some degree of Internet addiction. If you want to review your Internet use you can take an Internet Addiction Test at Center for Internet Addiction Recovery’s pages here

The number of internet users in China is the World’s largest. It is currently 290 millions and the number is increasing all the time. Seventy percent of them are people under 30 years old, and according to a recent study Chinese spend 44 percent of their free time in the internet.

In a military base outside Beijing there is an chinese internet addiction rehabilitation center. The treatment center was established by Tao Ran a progressive Chinese psychologist. The wake up call is on 6 a.m. sharp, military bearings and formation.

The problem is getting worse, internet addicts can’t adjust to school and society, so they try to escape their difficulties and avoid problems. They lack self-confidence and often don’t have the courage to continue their lives.”

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.