China declares Net addiction a ‘clinical disorder’
p2pnet news view | P2P:- With the tragic death of 15-year-old Brandon Crisp in the background, China could become the first country to officially classify Net addiction as a clinical disorder.
Brandon, 15, from Barrie in Ontario, went missing after confrontations with his parents over his obsession with Microsoft XBox videogame Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
His body was found three weeks later.
He, “may quite literally have been addicted to playing the game — addicted in the truest sense of the word,” said p2pnet. “And addicts are incapable of staying away from what ever it is that draws them so hopelessly and helplessly, chocolate, alcohol, sex, drugs, video games and the Internet itself.
“They have to have help from people who understand them and their compulsions.”
In China, the Health Ministry, “Internet addiction is now considered a clinical disorder rather than a bad habit, a new Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) diagnostic manual approved over the weekend by psychologists has shown,” says China Daily.
“Based on the report, sufferers usually engage in five main activities: Online gaming, Net pornography, excessive involvement in virtual social networking, too much Internet shopping and general cyber-surfing.”
The classification, “would be the first of its kind in the world if the Ministry of Health officially approves it, said Tao Ran, a leading medical professional on addiction in China who also headed the drafting of the manual,” says China Daily, continuing
“The ministry is highly likely to give the manual the green light next year, Tao said.”
The manual could also influence how Western countries view IAD, he said.
Shocking therapy
“The American Psychiatric Association is now debating whether to include IAD in the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the profession’s primary resource of categorizing and diagnosing mental illnesses, due for publication in 2010, US media reported.”
According to the story, some 10% of China’s 40 million “underage” Net users are addicted to the Web, a report released in August by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee showed.
Research last year, “also showed that 42 percent of Chinese youngsters polled felt ‘addicted’ to the Web, while only 18 percents of Americans were said to have felt the same way,” says the story, adding:
“Since 2005, the Military General Hospital of Beijing PLA, which Tao works for, has received more than 3,000 Internet addicts. Up to 80 percent of them managed to rid themselves of the problem after three to six months of treatment, he said.
“The treatment is similar to those for other addictions: Cutting off patients’ connection with the Web before offering them psychological counseling and complementing that with group interactive activities to teach patients how to socialize in real society.”
However, TLC isn’t the only form of treatment designated by China’s medical authorities.
The country estimates it has, “about 15.4 million youths among its 123 million Internet users” and, “Two million of them are Internet addicts, and the number is increasing rapidly,” said p2pnet recently, quoting Shanghai Daily.com and going on:
“That was in 2006 as well. So the country was considering amending its laws, ‘to encourage research and development of technology to stop minors from becoming Internet addicts’. And don’t the Chinese already used electroshock therapy on Net addicts?
” ‘A 12-year-old boy receives electric shock treatment for his Internet addiction at the Beijing Military Region Central Hospital in Beijing Friday June 17, 2005,’ said a p2pnet story in 2007.”
“Gao Wenbin, a researcher with the psychology institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said the lack of family care, companions and real-life games are major reasons behind the rising number of young Net addicts in the country. ‘Most children in China are the only ones in their families. They are told only to study hard, but no one really cares about their needs,’ Gao said.”
p2pnet – Was Brandon Crisp a video game addict?, November 7, 2008
China Daily - Internet addiction not just ‘bad habit’, November 10, 2008
p2pnet – Quebec researchers discover Net Addiction!, September 10, 2008
p2pnet – Shocking China ‘Net addict’ cure, February 23, 2007
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November 12th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
LOL
i think the net is more addictive than many think
it is much easier to send an email for many than to actually make human contact
January 11th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
The Electroshock treatment for Internet Addiction sounds so weird to me. I really don’t understand parents who treat their children using such methods. My son was addicted to the Internet a little. We began to use Internet filtering software Ez Internet Timer to limit the amount of on-line time, spent more time with the son, kept the computer in a public area of our house and it helped. Parents should pay more attention to their children to avoid Electric Shock Treatment in the future.