Are Your Kids Addicted to the Internet?

Are your kids addicted to the Internet? The American Journal of Psychiatry says Internet addiction - including “excessive gaming, sexual pre-occupations and e-mail/text messaging” — is a common compulsive-impulsive disorder that should be added to psychiatry’s official guidebook of mental disorders.

Did you know?

1.    One person out of eight in the United States may suffer from Internet addiction.

2.    There 24 million young Internet addicts in China or one in seven according to a 2009 poll.

3.    More than 14 percent of children and adolescents aged between 9-19 are addicted to the Internet, according to a 2008 survey by the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion.

Do you think your young adult is addicted to the Internet? If so, increasingly there are Internet Addiction clinics “popping-up” to help your child lead a normal life.

The first Internet Addiction clinic was reported in China in 2005. There are now roughly 400 Internet addiction clinics in China.

The United States launched reStart an Internet Addiction clinic in 2009. ReSTART is targeted towards young adults between the ages of 18 and 28 who are excessively dependent on technology. Patients at the center undergo a 45-day ($14,500) abstinence based recovery program intended to launch them back into the real world.

This month (March 2010), the UK launched its first Internet addiction clinic. The Capio Nightingale Hospital in central London launched the new service for patients as young as 12 following calls from parents concerned about their children’s obsession. “Youngsters will be weaned off their gadgets in a residential unit and will also be taught face-to-face social skills.”

In March 2010, South Korea unveiled a plan to prevent Internet addiction by providing a free software which will help web addicts.  We look forward to seeing how an Internet software can help control an Internet addiction....