China Health Ministry declares Internet addiction is a disorder

China may well be the very first county to define Internet addiction as a disorder and give official recognition to it as a clinical disease.  This comes in the wake of an increasing number of people, in the world's most populous nation, who spend a great deal of time in chat rooms, on message boards or playing online games. Essentially, you are addicted if you find yourself using the Internet more than six hours per day, or exhibit a number of symptoms such as insomnia, difficulty concentrating, mental or physical stress, irritation or experience the desire to go back online. This definition comes out of research performed at the Beijing Military General Hospital, which studied more than 3,000 people over four years. If you recall, we reported a few months ago that China had more broadband subscribers than the United States at the end of 2007.

To read more about this story:
- check out this Ars Technica article

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