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China will be the first country in the world to officially recognize Internet addiction as a clinical disease as it battles with the increasing number of people who spend almost of their time in chatrooms, blogging or playing games.

Chinese hospitals will be launching special units to treat internet addiction after surveys revealed that over four million teenagers spend more than six hours a day online.

The health ministry should adopt a new definition of Internet addiction next year.
Addicts are classified as Internet users who spend at least six hours online a day and having symptoms like irritation, difficulty in concentration or sleeping, mental or physical distress and a yearning to get back online.

Psychologists were drawn up a manual and studied 1,300 “problematic” Internet users. One-tenth of Internet surfers under 18, or four million people, are addicted, mainly to online gaming.

A poll by InterActiveCorp, an online media company showed that 42% of Chinese youths felt addicted to the Web compared to 18% in the US.

An expert at Beijing’s Military General Hospital, Tao Ran drew up the diagnosis. “About 80% of addicts can be cured with treatment, which usually lasts about three months,” said Mr Tao, without describing what might be involved.

He runs up a “boot camp” in Daxing, one of several hundred across the country. During the therapy, he offers the addicts a counseling, military discipline, hypnosis and mild electro-shock to help them reform.

As the popularity of online gaming rose in Asia, it has led to the creation of enormous salons in which hundreds of users play games for several days in a row.

China’s government already tried to limit this practice by forcing each user to register their full name and identification number and by building software into the games which kicks the players off after five hours.

According to Gao Wenbin, “Chinese youths were finding refuge online from the pressures of being only children because of the children in China are the only ones in their families. They are told to study hard but no one cares about their needs.”