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Scientists Identify Future Web Addicts

by Caleb Johnson on October 7, 2009 at 05:20 PM


With all the recent controversy surrounding Internet boot camps for teens, scientists are looking for ways to stop the problem before it starts. That means finding out not only why kids become addicted to the Web, but also which kids are most likely to suffer from this addiction.

New Scientist reports that Taiwanese scientists recently identified a group of mental health conditions that increase the likelihood that a child will become addicted to the Web. After studying 2,300 kids over a two-year period, psychologist Chih-Hung Ko and his team determined that depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), social phobia, or feelings of hostility often indicated that a kid would become addicted. While that's true for boys and girls, the scientists learned that social phobia and depression were much stronger predictors in girls than boys.

While the prevalence of Internet addiction is unclear, scientists are taking a better-safe-than-sorry approach in light of the fact that teens are spending more and more time on the Internet. China took this approach long ago by clinically defining the disorder, but the U.S. is just now catching up. Yeah, yeah. Those fancy scientists can do whatever they want, but we all know how it works here in the U.S. of A. It isn't a real addiction until Maury's done a show on it. [From: New Scientist, via Valleywag]

Tags: addiction, health, internet, kids, mental health, MentalHealth, science, study, top

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