Internet Addiction, A New Epidemics?

Background: Being concerned about internet addiction, American researchers have included this condition in compulsive-impulsive disorders. In some countries, officials have set up treatment centers or organized educational programs in schools to stop the spread of the epidemic. In 2016, the World Health Organization included game addiction in the International Diseases Index (ICD11), including in this category also computer game or online addiction. In Romania, we have no real data on the extent of this phenomenon or the need to implement educational programs in schools.

Aims and Objectives: Identify and quantify the forms of internet addiction among secondary school, high school and university students.

Material and Methods: We conducted a qualitative observational survey on a total of 404 subjects, who completed a standardized questionnaire that quantifies internet dependency and classifies it in three mild, moderate, severe forms.

Results and Discussions: 77.6% of the subjects are internet-dependent to a certain extent (64.7% mild dependence, 12.5% ​​medium and 0.4% severe). We noticed that the proportion of those who have the medium form of internet addiction is increasing as they get older. (58% middle school, 67% secondary school and 74 students), while the rate of no addiction persons decreases with age. There were no forms of severe dependence among high school students.

Conclusions: The study shows that we may be on the verge of an internet abuse epidemic and the necessity to implement educational programs in schools with the goal of acquiring the ability to use the internet for useful purposes, without being at the risk of developing addiction.