China
China is calling attention to a rise in what it calls “Internet addiction disorder,” a malady that the government says is spreading in the country.
To help counter the “addiction,” the government recently announced that a rehabilitation center for children suffering from the compulsive use of the Internet would open this summer in Shanghai.
Reports in the state-controlled press have publicized a recent suicide by a boy who frequently played online games while visiting Internet bars.
According to a story in the Chinese-language Beijing Youth Daily and repeated in English translations on other government Web sites, the 13-year-old committed suicide because he thought he would meet his friends from cyberspace after he died.
