Problem from youth continues into adulthood leading to divorces, money and health woes
By The Straits Times China Bureau 13 December 2009
One night in June last year, a sharp pain woke Ms. Shao Zhen from her sleep - her baby boy was arriving earlier than expected.
But what happened next came as an even bigger shock to the mother-to-be in her 20s.
When she asked her husband to take her to the hospital, he refused. ‘Take a cab there on your own, I’ll be there shortly,’ he said.
He was too caught up in his Internet game to do anything else.
A year later, Ms. Shao succeeded in asking a court in Shanghai to rule in favour of her application for divorce. ‘I still have feelings for him, but I am completely disappointed,’ she told a local newspaper. ‘Our marriage was killed by Internet gaming.’
Once considered a problem affecting mainly students, Internet addiction is now afflicting young adults as well.
Last month, a court in Beijing said that among 100 divorce cases it had handled which involved couples born after 1980, 20 arose from ‘Internet-related bad habits’.
The court report said that in serious cases, the hooked gamers even lost their jobs, pitching their families into financial hardship.
The local media has even invented a term for those who, like Ms. Shao, leave their husbands because of Internet addiction: wang you gua fu, meaning widows of Internet gamers.
Professor Tao Hongkai, an expert on Internet addiction from Huazhong Normal University in central China’s Hubei province, told The Straits Times that among Chinese Web addicts in their 20s, Internet gaming is the most common indulgence.
This is followed by chatting with strangers online, which often leads to extramarital affairs, and then fixes such as pornography and gambling.
‘This problem (of Web addiction) is affecting the stability of the family. And if we don’t act quickly, the stability of our whole society will be at risk,’ he warned.
China has the largest number of Internet users in the world - 360 million, with 64 per cent under the age of 30. In recent years, society has become increasingly aware that obsession over the Internet is plaguing its youth.
Studies over the past few years have shown that between 10 per cent and 13 per cent of university students are trapped in various states of Internet addiction. The worry now is that these students would stay addicted into their marriages, bringing the problem with them.
Mr. Kong Lingzhong, who runs a rehabilitation centre for Internet addicts in Beijing, said that most of the married Chinese born after 1980 probably picked up their addiction before their marriage, when they were youths.
‘This is a generation that was brought up to be more self-centred,’ he explained. ‘Many of them would seek to satisfy their own wants and pleasures, even at the expense of their responsibilities.
‘So when they are having a good time on the Internet, they choose to neglect everything else, including their families.’
Agreeing, Dr Yin Wenbin, a psychologist in the southern city of Shenzhen, added that the ease in going online these days makes the temptation so strong and close. ‘The Internet is right in your living room, it’s so convenient. That makes it a lot harder to kick the habit.’
The Chinese government has taken steps towards addressing the issue.
Late last year, it decreed the clinical definition for Internet addiction as more than six hours a day or 40 hours a week spent on the Internet for non-work or non-study-related purposes.
Many hospitals have also classified the condition as a mental illness, opening the way for a medical approach to treating the disorder.
However, analysts say more needs to be done.
Mr. Kong suggests building community clinics that provide counselling to couples to help them deal with their addiction, in the hopes of preventing divorces.
Prof Tao argues that prevention is better than cure. He proposes a government-sponsored family education programme that teaches parents how to help their children develop healthy habits and a stronger sense of responsibility towards their families and society.
‘We need to start young, because when people grow older, they become more set in their ways, and it becomes difficult to treat their addiction then.’
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China’s young Net addicts don’t grow up
Problem from youth continues into adulthood leading to divorces, money and health woes
By The Straits Times China Bureau
13 December 2009
One night in June last year, a sharp pain woke Ms. Shao Zhen from her sleep - her baby boy was arriving earlier than expected.
But what happened next came as an even bigger shock to the mother-to-be in her 20s.
When she asked her husband to take her to the hospital, he refused. ‘Take a cab there on your own, I’ll be there shortly,’ he said.
He was too caught up in his Internet game to do anything else.
A year later, Ms. Shao succeeded in asking a court in Shanghai to rule in favour of her application for divorce. ‘I still have feelings for him, but I am completely disappointed,’ she told a local newspaper. ‘Our marriage was killed by Internet gaming.’
Once considered a problem affecting mainly students, Internet addiction is now afflicting young adults as well.
Last month, a court in Beijing said that among 100 divorce cases it had handled which involved couples born after 1980, 20 arose from ‘Internet-related bad habits’.
The court report said that in serious cases, the hooked gamers even lost their jobs, pitching their families into financial hardship.
The local media has even invented a term for those who, like Ms. Shao, leave their husbands because of Internet addiction: wang you gua fu, meaning widows of Internet gamers.
Professor Tao Hongkai, an expert on Internet addiction from Huazhong Normal University in central China’s Hubei province, told The Straits Times that among Chinese Web addicts in their 20s, Internet gaming is the most common indulgence.
This is followed by chatting with strangers online, which often leads to extramarital affairs, and then fixes such as pornography and gambling.
‘This problem (of Web addiction) is affecting the stability of the family. And if we don’t act quickly, the stability of our whole society will be at risk,’ he warned.
China has the largest number of Internet users in the world - 360 million, with 64 per cent under the age of 30. In recent years, society has become increasingly aware that obsession over the Internet is plaguing its youth.
Studies over the past few years have shown that between 10 per cent and 13 per cent of university students are trapped in various states of Internet addiction. The worry now is that these students would stay addicted into their marriages, bringing the problem with them.
Mr. Kong Lingzhong, who runs a rehabilitation centre for Internet addicts in Beijing, said that most of the married Chinese born after 1980 probably picked up their addiction before their marriage, when they were youths.
‘This is a generation that was brought up to be more self-centred,’ he explained. ‘Many of them would seek to satisfy their own wants and pleasures, even at the expense of their responsibilities.
‘So when they are having a good time on the Internet, they choose to neglect everything else, including their families.’
Agreeing, Dr Yin Wenbin, a psychologist in the southern city of Shenzhen, added that the ease in going online these days makes the temptation so strong and close. ‘The Internet is right in your living room, it’s so convenient. That makes it a lot harder to kick the habit.’
The Chinese government has taken steps towards addressing the issue.
Late last year, it decreed the clinical definition for Internet addiction as more than six hours a day or 40 hours a week spent on the Internet for non-work or non-study-related purposes.
Many hospitals have also classified the condition as a mental illness, opening the way for a medical approach to treating the disorder.
However, analysts say more needs to be done.
Mr. Kong suggests building community clinics that provide counselling to couples to help them deal with their addiction, in the hopes of preventing divorces.
Prof Tao argues that prevention is better than cure. He proposes a government-sponsored family education programme that teaches parents how to help their children develop healthy habits and a stronger sense of responsibility towards their families and society.
‘We need to start young, because when people grow older, they become more set in their ways, and it becomes difficult to treat their addiction then.’
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