Online habits of young people in China

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Online habits of young people in China

Sunday, 27 July 2008 08:39

According to the January 2008 report published by CNNIC, China Internet Network Information Center, almost half of the 221 million Internet users in China are aged under 25, some 107 million young people. One aspect of Internet behavior the report examines is the growing and troubling phenomenon of “Internet addiction” in the young ‘netizen’ population. Following a spate of violent incidents ‘inspired’ by virtual games, there is currently mounting concern about its moral and social implications for Chinese society,. A tragic case of suicide also resulted from influence via the Internet. In a society where the state has limited each family to having only one child, there is an increasing sense of urgency about understanding and dealing with addiction to virtual worlds.

Addiction to online games and to Internet use in general, is not, of course, unique to China, but in a country where parents put tremendous pressure on their children to succeed, the fear of failure, can often drive youngsters to find relief in escaping into a virtual world – even to the point of addiction. Statistics show that some Chinese youngsters spend up to 20.8 hours a week on the Internet and that a large percentage of that time is spent on entertainment, or on social networking. When denied access to the web, 30% of young netizens report feeling that they “lack something crucial”, indicating an addictive pattern.

The report’s finding show that 55.9% of young netizens use the web for making friends and belong to some kind of social network, but that only 18% use the web for educational purposes. A recent interview with O.D. Kobo, CEO Koolanoo Group that runs the teen social networking site, 360Quan.com, seems to confirm this data. Kobo claims that some 30 million teenagers visit his website every month and that numbers are growing all the time. In the interview, Kobo emphasized that he feels a responsibility towards the teenagers that visit his site and is in favor of controlling content. In March 2007, the Herald Tribune published an article about China’s “Boot camps” for young Internet junkies; it seems that the Chinese authorities are not going to compromise on this issue and are tackling it very seriously.

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