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Net addiction a factor in teen runaways: poll

The number of older children reported missing is on the rise because more adolescents are running away from home over Internet-related issues, according to a children's welfare group yesterday.

Huang Pi-hsia (黃碧霞), director of the Ministry of the Interior's Child Welfare Bureau, said that in the past, most missing children cases were the result of kidnappings, but that in recent years, more adolescents were going missing than young children, because they had run away from home.

According to information provided by the Missing Children Data Resource Center, established by the bureau and the Child Welfare League Foundation, Internet addiction is becoming a more prevalent reason for adolescents to run away from home.

Such addiction creates problems between parents and children, causes a child's grades to suffer, affects his or her daily routine, and induces the child into lying in order to cover up the amount of time he or she is spending online, Huang said.

The addiction causes behavioral problems and a child may even feel depressed or angry when away from the computer, she said.

A survey conducted recently by the foundation showed that 32 percent of 903 children polled were addicted to the Internet, and that more than 33 percent of them spent more than three hours a day online on weekdays.

The foundation used US indicators to define Internet addiction in the survey. The indicators included eight factors, such as always thinking about online scenarios even away from the computer, feeling the need to go online for longer periods of time, feeling cranky when unable to go online, lying about the amount of time spent on the Internet and going online to escape problems in life.

Thirty-two percent of the children polled reported experiencing at least five of the eight factors, fulfilling the "Internet addiction" standards, Wang said.

More than 60 percent of kids went online to play games and 39.6 percent chatted on the Internet.

Alicia Wang (王育敏), the foundation's executive director, said that most children went online immediately after school and often played violent Internet games.

Peer pressure was a factor in doing so, since children feel they need to play the games that other kids are playing, Wang added.

Parents often regulate the amount of time their children spend online, but usually disregard the kinds of games the children play, she said.

Wang Nai-yen (王迺燕), a psychiatrist at the Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hualien, said it was better for parents to regulate their children's Internet use at a young age rather than waiting until adolescence.

"Younger kids are more likely to imitate online games, using violence to resolve problems and losing their respect for life, since in a game, they can always `restart' a life," Wang said.

Wang recommended limits of one to three hours spent online in one day, and less than 12 hours per week.
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