Switching off your PC - internet addiction

international | sci-tech | other press Monday August 07, 2006 09:55 by o as if

European German speakers appear to be leading the way in combatting internet addiction. The Swiss canton of Zurich has just joined with some of the German states and one Austrian province to draw up plans to combat "cyber addiction".

The Swiss estimate at least 3% of surfers in their country suffer from "excessive" internet use. Suffering surfers are most likely male, aged between 20 and 30 and have grown up with computer games and other entertainment systems such as "playstation" and "gameboy".

Franz Eidenbenz a psychologist in Zurich who is helping the Swiss authorities develop a plan to combat internet addiction which will include school visits and counselling has this to say :-

"The central criterion is whether the computer becomes the most important place in your life, the main point where you conduct your activities," he goes on to suggest that a weekly use of 35 hours may be considered "excessive".
"Schools should give more weight to teaching pupils how to handle information," However, he acknowledges taht youngsters need to learn how to use the internet "safely" :-
"These are questions of pedagogy, which should be inserted alongside [lessons on] how to use a computer," Eidenbenz said.

read more :-
http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/front/detail/When_surfers_...56000

here's a little test you can do which is German :-
http://www.suchtpraevention-zh.ch/angebote_suchtpraeven....html

[& I'm offline for August. enjoy your hols!]