930,000 Japanese teens addicted to internet: survey

The army of phone zombies shuffling through streets and stations is a nuisance, but that certainly isn’t limited to teenagers.

Can see people having a lot of posture problems in the future. Having your neck angled so your head is almost straight-down for extended periods of time can’t be a good thing.

Lol. But they still don't know a URL is.

It does not deserve "internet."

All going to need specs as thick as bottle-bottoms when they reach their twenties, if they don't lift their eyes away from their phones occasionally.

930,000... leaving... 127,133,000 others out of the mix, nice stats..

Japanese teens? It's the same in every country!

What a misleading headline.....might as well say teens are addicted to network data. These kids are addicted to online games and social networking sites/apps, which can be a problem. At least they are not doing those stupid and dangerous teen challenges (Tide pod challenge, condom challenge, etc) taking place in the US

Nice lollipops.

Did they really need to do a survey to realize that?

Dodgy, dodgy reporting. What are the criteria used to determine addiction? We get only one of the eight traits, which is itself vaguely worded.

Even beyond that, they estimate the number of addicts based on a survey whose total respondents only reached 7% of their estimated number of addicts nationwide.

Then to increase FUD that the Internet is somehow a threat, they give a bunch of horror stories about people dying from overuse of online games, but none of their horror stories come from Japan and the story provides zero analysis to show that the kinds of games these victims played are played in Japan or are anything like the games played in Japan. They don't even bother to show what portion of Japanese theoretical Internet addicts even play games at all.

This article is pure junk science, empty alarmism to convince the gullible that whatever it is that the kids are doing these days that doesn't make sense to the elder generation is dangerous and wrong.

If there's nothing else to do I question the criteria

Katsu78: Do you have teenage children? It doesn’t sound like it. If only on-line games were the sole cause ...

The headline is misleading. It’s not the internet they are addicted to. They are addicted to gaming and SNS. The internet is only carrier. I read a report a few years ago stating that 60% of emails sent by Japanese teenagers are to people they have never met. I was in Shibuya yesterday (reluctantly) and 99% of the young people had their faces stuck to their phones as they were wondering around aimlessly. Most were playing games and others using SNS. It’s deciniteky a disease, but the numbers mentioned in this article are padded. The number of teens addicted to gaming and SNS is much higher.

“Addiction” is ill-defined in this article, which indeed, represents “junk science.” The article cites several extreme examples of Internet games causing death and disorder this insufficient evidence.

We are on the Internet right now. Are we addicted to Japan Today? Anyone feeling violent or depressed?

I am “addicted” to the internet as I was “addicted” to library stacks back home. I use it to gain knowledge and to publish.

Unless I missed something, there’s no mention of people cycling and driving while texting.

As everyone says, the article makes a flimsy case. I would have thought every teenager in the world will now get grumpy if you turn your WiFi off. The definition of addiction needs to involve much more damaging behaviour.

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry survey conducted between December and February targeted students at 103 junior high and high schools in Japan, and some 64,000 students responded.

Roughly 64,000 responded but the title reads the following....

930,000 Japanese teens addicted to internet: survey

Just love how statistics are reported here

Not surprising, they have us adults to copy.

@kabukilover - We are on the Internet right now. Are we addicted to Japan Today? Anyone feeling violent or depressed?

Sometimes! lol! :D

I get annoyed when I can't use the internet, too. It's highly irritating to have your connection cut off when you are on the platform trying to find a train route, for example.

These kinds of surveys typically word questions so vaguely that almost anyone would be considered an addict to something. Before anyone panics, how about establishing the criteria based on sound psychological definitions of the problems, first?

My mother told me how rock-n-roll and addtiction to TV caused moral panic in her days, and I'm old enough to remember the moral panic over Dungeons & Dragons and "obscene" song lyrics in the 80's. IMO this is more of the same. I want to tell these people to take the stick out of their butt.

Addicted to social media, rather than the internet itself. The fear of being left out keeps people glued to Facebook, Twitter, Line etc.

Ive noticed even in the UK the usage of mobile phones has risen dramatically, as a driver I nearly bump into a person once a week when turning into a side street as people don't look at the junction they just walk strait out with out looking, as they are pre occupied with there blasted phones. As for the survey, were they stopped in the street, and asked questions, or was the survey done on line? as for asking pupils at 106 schools, well that not all of Japan is it? so if the study was rolled out over the whole of Japan I am sure that figure will go a lot higher.

as for asking pupils at 106 schools, well that not all of Japan is it?

that's not how population statistics work. Use the appropriate science and you extrapolate. Like any poll or analysis. The higher the number of students surveyed the better the propensity of Probability-value (P-value).

If there was a cause for people of all ages to work towards, let's say a climate change calamity underway, then people wouldn't need to waste their time on candycrush et al.

Most women shop for clothes.

83% of statistics are made up ;)

in iran it's about% of young people population.

http://www.krc-co.com/

How much do you want to bet this survey was done online? or at least part of it. Also, I get a kick out of the posters on here whining about internet addicts while posting online. Every generation complains about the same thing when they get older and look at what young people are doing. Not long ago it was handheld video game consoles that were causing society's woes, then before that it was the personal computer invading homes, and of course television, the fountain pen replacing the brush, etc. Same old, just different tech. If they're so concerned about addiction and society, maybe don't implement casino legislation and ram it through. At least the internet has a lot of merit for all of it's bad points.

This article is pure junk science, empty alarmism to convince the gullible that whatever it is that the kids are doing these days that doesn't make sense to the elder generation is dangerous and wrong.

While the article may be based upon "junk science" there is no doubt, in my mind at least, that far too many people here in Japan, and not just teenagers alone, are in fact addicted to the internet!

Part of the problem is the "definition" that people have of the "internet". Ask a teenager, I know I have, "Do you use the internet?" The answer, "Yeah sometimes". Next question; "What are you doing on your phone all day?" "Oh watching Youtube".....

The problem is that for far too many, SNS, Instagram, Twitter, You Tube, etc, are not part of "using the internet" in their consciousness. Somehow, somewhere, they have formed the idea that those types of activities are not connected.