Almost 6% of Internet Users Are Addicts, Study Finds

Almost 6% of Internet users suffer from some form of addiction to it, according to the largest study of Web surfers ever conducted.

“Marriages are being disrupted. Kids are getting into trouble. People are committing illegal acts. People are spending too much money. As someone who treats patients, I see it,” said David Greenfield, the therapist and researcher who did the study.

The findings, which were released Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Assn., appear likely to bolster the expanding acceptance of compulsive Internet use as a real psychological disorder.

Kimberly Young, a pioneer in the new field of research, said the latest study is so broad that it “adds a layer of legitimacy to the concern that Internet addiction is real.”

However, the 6% figure is lower than some estimates of a rate of 10% or more, stemming largely from research on college students.

Greenfield, a psychologist in West Hartford, Conn., carried out the study jointly with ABC News. He collected 17,251 responses to an Internet use questionnaire distributed and returned through the Web site ABCNews.com.

He adapted his questions from a widely used set of criteria for gambling addiction. For example, the questionnaires asked if participants had used the Internet to escape from their problems, tried to cut back or found themselves preoccupied with the Internet when not at the computer.

If participants answered yes to at least five of 10 such criteria, they were viewed as addicted. A total of 990 participants, or 5.7%, answered yes to five or more questions. With 200 million Internet users worldwide, that would mean that 11.4 million are addicts.

The question about using the Internet as an escape yielded more yes answers than any other: 30%.

Greenfield’s analysis of the data suggests that Internet users’ feelings of intimacy, timelessness and lack of inhibition all contribute to the addictive force of the Internet.

“There’s a power here that’s different than anything we’ve dealt with before,” Greenfield said.

Researchers did caution that, while one of the best estimates yet, the 6% figure is based on a group of people who use only one Web site, however broadly aimed.

Researchers said Internet addiction will ultimately be broken down into several categories: sex and relations, consumerism, gambling, stock trading and obsessive Internet surfing for its own sake.

Therapists at the psychology meeting said they have successfully treated some Internet addicts, often with a mix of talking sessions and programs aimed at reducing a sharply defined set of behaviors.