Online Addiction in United States
Online Addiction
Overview of Online Addiction in relation to cyber crime: [1] Take the example of a hard core gamer. Some of these individuals appear totally absorbed in their favorite games. These people might be described as ”zoning out,” perhaps even forgoing basic needs such as food, elimination of bodily waste, and sleep. Failure to recognize and respond to the real world environment, as when one is preoccupied with electronic games, may be an indicator of addiction. Consider the case of Kim Kyung-jae. The Republic of South Korea consists of approximately 50 million citizens, approximately half of whom are connected to the Internet. Of that number, approximately 10 million individuals utilize broadband connections to access the Net. There are approximately 25,000 Internet cafe’s in the country, the majority of which are open 24 hours every day. South Korean police were called to one such cafe’ to investigate the death of 24-year-old Kim Kyung-jae. Witnesses informed the police that he had been constantly playing games on a computer for about 84 hours, without taking any breaks to eat, sleep, or use the restroom. Kim Kyung-jae had become so engrossed in the computer game that he failed to attend to the most basic bodily functions that kept him alive. Although deaths related to electronic gaming are very rare, similar cases have been reported.
Resources
Notes and References
- By Kelly Socia and Kevin J. McCarthy
See Also
- Types of Cybercrime
- Cybercriminal
Further Reading
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author; Belluck, P. (1996, December 1). Stuck on the Web; The symptoms of Internet addiction. The New York Times, Sunday, Late Edition—Final, section 4, page 5, column 1, Week in Review Desk. Retrieved electronically from LexisNexis Academic Database; CIA—The world factbook—United States. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved May 15, 2007, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html; DeAngelis, T. (2000, April). Is Internet addiction real? Monitor on Psychology, 31(4). Retrieved May 10, 2007, from http://www.apa.org/monitor/apr00/addiction.html; Frequently asked questions. Center for Internet Addiction Recovery. Retrieved April 15, 2007, from http://www.netaddiction.com/faq.htm; Kershaw, S. (2005, December 1). Hooked on the Web: Help is on the way. The New York Times, Sunday, Late Edition—Final, section G, page 1, column 1, Thursday Styles. Retrieved electronically from LexisNexis Academic Database; McQuade, S. (2006). Understanding and managing cybercrime (150–152). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon; Shaffer, H.J., Hall, M.N., & Vanderbilt, J. (2000). Computer addiction: A critical consideration. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 70(2), 162–168; Yang, D.J. (2000, January 17). Craving your next Web fix. U.S. News & World Report, 128(2). Retrieved electronically from Academic Search Premier Database.
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