Problematic Internet Use among Internet Café Users in China

Problematic Internet use (PIU), defined as “excessive use or addictive tendencies toward the Internet” (Czincz and Hechanova 2009), is an issue of global importance, particularly among adolescents. The Chinese media often portray Internet cafés as places where young people only play online games and waste time. This chapter reviews the incidence of PIU among Internet café users in China. A distinction is made between Internet overuse and users with addiction tendencies. It finds that of the 976 users surveyed, 2.2 percent could be defined as Internet “addicts,” and another 16 percent display some signs of overuse. Males between 18 and 25 years old, and self-identifying as coming from a rural area, are most likely to display signs of PIU. There are significant differences between Internet addicts, overusers, and common users. Overusers start to use the Internet or Internet cafés at a younger age; they also visit more cafés, spend more time there, prefer to use Internet cafés located near them, play more games, and believe that the option to use the Internet café overnight is an important feature. Willingness to pay for Internet café services does not vary much between problematic Internet users and ordinary users. Nevertheless, “addicted” users show greater willingness to visit Internet cafés more often should the price of services come down. This suggests that subsidies lowering the price to encourage more use among low-income people would also induce problematic users to spend even more time in Internet cafés. However, limiting overnight Internet café use while increasing government subsidies for Internet cafés in rural areas or those servicing low-income users could increase information and communication technology penetration without encouraging problematic Internet use.