Abstract

Internet addiction update: diagnostic criteria, assessment and prevalence

Author(s): Roberto Poli

In the last 15 years, Internet use has grown tremendously: now approximately 40% of the world population is online. Internet addiction is an emergent disorder, because the increasing popularity has led to the emergence of clinical cases presenting abuse symptoms. The classification of Internet Addiction is still controversial and there are several diagnostic criteria and various tools of measure. However there are no widely accepted diagnostic criteria.

Prevalence estimates vary widely, although we can estimate the internet addiction prevalence in the general adult population as approximately 2%.