Some 13.2 percent of China's underage net users are obsessed with the internet and 13 to 17-year-olds are the most heavily addicted, with 17.1 percent of this age group reportedly obsessed.

These statistics were revealed in a research report on the development of China's youth during the 10th and 11th Five-Year Plan periods that was recently released by the China Youth & Children Research Center (CYCRC). The report assessed the quality of youth groups and their involvement in social progress in the past five years in terms of education, employment, health and internet use.

The report found that spending time on the computer and the internet was the number one leisure activity for Chinese youth. According to statistics, there were 7.636 million internet users aged between 18 and 35 at the beginning of 2000, and this figure ballooned to 73.26 million in 2005, increasing nearly tenfold within five years.

This obsession with the internet cannot be ignored. Although the government has introduced some precautionary measures, more should be done to safeguard youngsters' interests online, to protect them from undesirable information available to them online and to prevent them from becoming obsessed with the internet.

Internet use is most popular in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, where there are 290, 270 and 220 users for every 1000 persons. The three provinces with the least number of net users are Guizhou, Henan and Tibet.

(People's Daily January 13, 2007)