Around 12 percent of the Greek adolescent population is using the internet excessively, 1 percent even shows addictive behaviors. This was one of the central finding of a series of studies on internet safety conducted by scientists from Athens university. Other fields of research included the use of pornographic websites and online gambling. All of the studies clearly show negative consequences arising from unrestricted internet use.
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„Excessive use impairs on the emotions, peer relationships, hobbies, activities, the whole psychosocial life of a youth in general,“ says Artemis Tsitsika, a leading researcher of the series. Examined were around 900 young people between 11 and 18 via questionnaires – those who said they go online longer for more than two hours daily, were considered at risk of addictive behaviors, those who surf the internet for more than 20 hours per week were considered excessive users.
Certain aspects boost or lower this tendency – while for example youths who surf the internet in a school environment, usually restrict themselves to a low use of 1-3 hours per week, the regular internet café visitor usually goes online for more than 10 hours a week. Particularly internet game players tend to be online excessively: Many stay for more than 20 hours per week in their virtual reality.
Artemis Tsitsika, Hotel Radisson Berlin
An especially damaging online hobby is unrestricted gambling – this is what another study by the Greek team suggests. „Psychosocial maladjustment“, „Abnormal Conduct Problems“ and „Borderline Peer Problems“ are looming especially to those who excessively try their luck online. Questioned about gambling practices, internet use characteristics and Strengths and Difficulties were around 500 Greek adolesents. They also had to fill in the „Young Internet addiction test“. The result: 15 percent of the Greek adolescents have had experience with gambling, 1 in 20 in a problematic way.
Also a frequent use of internet pornographic pages can have negative impact on young internet users. Compared to non-users, infrequent consumers of such content are twice as likely to have abnormal conduct problems, frequent users are „significantly“ more likely to show abnormal conduct. „95 percent of them are young men, and say they watch it for educational reasons,“ says Artemis Tstsika, as doubtful as it seems. Yet the use of pornography is quite common – among 529 greek high school students, 1 in 5 surfs pages with pornographic content, one in ten frequently.
More information about the studies:
– Abstract of the general study on internet misuse among Greek youths
– Abstract of the study on the use of online pornography
– Abstract of the study on internet gambling
– Go to the homepage of the Adolescent Health Unit of Athens University
