Nearly 10% of Japanese elementary and junior high school students are addicted to the Internet or have a serious impact on their daily lives

According to Japan's "Mainichi Shimbun" reported on December 6, a survey conducted by the Yokohama City Education Commission on "game addiction" and Internet dependence conducted by the Yokohama City Education Commission on primary and secondary school students in the city showed that nearly 10% of students have a tendency to rely on games and the Internet. The Municipal Education Commission believes that if primary and secondary school students are addicted to games and the Internet, it may have a serious impact on their daily lives. In the future, the Yokohama Municipal Education Commission will discuss preventive measures in cross-departmental project teams.

In 2019, the World Health Organization identified a situation of addiction to online games that affects daily life as a dependency disorder, and the purpose of this survey is to grasp the actual situation in Yokohama City.

The survey report notes that the survey set "Was there a time in the year when I just wanted to play games?" Students who answered "yes" to more than 5 of the other 9 questions were considered to have a "game-dependent tendency." Of the primary and secondary school students who responded, 8.9 per cent fell into this situation.

In terms of grade and male-female ratios, the proportion of boys in primary schools is higher, with 23.3 per cent of boys in the fourth grade of primary school and 21.5 per cent of boys in the fifth grade, both exceeding 20 per cent. Compared with boys, girls with the above conditions have a lower proportion in any grade.

On "Internet Dependency Tendencies", in "Do You Feel Addicted to the Internet?" Of the 8 other questions, 9.4 percent of students answered "yes" to more than five questions. Both men and women, the proportion of junior high school second-year students is the highest. Compared with students with depressive symptoms, the proportion of students with no depressive symptoms who had a tendency to rely on the internet was 4.65 times higher than that of the latter.

Smartphones can be a tool for playing games and surfing the Internet, with about 40 percent of sixth-graders and about 80 percent of junior high school third-graders owning their own phones. About "filtering links" that restrict access to harmful websites, about 30 percent of students answered "don't know" or "no access."

Surveys show that the more students who go to bed and wake up late, who are reluctant to study and participate in club activities, the more they tend to rely on games and the Internet, which is reported to be deeply related to bad living habits.

Source: Reference News Network