In of themselves there's nothing necessarily dangerous about chat rooms. Yes, young girls could get involved in a chat room and start interacting with someone who misrepresents themselves as perhaps younger or misrepresents himself in some other ways, and the danger lies in the out of chat room activity more than the in the chat room activity.

There is a potential for arousal, feeling good, and sharing a naughty concept; it all has to do with the ability to sort of change how we feel inside. It's just another mechanism to change the way we feel.

Some may regard the recognition of internet addiction as a positive development that will be of assistance to parents who struggle with their children's seeming surgical attachment to the computer and mobile phone. Others, including myself, are not so sure that calling this behaviour an addiction will lead to anything more than further prescribing of medications and/or therapy for our youngsters for what many might see as simply a bad habit.

As many as one in 30 computer game players have symptoms similar to those of gambling and drug addicts, psychologists say.

Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have shown that the part of the brain that generates rewarding feelings is more activated in men than women during video-game play.

Facebook has become an indispensable way to find old friends, schedule events, play games and even send virtual gifts. But if you’re doing more living online than off, it might be time to reassess. Rob Bedi, a registered psychologist and assistant professor at the University of Victoria, said that Internet addictions are common on university campuses.

Medics running a clinic in Athens for adolescents addicted to the Internet yesterday told Parliament's research and technology committee that one in five Greek youngsters is at risk of serious dependence that demands clinical treatment.

Maressa Hecht Orzack, Ph.D., director of the Computer Addictions Study Center at McLean Hospital and assistant clinical medical professor at Harvard University, has worked for more than 15 years treating addictive behaviors. She said side effects of game addiction include loss of sleep, not eating, violent behavior and seizures.

My conversion from video game critic to buyer is due in large part to some recent research showing that so-called active video games, like those played on the Wii, aren’t like the sedentary games played by the Atari generation. Far from creating couch potatoes, these games compel players to dance, jump and sweat.

A 2005 government-led study found that half a million South Koreans are clinically addicted to the Internet. Up to 30 per cent of South Korean children under 18 are at risk of Internet addiction.