China:A Chinese man dropped dead after playing internet games for three consecutive days, the latest casualty in a wave of web addictions that has the Beijing government keen to dampen webizens' ardour for the internet.
The man from Guangzhou, capital of the southern province of Guangdong, was around 30 years of age, and was taken to hospital from an internet cafe, probably suffering from exhaustion, the Beijing News reported.
Police have ruled out the possibility of suicide, and no details were given of what game the man was playing.
Some 60 million Chinese use internet cafes to meet their online needs, according to official data, which represents 37 per cent of China's 162 million internet users. China has about 113,000 licensed cafes, but there are many more that operate illegally.
In China, internet cafes are where kids too poor to afford PCs go to kick back and play video games, chat with their girlfriends or boyfriends and watch movies downloaded off the internet. It's also where young migrant workers, the vast majority of whom do not own TVs or PCs, go for entertainment. The internet cafes are open 24 hours a day and filled with mostly young men huddled in front of computer screens, watching movies or playing violent games like World of Warfare.
The Beijing government is worried about the spread of pornography and dissenting views over the internet and has banned the opening of new cybercafes this year. It has also issued orders limiting the time internet users can spend playing online.
China has banned minors from cybercafes and imposes heavy fines on operators who defy regulations in a bid to curb soaring rates of addiction that have accompanied the rapid spread of the internet in recent years.
In April, president Hu Jintao launched a campaign to rid the internet of "unhealthy" content and make it a platform for Communist Party doctrine. To deal with a rising tide of internet addiction, the government has opened several halfway houses where teens can spend a night and seek counselling and direction when they are having problems at home. There are also clinics specially for people suffering from internet addiction.
A survey earlier this year by the China Youth Association For Network Development revealed that over 13 per cent of China's young people were addicted to the internet, while another 13 per cent were "prone to internet addiction".
Carers reckon around 80 per cent of people who come to them are addicted to games and about 10 per cent to chat rooms. Five per cent go online to gamble and five per cent fall into the category of obsessive experts.
Counsellors dealing with China's internet addicts tell horror stories of people losing control of their lives, neglecting family members, work, sleep and food to stay connected to the internet for one reason or another.