On January 19th China Internet Information Center announced that Number of Internet users in China rose to astonishing 500 million. By the end of 2010 the total number of Internet users in China increased by 73.3 million people compared to the end of 2009 and reached 457 million people. The prevalence of the Internet in China has grown to 34,3%.
The numbers are outrageous, and for you to perceive the giganticness of the plot here are little examples: the number of active users of QQ -instant messenger- is more than the population of Russia!And YES it is more than population of the United States by somewhat 40 million!! According to the report, the number of the Chinese going online via mobile phones amounted to 303 million people. In 2010, 78.4% of Chinese Internet users accessed Internet using desktops, 66,2% - by phone and 45.7% via notebooks. Xinhua reported ,that last year the number of Chinese visitors to online stores increased by 48.6% compared to the previous year stats.
Though Network security is a painful issue in China.For example, according to the center's info in 2010, 45.8% of Chinese Internet users faced nasty attacks by computer viruses, 21,8% of users complained about stolen password or login. But it is not even the scariest other side of excessive internet exposure and consumption. In line with headlines about Beijing planning to build the world's largest network of Wi-Fi in 2011,(building of Wi-Fi network in Beijing began in the year prior to the Olympics. Wi-Fi helped make business even more mobile and rapid for Chinese people) were much more disturbing ones publicizing the GAMING ADDICTION.
Here are the sad facts behind largest online users body.
The incident occurred Sunday afternoon at an Internet bar located within big city Chongqing. Witnesses described how a group of youngster began to fight over some computer game. But the argument went as far as using knifes and heavy metal rails."computer geniuses" killed five young people about 20 years young. Online induced motive crimes kept piling up.
Everyone became aware of teenage "gaming addiction" in China, which often leads to distinct destructive consequences. Thus,according to the Beijing Public Security Bureau, 76% of crime among teenagers in some degree IS motivated by an addiction to online games.The dependence on online gambling was officially recognized to be mental disorder.
"Almost four million young Chinese are addicted to Internet and display passion for "unhealthy" online games," said representative committee of the People's Congress of China.
According to him, "almost 10% of Internet users over 18 years old, suffer from Internet addiction. "
China was quick to respond with Chinese authorities tightening control over online games and their content.At least they said so. Also they planned to introduce such a game technology, that would automatically disable the program after several hours of continuous use.
Do you believe these measures would be enough? Is it possible to stop bloody murderous games from making billions of yuan to their producers? How far can they go with "controlling contest"? With piracy and black markets thriving I think nothing can stop teenagers from wasting away their lives in front of display with guts exposing kills on a favorite online game.
The sad truth is that as internet use increases exponentially, violence follows along, it is the typical risk that the population has to face as more and more people log in every year. The authorities can only do so much. As you stated, the black market is huge and there are hackers and people with enough brains to go around the weak barriers that the government can attempt to put but inevitably fail do to the high demand of the Chinese people wanting to not have restrictions.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Tatiana. The sudden surge of internet users in China is making a lot of companies like Facebook, Google have a Chinese version of their website. The violence caused due to online gaming is prevalent world over and as we can see China is following suit. People are starting to use the internet for selling counterfeit products from China which in turn is affecting the world economy very badly. So the Government has to first ban this. But are they going to do that?? Obviously not as it is helping them become the super power of the world.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely interesting to see a different angle of the booming internet use within China, especially such a negative. 10% of game addiction in China is an astounding number of its population and the violence is quite shocking. It's possible the addictions are more violent within China and possibly other developing countries as youth see such forms of entertainment as an escapism from the harsh realities of their lives. As internet use spreads the Chinese government may have another issue on its hands concerning increasing violence among youth. Certainly an interesting take on this!
ReplyDeleteIt is clear that China is definitely going to have some major issues to deal with as internet usage becomes more widespread. The so-called “Internet Addiction” seems to be indoctrinated into China’s culture. I was stationed in South Korea for a year in 2007 and I witnessed first hand how a culture could be affected by widespread internet use. You would be hard-pressed to ride a train, take a bus, or walk down the street without seeing everyone take a couple of glances at their mobile device.
ReplyDeleteAs you mentioned, the addiction to on-line gaming posses a very large threat to the country as well. This also creates another market that can be exploited in advertising. Think about the demographic information that could be gained from tracking on-line gamers! It would almost be an unfair advantage for companies to use this information because they could use extreme targeting methods. In any instance this situation will have to be dealt with very seriously as time progresses.