Netaddiction or compulsion is a problem where the individual is unable to control his or her net use after it has started to cause difficulties and problems in their lives. As of now we don’t know whether this is an isolated problem which only has to do with net use or if it may be related to other problems such as depression, lack of self-esteem or personality disorders. Experience has however shown that it usually people who suffer from netaddiction also suffer from other problems rather than it being the sole problem. Whatever the reason it seems clear that a lot of people find it difficult to control their net use and thereby risk their family, work and education. People find it difficult to control the time they spend online, they lie about their use and often become very annoyed when they are unable to go online. A study from Danish schools showed that approximately 10% of teenagers run into problems due to their net-use. Usually when people overuse the net they get hooked on a specific aspect of the internet of which chatrooms, sexually explicit material, online games and gambling are the most popular. People who search for information on the internet, however, seldom seem to run into overuse problems.
People who look for online communication at the expense of “real” relationships are often people who feel insecure or are experiencing something missing from their actual relationships which they search for in “pseudo-relationships” online. They may even create alter egos explicitly for this purpose. These relationships usually come in the form of online communications in chatrooms or online games.
It is important to try to catch problems like this as early as possible as it often causes severe problems and aggression when therapy requires the addicted individual to decrease their online activities. Read Bjorn Hardarson a clinical psychologist article on Internet addiction on squidoo

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