Louis Pau
This project is focussing on top-down laws voted in a Parliament, public regulations, and some industry wide regulations, which, in different countries, tackle one or several facets of Internet addiction or problematic uses of the Internet (PUI). The project has first compiled the standard terminology related to Internet addiction , in different language dictionaries as well as from public medical / health /social authorities. The legal survey part is carried out on a basis of laws and regulations in each country, with Internet addiction or PUI as a direct or indirect scope. This has resulted early 2020 in the identification and summarization of a catalogue of 66 laws or regulations from 50 countries, each described in template form. The identified laws and regulations are analysed with respect to specific consequences of the Internet addictions, as well as by categories of stakeholders addressed in these measures.
“Internet addiction” is a growing phenomenon with health, network, media creation, psychological, sociological, social, social networking and economic consequences. However, excessive Internet use has not yet been recognised as a disorder by the World Health Organization (WHO), nor in the American Psychiatric Association’s Manual of Mental Disorders. This paper is surveying and focussing on top-down laws voted in National Parliaments, on public regulations set by public authorities, and on a few industry wide regulations, which, in different countries and cultures , tackle one or several facets of Internet addiction or Problematic uses of the Internet. This has resulted early 2020 in the identification and summarization of a catalogue of 66 laws or regulations from 50 countries, each described in template form (see Appendix 1), supplemented by a thorough analysis. The main contribution resides in the help to policy makers and regulators. It is indeed essential to realize that laws, regulations and international conventions on Internet addiction and Problematic use of the Internet are necessary to create dedicated organizations, to fund remedial treatments, to certify treatment professionals and/or clinics, for courts to judge, and for regulators to take on derived concrete measures. The paper also compares statistically the priorities by different countries and cultures as to the facets of internet addiction and provides a status of ratification status of international conventions, as needed because of the global nature of Internet.
The field of Internet addiction / Problematic uses of the Internet is very interdisciplinary, and the research is very fragmented. Besides emerging treatments (social, medical, technical) that field has grown tremendously in importance as side-effects of telework, distance learning , gaming, etc ...demonstrate that there is a very thin border between intensive use of the Internet , addiction, and consequences of addiction.
This paper is focussing on top-down laws voted in a Parliament, public regulations, and some industry wide regulations (66 laws, 50 countries)
This report catalogues standardized Internet addiction terminology, and provides causal links by natural language analysis.
