Prevalence of problematic Internet use during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Online Behaviours during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Their Associations with Psychological Factors: An International Exploratory Study

“…Previous studies reported increased internet use during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. In the current study, participants reported spending on average 5 ± 3 h online, daily, after excluding time spent for work or study activities.…”

“…Problematic usage of the internet (PUI) encompasses a variety of problematic behaviours, including excessive general internet surfing, video gaming, pornography watching, shopping online, gambling online, social networking, cyberchondria, and digital hoarding [ 1 ]. In 2020, increased involvement in PUI was suggested across the globe, possibly due to the emergence of COVID-19 and the measures adopted to combat the spread of the virus, e.g., mandatory lockdown and mandatory quarantine [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. However, little is known about any potential cross-cultural differences, including the amount of time spent online and whether this could be related to an increased PUI in the respective countries [ 3 ].…”

“…In 2020, increased involvement in PUI was suggested across the globe, possibly due to the emergence of COVID-19 and the measures adopted to combat the spread of the virus, e.g., mandatory lockdown and mandatory quarantine [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. However, little is known about any potential cross-cultural differences, including the amount of time spent online and whether this could be related to an increased PUI in the respective countries [ 3 ].…”

Internet addiction in young adults: The role of impulsivity and codependency

“…Consulting the existing literature related to the period of COVID-19 lockdown (the same period in which we conducted our survey), has shown that the rates of general addiction increased as compared to the pre-COVID period. For example, the study of Burkauskas et al ( 88 ) has shown that Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) has increased 1.6 times (compared to the pre-COVID period) while the prevalence of the Problematic Internet USE (PIU) has increased 1.5 times. The same increase (1.6 times) during the COVID-19 pandemic of PIU has been also remarked by ( 89 ) in both adults and young people.…”

“…Consulting the existing literature related to the period of COVID-19 lockdown (the same period in which we conducted our survey), has shown that the rates of general addiction increased as compared to the pre-COVID period. For example, the study of Burkauskas et al (88) Of particular interest, however, is the recent meta-analysis by Meng et al (92), which includes 504 studies from 64 countries conducted before November 2021 and from which the importance of the varying incidence of specific modes of Internet addiction can be clearly understood. The study reports prevalence estimates of 26.99% (95% CI, 22.73-31.73) for smartphone addiction, 17.42% (95% CI, 12.42-23.89) for social media addiction, 14.22% (95% CI, 12.90-15.65) for Internet addiction, 8.23% (95% CI, 5.75-11.66) for cybersex addiction, and 6.04% (95% CI, 4.80-7.57) for game addiction.…”