Chinese hospitals are to open specially designed psychiatric units to treat internet addicts which a recent survey has shown to be a whopping 42 % of the youth who are addicted to the net.

The Military General Hospital in Beijing is one of those medical institutes of the country which have drawn up the diagnosis. With this China will become the first country to officially recognize internet addiction as a clinical disease.

Tao Ran, an expert at the hospital said that hospitals in China would open special units to treat Internet addicted patients with a reported four million Chinese teenagers spending more than six hours a day over on Internet, in chat rooms, blogging or playing online games.

Ran said that 80 % of the addicts can be cured with three months of treatment. One of the reasons that the Chinese youth are addicted to the net is as they are many single children families and instead of playing outdoor games they tend to chat on the internet or play online games.    

In an attempt to help cut the addiction, the government has incorporated software into games that kicks players off after duration of five hours.