Internet addiction Disorder: The Mind Prison-treatments

Treatments

Preventions

Steps to be taken for all internet addicts:

1) People must recognize the patterns of overuse. Not only do we have to be aware of the amount of time spent on the computer, but also the length of time spent on thinking about the Internet or activities related to the Internet even when we are away from the computer.

2) We must identify the underlying problems. Just like other kind of addicts, Internet addicts should ask themselves what is causing them to want to get away from reality?

3) We have to develop and act out a plan to work through the problem, rather than to run away from it. Escaping from the problem through the Internet and effectively ignoring it does not resolve the problem. It will only intensify the problem and lead to more severe consequences.

4) The addict needs to take steps to resolve the addiction by him or herself. It is best to gradually reduce the use of computer, until he/she has finally reached a reasonable amount of time. This would help to counter the highly reinforcing variable ratio aspect, where one is never sure when something exciting is going to appear, but the total amount of excitation is dependent upon the amount of time on-line.

Here are some suggestions for alternative activities:

• Have a holiday abroad without computer usage
• Do some exercise and workouts regularly
• Chat with your friends and family about what is happening in your life
• Search for other internets
• Join a support group
• Develop new relationships and friendships
• Talk to others about your overuse of the Internet
• Cut down your Internet sessions
• Try counseling or psychotherapy to assist you in dealing with the addictive behavior
• Set a timetable for yourself
• And lastly lead a healthy and fruitful lifestyle.

Between Parents and Child

In addition to discovering the nature of the internet, talk to your children about their online activities. If your children tell you about a distressing encounter they have had with a website, it is far better to discuss it rather than to ignore it. When your child first receives his or her email, share an account with them so that you can oversee their activities and monitor what he or she does. Also, join your children when they are in private chat rooms. In this way, you can further supervise your child's activities online and be aware of who are their contacts online.

However, prevention is still necessary for your children. There are some useful options provided by the technology and software. Let’s look at some of the ways that parents can do:

Safe websites
Many sites can be found on the web that has been designed exclusively with children’s internets and needs in mind. They can contain information, games and activities that are suitable for children.

Safe search engines
There are a number of search engines available on the web that is designed to be used by children. These search engines inspect the websites that are returned by a search query and reject those that contain any words that are considered to be unacceptable and improper. Through this, they will not be exposed to any unfavorable material.

Safe internet service providers
Many Internet Service Providers (ISP) filtered web content before it reaches clients’ computers. ISPs offering this kind of child-oriented service filter material by using a combination of human researchers and specialise software to decide which sites are to be filtered.

Filtering software
Filtering software consist of an image recognition engine and text filter. An image recognition filter recognizes sexually explicit graphics while a separate text filter evaluates text in context according to stringent criteria to eliminate unsuitable web content. This is how they work: the website will be blocked if they are on a blacklist stored on the central server. The software will also frequently update its blacklist. When filter software encounters pages that are not blacklisted, the text and images are analyzed and upon finding unsuitable text or images, those pages are removed before they reach your browser and the page may be added to the blacklist. This ensures foolproof protection for your children against pornography and other undesirable threats.

The difference between filtering software and content blocking ISPs is vague. Both have the advantage of preventing unwanted websites appearing on your monitor by using software that cannot be tampered with by anyone in your home.