China, home to the world's largest online population, looks set to become the first country to classify internet addiction.

According to state media, Chinese health officials will classify internet addiction as a clinical disorder with growing concern about compulsive web use by millions of Chinese surfers.

'Internet addiction' is set to be classified as spending six hours or more per day online and exhibiting at least one of the following symptoms: difficulty sleeping or concentrating, yearning to be online, irritation, and mental or physical distress.

Psychologists in China want web addiction to be recognised as a condition similar to compulsive gambling or alcoholism.

China's online population is the largest in the world at about 253 million people and computer use is growing rapidly as income level rises.

In August, a Chinese legislator said that about 10 per cent of China's surfers under the age of 18, or four million people, were addicted to the internet, mainly to "unhealthy" online games.

A recent international survey into web use revealed that 42 per cent of Chinese youngsters polled felt "addicted" to the web, compared to 18 per cent in the United States.

And a recent poll from Yahoo found that 80 per cent of surfers claimed to be suffering from 'information overload'.

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