By: U.S. News and World Report
Thursday, May 14, 2009

MONDAY, Feb. 23 (HealthDay News) -- A new study from Taiwan links aggression in teens to heavy Internet use, but its findings are being questioned by some American researchers.

The research, based on questionnaires about Internet use and behavior filled out by 9,405 adolescents, classified 25 percent of the boys and 13 percent of the girls as Internet addicts.

Of that group of Internet addicts, 37 percent reported showing aggression, such as threatening or harming others, in the past year -- compared with 13 percent of the girls and 32 percent of the boys overall.

The research team, from Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan, wrote that Internet activities could provide opportunities for young people to "observe, experience and try aggressive behaviors resulting in positive outcome, [such as] identification in a group, being a hero or winning in games." Their study appears online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

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For the entire article, see the U.S.News & World Report website at http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/02/23/are-internet-addicted-kids-more-violent.html.