Table 1.

Comparison of three prominent sets of descriptive criteria for Internet addiction using items from assessment instruments

	Griffiths (2005)	Young (1998b)	Tao et al. (2010)
Salience/Preoccupation	“dominates their thinking (preoccupations and cognitive distortions), feelings (cravings) and behaviour”	- Feel preoccupied with the Internet when off-line or fantasize about being online?	“thinking about previous online activity”
(Negative) Mood management	“use ... behaviours as a way of producing a reliable and consistent shift in their mood state as a coping strategy to ... make themselves feel better”	- Do you block disturbing thoughts about your life with soothing thoughts of the Internet? - Fear that life without the Internet would be boring, empty and joyless?	“uses the internet to escape or relieve a dysphoric mood”
Tolerance	“increasing amounts of the particular activity are required to achieve the former effects”	- Find that you stay online longer than you intended?	“marked increase in internet use required to achieve satisfaction”
Withdrawal	“unpleasant feeling states and/or physical effects which occur when the particular activity is discontinued or suddenly reduced”	- Feel depressed, moody, or nervous when you are offline, which goes away once you are back online?	“manifested by a dysphoric mood, anxiety, irritability and boredom after several days without internet activity”
External consequences/ Conflict	“conflicts between the addict and those around them (interpersonal conflict) or from within the individual themselves (intrapsychic conflict) which are concerned with the particular activity”	- Does your work suffer (e.g., post poning things, not meeting deadlines, etc.) because of the amount of time you spend online? - Does your job performance or pro ductivity suffer because of the Internet? - Choose to spend more time online over going out with others? - Do you prefer excitement of the Internet to intimacy with your part ner? - Neglect household chores to spend more time online? - Lose sleep due to late night log-ins? - Do you check your E-mail before something else that you need to do? - Snap, yell, or act annoyed if some one bothers you while you are online? - Do others in your life complain to you about the amount of time you spend online?	“loss of interests, previous hobbies, entertainment as a direct result of, and with the exception of, internet use” or “deception of actual costs/time of internet involvement to family members, therapist and others” “continued excessive use of internet despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical or psychological problems likely to have been caused or exacerbated by internet use”
Relapse/Control	“tendency for repeated reversions to earlier patterns of the particular activity to recur”	- Try to cut down the amount of time you spend online and fail? - Find yourself saying “Just a few more minutes” when online?	“persistent desire and/or unsuccessful attempts to control, cut back or discontinue internet use”
Craving/Anticipation		- Do you find yourself anticipating when you go online again?	“anticipation of the next online session” or “a strong desire for the internet”
Lying/Hiding use		- Do you become defensive or secre tive when anyone asks you what you do online? - Try to hide how long you’ve been online?