Well, the future of disposable chopsticks may not be uppermost in people's minds in China, where the country's headlong rush into the age of the internet is leading to some bizarre contradictions.

On the one hand, the Government wants to embrace the information technology revolution as part of its push to make China a modern, developed nation.

Indeed, IBM personal computers, which played a key role in kick-starting that revolution a quarter of a century ago, are now produced and marketed by a Chinese company.

On the other hand, the Chinese Communist Party views the internet as a threat to its rule, because of its capacity to inform, to provide information that challenges government propaganda, and to help dissidents organise collective action.

But it's also being seen as a health risk, with internet addiction a growing problem among young people, unable to control their appetite for online games, chatrooms and email.

John Taylor reports from Beijing.

JOHN TAYLOR: By the latest count it's believed there are about 120 million internet users in China. By the end of the year, it's tipped to reach about 160 million.

The internet is booming, but it's got some people worried.

"Just within the past 10 years China has become the number one country with the most serious internet addiction problem," says Gau Tier Juan (phonetic). He's the Director of the Shanghai Internet Addiction Research Centre.

"Internet addiction is becoming worse and worse," he says. "The growth rate of internet addiction is very fast."

Not only are there a tremendous number of internet users in China, but they appear to use the internet a lot. For example, the Chinese are the world's number one online chatterboxes.

A survey released here last week found that mainland Chinese are the world's most active online messengers, and users have an average of 6.7 instant messenger accounts.

Another survey found that 13 per cent of young people with access to the web are online for more than 38 hours a week.

More than half of all internet users in China are younger than 30, and it's mainly young people becoming addicted to a digital life.

In the middle of last year, China's first internet addiction clinic opened in Beijing.

"We do all kinds of treatment. One big part is using drugs. We also do psychological counselling and let the kids play sports," one doctor said.

A young man, Chushen (phonetic), was among the Beijing clinic's first patients.

"The internet to me means a kind of spiritual sustenance. I can't leave the internet. I live in a virtual world. It's like my life. To tell you one horrible sentence, it's a kind of life that's made me lose confidence."

Shanghai has now opened China's first shelter for internet addicts.

The Shanghai Sunshine Community Youth Affairs Centre offers one-night stays for young people would otherwise spend all night in an internet cafe.

It's on top of a program they've been running for a few years, where psychologists and social workers have visited cafes late at night or early in the morning to persuade teenagers to go home.

According to a newsletter, they once found two girls who'd spent five continuous days in an internet cafe.

The figures vary about how many internet addicts there are in China. It's been claimed on in eight internet users are addicted. Others have put the figure at four million.

Gau Tier Juan from the Shanghai Internet Addiction Research Centre recently did a survey involving 4,000 people.

"This survey adopted two methods of research," he says, "which almost achieved the same result."

"There are about 14.2 per cent of students who are psychologically relying on the internet. The figure in general is relatively high. The ratio of serious cases is about one in 1,000.

The ratio is low, but for the individual family with such a child who's developed a serious internet addiction, the result is disastrous," he says.

As he was being interviewed, he was interrupted by a phone call from a worried mother.

(sound of phone ringing and Gau Tier Juan speaking)

He promises to call her back. Her son is a serious case.

"The first symptom of that," he says, "is that first he's already dropped out of school. Secondly, his personality has serious problems, personal relationships suffer, work and study almost stop, there's separation from the real world, and most of his time is spent in a virtual world - once the internet connection is cut off, threatening with a knife and trying to commit suicide. It's impossible to maintain the parent-child relationship," he says.

Mr Gau says internet addiction is rooted in bad social and family relationships. A spoiled child, the centre of family attention, who's somehow struggling perhaps at school, turns to the internet to escape.

China began to embrace the internet later than countries in the West, yet internet addiction is a far greater problem here.

Mr Gau says Asian cultural values play a role.

"Internet addiction is more serious and common in China than in other countries," he says. "The reason is as follows: in Western countries the cultural background is generally more open and children are more independent. The relationship between parents and children, or between teachers and students is better, with more mutual respect - more respect towards human rights and individuality. So the feeling of oppression or failure is not very obvious amongst students," he says.

Universities in China opened last week to begin the new learning year. One prestigious university has banned first-year students from bringing their laptops, in a bid to control their internet use. Another has banned broadband in dormitories, and has configured access so students can only use the internet for three hours at a time.

Authorities are becoming concerned about internet addiction, but Mr Gau says more needs to be done.

"You need to tell children to teach them to be more self-disciplined," he says.

"Secondly, you need to teach parents to provide a healthy, growing atmosphere for children, more than just regulating the usage of the internet.

Thirdly, teachers in schools also need to be aware of this. If everyone is fully aware, the social environment will be much improved. Then we can effectively prevent more children from becoming addicted to the internet," he says.

Perhaps it's best described as a back-to-basics approach - more talking, more listening, more person-to-person contact.

This is John Taylor in Beijing for Correspondents Report.

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