AI & SOCIETY (2020) 35:245–255

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-018-0858-0

OPEN FORUM

Is it possible to cure Internet addiction with the Internet?

William Liu1 · Farhaan Mirza1 · Ajit Narayanan1 · Seng Souligna1

Received: 16 April 2018 / Accepted: 16 July 2018 / Published online: 25 July 2018
© Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2018

Abstract
Significant technological advancements over the last two decades have led to enhanced accessibility to computing devices
and the Internet. Our society is experiencing an ever-growing integration of the Internet into everyday lives, and this has
transformed the way we obtain and exchange information, communicate and interact with one another as well as conduct
business. However, the term ‘Internet addiction’ (IA) has emerged from problematic and excessive Internet usage which
leads to the development of addictive cyber-behaviours, causing health and social problems. The most commonly used
intervention treatments such as motivational interviewing, cognitive-behavioural therapy, and retreat or inpatient care mix
a variety of psychotherapy theories to treat such addictive behaviour and try to address underlying psychosocial issues that
are often coexistent with IA, but the efficacy of these approaches is not yet proved. The aim of this paper is to address the
question of whether it is possible to cure IA with the Internet. After detailing the current state-of-the-art including various
IA definitions, risk factors, assessment methods and IA treatments, we outline the main research challenges that need to be
solved. Moreover, we propose an Internet-based IA Recovery Framework (IARF) which uses AI to closely observe, visual-
ize and analyse patient’s Internet usage behaviour for possible staged intervention. The proposal to use smart Internet-based
systems to control IA can be expected to be controversial. This paper is intended to stimulate further discussion and research
in IA recovery through Internet-based frameworks.

Keywords  Internet addiction · Intervention · Recovery framework · Artificial intelligence

1 Introduction exchange information, interact socially with each other and

spend our leisure time (Yuan et al. 2011).
The Internet has grown exponentially since its first intro- Despite the storage of a vast amount of useful online
duction and appearance to the public in the mid-1990s. information along with the potential social benefits and
Technological advances over the last two decades have ena- educational values of the Internet, many of its attributes
bled enhanced accessibility to the Internet by all sectors of can lead to forms of online addictive behaviour. Those
society. We experience increased integration of the Internet attributes include 24/7 easy access to the Internet, free of
in our everyday lives (e.g., Internet of Things, or IoT) and charge or affordable service provision, borderless com-
the Internet has transformed the way we conduct business, munication and social networking. Positive human impacts
include opportunities to feel a sense of belonging, and
the ability to escape from emotional problems and hard-
* William Liu ships. However, there is growing unease about the negative
william.liu@aut.ac.nz human impact caused by heavy dependence on the Inter-
Farhaan Mirza net. Internet Addiction (IA) was first researched in 1996,
farhaan.mirza@aut.ac.nz with contrary outcomes. Thompson (1996) surveyed over
Ajit Narayanan 100 Internet users through a questionnaire on their atti-
ajit.narayanan@aut.ac.nz tudes to the Internet based on questions originally used for
Seng Souligna identifying alcohol problems. The conclusion to that study
ss.souligna@gmail.com was that IA was more about how users felt about them-
1
School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical
selves rather than a clinical condition. However, another
Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, paper that same year (Young 1996), after surveying over
New Zealand

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300 users, argued for a new clinical term, “pathological
Internet use” (PIU), as an impulse-control disorder based
on common and shared addiction characteristics with path-
ological gambling. Subsequently, Young (1999) identified
five Internet-related impulse control problems: cybersex-
ual addiction (compulsive use of adult websites); cyber-
relationship addiction (over-involvement in on-line rela-
tionships); net compulsions (obsessive online gambling
or shopping); information overload (compulsive web surf-
ing); and computer addiction (obsessive computer game
playing). These pioneering studies led to further studies
internationally and to widespread acceptance of IA as a
clinically relevant problem [see Pawlikoski et al. (2014 )
for a historical survey], even though there was no stand-
ard agreement on terminology and classification (Byun
et  al. 2009). However, there is general agreement that
IA behaviour may have negative and undesirable social,
health and economic impact on our society if no effective
prevention techniques or solutions are found to address it
(Young 2004).
Effective behaviour monitoring and intervention are
important, and of great interest in addiction research.
While much research has so far focused on the detection
of the causes and symptoms of IA and the treatment of the
aftermath of excessive Internet use (Douglas et al. 2008),
far less is known about effective solutions or prevention
techniques for dealing with IA in particular, as opposed
to addiction problems in general. Even more interestingly,
there has been little discussion on how or whether Inter-
net technology can be used to help Internet addicts from
spending too much time on the Internet. Of particular con-
cern is the growing influence of the “attention economy”
(Brynjolfsson and Oh 2012), where the Internet is increas-
ingly focusing on the demands of an advertising economy.
In such an environment, human attention is considered
to be a limited and scare commodity, with the task of
social media, for instance, being to continually distract
human attention through subtle triggers and rewards. Links
between IA and attention disorders are emerging [e.g. Ber-
nardi and Pallantini (2009); Carli et al. (2013); Tufail et al.
(2015)] to further strengthen the case that IA is a clinical
condition that can have a significant impact not just on
behaviour but also on cognitive development.
This paper critically reviews the status of IA and pro-
poses a smart Internet-based IA Recovery Framework
(IARF) to tackle this emerging and serious problem. The
controversial aspect here is the use of the means of addic-
tion as the cure for that addiction. The use of the Inter-
net to cure IA, it could be argued, is like using alcohol
to cure alcohol addiction, or gambling to cure gambling.
This is where an AI approach is required to ensure that, in
the absence of any well-established alternative cure, it is
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AI & SOCIETY (2020) 35:245–255
important to assess whether and how IA can be moderated
or ‘cured’ through smart Internet technology.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Various
definitions of IA and its associated risk factors are reviewed
in Sect. 2, which also presents the different assessment tools
and addiction prevention and mediation approaches. The
main research challenges are reported in Sect. 3. In Sect. 4,
we identify the possible role of AI in an evidence- and Inter-
net-based IARF. Finally, Sect. 5 concludes our work and
identifies future research possibilities.
2 Related work
We categorize related work under the following headings:
definitions, risk factors, assessment tools, and prevention
and mediation strategies.
2.1 IA definitions
As noted earlier, the term “Internet addiction” (IA) was
introduced to refer to the excessive and uncontrolled online
activity with prolonged Internet use, especially in social net-
working, online-gaming and use of pornography sites (Mül-
ler et al. 2016). To date, there is no universally accepted
definition of IA. Many researchers describe and define IA
differently. Some have described it as compulsive Inter-
net use (Meerkerk et al. 2009), behavioural addiction (Al
Sheibani 2015), Internet addiction disorder (Salicetia 2015),
pathological Internet use and Internet ‘dependence’ (Kuss
et al. 2013). Other researchers simply refer to it as the exces-
sive use of the Internet for diverse online activities such as
online gaming, pornography, instant messaging, information
acquisition and social media. The excessive use of applica-
tions on mobile phones and tablets (Zochil 2015) is also
included in recent work. Similarly, as Lortie and Guitton
explain (Lortie and Guitton 2013), Internet addictive symp-
toms include losing control over Internet use and spending
an excessive amount of time online. This leads to people
wanting to spend time online more often and longer than
needed, and as a result, there is an ever-growing social isola-
tion from the real world.
Figure 1 shows six specific IA types that have been iden-
tified and categorised by the American Centre for Online
Addiction (Salicetia 2015). Kuss et al. (2013) expand the
definition of IA by looking at the symptoms appearing in
users, such as:
• Loss of control over their behaviours.
• A conflict between the internal and interpersonal aspects
of the users.
• An increasing preoccupation with the Internet.
• The use of the Internet to modify moods.
AI & SOCIETY (2020) 35:245–255 247
Fig. 1  Six types of internet addition
• Symptoms of withdrawal and escape from the offline
(external) environment.
2.2 Risk factors
Some studies focus on the risk factors associated with IA
development, with Young (2015) identifying three such fac-
tors: social factors, psychological factors, and biological fac-
tors, as shown in Fig. 2. Compulsive or problematic Internet
use is often caused by interpersonal dysfunction and social
difficulties (Ebeling-Witte et al. 2007). Usually the addicts
struggle with face-to-face communication while their virtual
Fig. 2  Risk factors associated with IA development
relationships seem a safer, more comfortable and easier way
of interacting with others. Some studies claim loneliness
might be a critical factor associated with the development of
IA (Hardie and Tee 2007; Morahan-Martin 1999). The most
addictive Internet-specific activities such as online forum,
chat rooms, or social media such as Facebook and Twitter
suggest that those addictive behaviours are socially moti-
vated. Online affairs (Whitty 2005) are related to marital
problems and discord but it is not always clear which comes
first.
From the psychological perspective, there are two types
of Internet addicts. The first type is the Dual Diagnosed
Internet Addict who suffers from prior psychological illness
or problems such as depression (Ryu et al. 2004), anxiety
(Yen et al. 2007), or obsessive–compulsive disorder (Shapiro
et al. 2000). The second type is the new Internet addict who
does not have any previous psychiatric history, with their
addictive use of Internet being newly acquired.
Some researchers link biological associations with IA
disorders. Liu et al. (2010) used functional magnetic reso-
nance image (fMRI) to analyse biological development of
brain regions such as the cerebellum and brainstem between
addicts and non-addicts. Along with fMRI studies, electro-
encephalogram (EEG) studies were conducted by Dong et al.
(2010) who found less efficiency in information processing
and lower impulse control of addicts than in their normal
peers. However, this was not obvious behaviourally (i.e. the
difference among two groups was only in the EEG signal).
Some other studies report that the brain’s grey matter density
(GMD) of Internet addicts is lower than non-addicts in the
left anterior cingulate cortex and posterior cingulate cortex,
using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) analysis (Zhou et al.
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2011). There is a promising new biological research interest
in IA through the use of genetic markers. The study of Mon-
tag et al. (2012) found that Internet addicts showed higher
elevations of their CC genotype of rs1044396 compared to
those of non-addicts.
Improvements in clinical instruments for measuring pos-
sible biological and genetic links with IA may help to iden-
tify individuals potentially most at risk. Further research is
required to separate cause of IA from effect of IA using such
measurements.
2.3 Internet addiction assessment tools
By the end of 2014, approximately 45 psychometric (ques-
tionnaire) tools for IA assessments had been developed, but
have inherent challenges, such as insufficient validation and
testing as they were used in only one study (Laconi et al.
2014). This section lists some of the most commonly used
assessment tools for IA.
The Internet Addiction Test (IAT) developed by Young
(1998) is one of the most well-used diagnostic tools for
Internet addiction. It consists of a 20-item questionnaire
designed to measure users’ psychological dependence,
compulsive use of the Internet, withdrawal from the outside
world, and other related problems associated with an exces-
sive use of the Internet. Young has classified the questions
into five categories: academic; relationships; financial; occu-
pational; and physical. The respondents are required to rate
each question on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from 1
(rarely) to 5 (always). The questionnaire covers the degree
to which excessive Internet usage affects different aspects
of the users’ lives, such as daily routines, social life, work
productivity, eating, sleeping and feelings (Widyanto and
McMurran 2004). The test scores ranges from 20 (minimum)
to 100 (maximum); the higher the score implies higher level
of IA. The results can be very helpful in determining the
seriousness of problem and can be used as a short screening
test (Škaˇrupová et al. 2015).
A person with Compulsive Internet Use (CIU) is regarded
as someone who is incapable of controlling his or her online
activities. CIU has five main characteristics: (1) inability to
stop using the Internet despite the intention to stop; (2) the
Internet use has power and influence over the user’s cogni-
tion and behaviour; (3) the user experiences unpleasant emo-
tions when unable to access to the Internet; (4) the Internet is
used as a way to escape from negative feelings or emotions,
and (5) Internet use can cause disputes and conflict with
others or with oneself (Van der Aa et al. 2009).
In order to assess the severity of CIU, the compulsive
Internet use scale (CIUS) was developed in 2009 (Meerkerk
et al. 2009). It contains 14 items in a questionnaire with a
5-point Likert scale: 0, never; 1, seldom; 2, sometimes; 3,
often; and 4, very often. CIUS assesses five core elements
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AI & SOCIETY (2020) 35:245–255
of compulsive behaviours in relation to Internet use, such as
loss of control, preoccupation, conflict, withdrawal symp-
toms and coping. Its advantage is its brevity and ease of
use, allowing the test to be used with other measures. It has
been used in several research studies examining compulsive
Internet use (e.g. Wartberg et al. 2014).
South Korea was the first country in the world to estab-
lish national laws and systems to address the problem of
IA. As part of their effort to tackle the problem, the Korean
government developed the evaluation and diagnostic scale
for IA known as the K-Scale (Korean Scale) (Koh 2015).
The K-Scale was initially developed and introduced into
middle and high schools across South Korea as a screening
tool for addictive Internet users (Kim et al. 2008). It was
later used in schools and professional counselling centres to
diagnose Internet addicts. The scale consists of 20 questions
that measure seven factors including positive anticipation,
withdrawal symptoms, tolerance, virtual interpersonal rela-
tionship, deviant behaviours, and disturbance of adaptive
functions (Heo et al. 2014). The severity of the effects of the
Internet is measured by the response range, from 20 to 80
points, with each question rated from 1 (never) to 4 (always).
The self-reporting assessment for Internet and computer
addiction (AICA-S) include 16-item Self-Reporting Ques-
tionnaire. It was designed to measure the components of
Internet addiction such as salience, withdrawal, tolerance,
mood modification, relapse, and conflict (Wölfling et al.
2010). AICA-S is used in clinical settings and the response
is based on the 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 0 (never)
to 4 (very often) for the first 15 questions. The last question
is about the presence of problems as a result of excessive or
addictive Internet use and is scored from 0.5 (if one problem
is present) to 3 (if six or more problems are present).
According to Kraut et al. (2002), people with different
personality traits tend to have different ways of using the
Internet. In other words, some personality traits are closely
related to Internet usage behaviours. The Quick Big Five
(QBF) questionnaire is a shorter version of the original 100
item Goldberg’s Big Five questionnaire, which was devel-
oped in 1992 (Goldberg 1992). It assesses personality traits
that can predict a variety of concepts and behaviours of a
person in different situations (Vermulst and Gerris 2006),
and is based on five dimensions of personality. These are
emotional stability, extraversion, agreeableness, conscien-
tiousness and openness (Kim et al. 2009).
The scale consists of a 30-item questionnaire (six items
for each of the five personality traits). The response is based
on a 7-point Likert scale, which ranges from 1 = completely
incorrect to 7 = completely correct. A high score on each
personality traits indicates a high level on that personality
dimension (Van der Aa et al. 2009).
Interestingly, the vast majority of IA assessment tools
has been through questionnaires and hardly an attempt has
AI & SOCIETY (2020) 35:245–255 249
been made to assess IA through monitoring or measurement
of Internet behaviour and usage itself. That is, nearly all
IA measurement tools require the user to respond to ques-
tionnaires, with the reliability of the results depending on
the accuracy with which the user responds to questionnaire
items.
2.4 IA prevention and mediation strategies
Regardless of what types of research methods or tools are
used in IA research, they tend to focus on some if not all of
the following steps (Lim et al. 2004):
Step 1: Identify the pattern of IA symptoms.
Step 2: Investigate the situation or underlying causes to
IA.
Step 3: Make a plan or prevention procedure for IA
recovery.
Below are the most reported prevention and mediation
strategies designed to solve the IA problems.
Lim et al. (2004) introduced a training model that aims to
address IA in schools. His paper follows all the steps men-
tioned above and develops “preventive education materials”
for students to increase their awareness about the negative
consequences of IA, helping them to develop self-control.
The material is composed of three modules; each module
is presented and explained to the students by their class
teacher. The diagnostic module allows the students to evalu-
ate the degree of addiction by themselves, and the preventive
activities module encourages each student to keep track of
and share plans, records and the evaluation of their own
Internet addiction preventive measures with other students.
Another study by Turel et al. (2015) employs a video-
based intervention that aims to change the Internet users’
attitude towards their excessive Internet use. The aim of the
intervention is to expose the viewers to the threat of IA and
show approaches to deal with it. A survey is also given to
students as soon as they have seen the videos to capture
their instant feedback and reactions. This video, when shown
together with the surveys, has proved to be effective, at least
in the short run, because its informative and entertaining
content about IA have caught the viewers’ attention and
made them rethink about their Internet routines.
Some researchers believe that physical education such
as sports can act as an intervention at all levels of the IA
mechanism. It is believed that sport can bring psychologi-
cal benefits that improve our cognitive behaviours, social
interaction, biological and mental health. A study by Liao
(2011) found that sport is a useful intervention in dealing
with Internet addiction, and that students who play sport
have a lower risk of it than other students. Similarly, Liu and
Dan (2009) found that some physical unconscious needs can
be met by doing some sport or exercise training.
While IA has not been officially recognized as a psychi-
atric disorder, many studies recommend that those with a
high-risk of IA should consult a doctor or another mental
health professional to deal with it psychologically (Karim
and Nigar 2014). However, many health professionals cur-
rently might not be able to offer effective treatments to this
new phenomenon of IA. A study by Xiuqin et al. (2010)
also found that mental health symptoms and some personal-
ity traits such as introversion and psychoticism often occur
simultaneously with IA. Therefore, in order to effectively
tackle the problem of IA, psychological mediation has to
be gradually implemented and treated as part of the whole
intervention process.
Parental mediation is described as the strategy employed
by parents to alleviate negative media effects on their chil-
dren (Clark 2011). Such effects can be mediated by parents’
efforts in monitoring and supervising their children’s media
consumption (Mesch 2009). Parental mediation is consid-
ered as a form of parental socialization (Youn 2008).
There are three forms of parental mediation strategies:
active mediation, restrictive mediation and co-using. In
active mediation, parents play an important role by discuss-
ing appropriate media use with their children. In restrictive
mediation, parents set rules and regulations to control their
children’s media consumption. In co-using, parents aim to
increase their children’s awareness and educate them about
media use via sharing the media experience with them (Shin
2015).
2.5 Internet‑based intervention mechanisms
Little is known about smart technology solutions or pre-
vention techniques that can stop people from spending too
much time on the Internet. An Internet network mechanism
created by Weijia and Wenyong (2013) is amongst the very
few smart technology-based solutions to IA. Their approach
consists of an IA Control Database System integrated with
an Online Assessment Service and a Host Sub System. This
system provides online assessment services of IA, manages
all Internet usage and controls the users’ online behaviours.
This has proved to be an effective system in monitoring and
preventing Internet addictive behaviours. However, a limita-
tion of this approach is that the system is only ideal for use
at a controlled location, such as school or work place. So if
the user switches location, there is no effective monitoring.
MobileCoach is an open source, behavioural interven-
tion platform for fully automatic digital intervention. It was
developed in Zürich, Switzerland and it is designed to moni-
tor behavioural states and trigger transition states to achieve
the final intervention goals (Filler et al. 2015).
Figure 3 shows the overall system architecture of Mobi-
leCoach. It employs the concept of web application for the
purpose of online feedback and management, and short
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Fig. 3  MobileCoach system architecture
message service (SMS) is the main mode of intervention.
The intervention detection and management are processed
via the web application of MobileCoach. Emails and SMS
are sent from the server to the participants. This intervention
platform has been used in Switzerland to address addiction
problems in young people, such as smoking and excessive
alcohol consumption (Haug 2013; Haug et al. 2013, 2014).
Its effectiveness for dealing with IA in general is not known.
3 Research challenges
The main research challenges for a smart-technology
approach for dealing with IA are identified below.
3.1 The complexity of IA diagnosis
The diagnosis of IA is often complex. Unlike chemical over-
reliance and substance abuse, the Internet provides many
benefits as a technological instrument in our society. Peo-
ple conduct business transactions, access banks and edu-
cation materials, communicate, and make holiday plans
and travel bookings using the Internet. Many researchers
have reported the psychological and functional benefits of
the Internet to our society. While alcohol or drugs are not
an essential part of human personal and professional lives,
they do not offer the same advantages of increased benefit.
Although many practical signs of IA disorders can easily be
identified and the clinical assessments often cover relevant
disorders, symptoms of IA may not be revealed in an initial
clinical interview. Addicts may initially present with signs
of depression, anxiety or obsessive–compulsive tendencies,
only for the treating professional to later discover signs of
Internet abuse upon further careful examination (Shapiro
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AI & SOCIETY (2020) 35:245–255
et al. 2000). Therefore, diagnosing IA using a clinical inter-
view can be challenging. In addition, there is no universally
agreed definition of IA, and so it is difficult to judge if some-
one is an addict or define the amount of time is online will
be considered too much before they can be identified as an
Internet addict.
Moreover, we are living in a globally connected society
where we can connect and communicate with one another
from almost anywhere as long as there is an Internet connec-
tion. There is no doubt that the Internet is slowly becoming
an inseparable part of our daily life. Many of us rely on the
Internet for many things including work, education, com-
munication, business, and leisure purposes. The increasing
existence of the Internet in many households and work-
places has made the Internet an integral part of the services
required to keep a household and a business running. In
other words, the Internet can be considered as an utility that
we are heavily dependent on, both at home and at work. This
raises a controversial argument about whether we should all
consider ourselves to be Internet addicts based on increased
time spent online, especially when the Internet is known to
be useful in our homes and workplaces. Denying access to
the Internet purely because someone uses the Internet is not
a solution, and so diagnosis must be smart enough to sepa-
rate necessary time from addictive time.
3.2 Ubiquitous devices
The emergence of fast speed Internet, social networking, the
social web and mobile applications have influenced the way
in which we access and use the Internet. It allows us to be
more productive by having a wider access to more informa-
tion and to communication channels. On the other hand, we
tend to be more addicted to the Internet as we spend more
AI & SOCIETY (2020) 35:245–255 251
time online and engage in online activities from anywhere
and everywhere.
The widespread availability and integration of the Inter-
net into our everyday lives ranging from what we wear
(e.g., smart-watches), what we see (e.g., streamed media)
and what we carry around with us (mobile phones, tablets
and computers). This ubiquity has made us online depend-
ent. Equipped with Internet connectivity capability through
cellular and Wi-Fi wireless access technologies, these port-
able devices conveniently stay with us even when we move,
making it possible to use them anytime and anywhere, until
eventually we can become addicted to them.
Wearable devices now come equipped with Internet
access. These devices are mainly used as activity trackers
and for health monitoring purposes, as they monitor our
heart-rate, mood, blood-pressure and our physical activities
through complex sensors embedded in the devices. In other
words, the research challenge here for a smart approach is to
deal with IA not just through computers but through increas-
ingly portable and wearable technologies.
3.3 Workaholic behaviours
Students and office workers are two groups of people with a
higher use of computers than most of us since they require
and use computers with Internet connectivity. They spend
hours every day in front of their computer screens, both at
work and at home. This can be seen as an addictive behav-
iour if we judge it by the number of hours and the amount
of data usage.
Fig. 4  The architecture of the proposed AI-based IARF
Such workaholic behaviour is not one of the six main
types of IA described in Fig. 1 by the American Centre
for Online Addiction (Salicetia 2015). But we believe that
there could be a strong correlation between workaholic and
Internet addictive behaviours. When someone is addicted
to work related to information processing sourced through
Internet, he or she will show signs of a constant desire to get
online and will spend most of their time on a computer to
collect, process and even generate new information. These
symptoms will occur repetitively and might become a seri-
ous permanent habit as time goes by. The research challenge
here is to separate necessary use of Internet for carrying out
necessary functions from over-use and addictive use of the
Internet.
4 Our vision
Given the above challenges, we propose an artificial intelli-
gence (AI)-based IA Recovery Framework (IARF) to tackle
the problem of whether and how appropriate staged inter-
vention should take place.
The proposed IARF is shown in Fig. 4, and has three key
smart components, which are: IA self-assessment (screen-
ing); monitoring and AI learning; and stepped intervention
strategies and response.
Firstly, an IA self-assessment or screening process needs
to be conducted to observe the users’ daily Internet usage to
determine whether there is an actual IA problem by using
a questionnaire-based test. The questionnaire is designed to
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compare a user’s actual daily Internet use to that reported
by the user as desirable or expected. The results of the test
can make the respondents aware of their Internet usage sta-
tus and the possible consequences through comparison with
stored case studies. This test can also be used to motivate
and attract users to join the IA recovery programme, if their
test results suggest they have IA problems and need a treat-
ment. The role of AI here is to identify types of actual Inter-
net use and build a user profile based on stored profiles for
later reference.
If there is a significant discrepancy between reported/
expected and actual use, an IA problem can be inferred to
exist and the user will be invited to join the IA recovery
programme. If the user gives his or her consent to join the
IA recovery programme, an IA consultant or a counsellor
such as psychologist, mental health professional, counselling
group at school or at the workplaces could become part of
this IA intervention programme to help participants and their
family. Participants can also request their family to be part
of the programme to discuss their addiction problems. The
role of AI here is to help in the setting up plans and rules to
be followed throughout the whole intervention and recov-
ery period, based on monitored Internet usage and previous
case studies. These rules and plans provide the framework
to activate and conduct the various human- and subsequent
AI-based intervention strategies and responses.
Secondly, the AI monitoring and learning process starts to
closely observe and learn the user’s daily amount of Internet
usage behaviour so as to conduct the corresponding inter-
ventions. This process needs an AI learning and evaluation
component, and here we describe some key roles it should
play as shown in Fig. 5.
The IARF needs to monitor and collect patient’s Inter-
net usage data in real time and from other devices he or
she is using (e.g. a desktop, laptop, tablet, mobile phone
or any other device connected to the Internet). A unique
Fig. 5  AI learning and evaluation component and its roles
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AI & SOCIETY (2020) 35:245–255
identification number will be needed to associate with each
individual to ensure universal traceability. Then Internet
usage behaviour data, as evidences, could be further pro-
cessed for visualization and knowledge extraction to assist
the user and counsellors to learn, review and reflect. The
data can also be used for training the AI component for fur-
ther decision making.
To make the IARF re-configurable, programmable and
scalable to accommodate human and environmental dynam-
ics, we propose a metric, called IA violation level l, to quan-
tify the various levels of violations between the patients’
desired or expected Internet usage and the actual observed
Internet usage. Its value represents the different levels of
severity of this discrepancy as well as variations from
recovery plans previously agreed. The level of violation l
will automatically activate different intervention responses
according to the scheduled rules. Here we give an example
on what this l can be calculated as:
n
1∑ ⌣
l= (h − hi )2 .
n i=1 i
We can use an equation based on mean-squared-error
(MSE) to calculate l, where l is the violation level. The n
represents the number of Internet related activities traced,
such as web browsing, online gaming, chatroom, Facebook
etc., and i is the ith Internet activity. The hi is the observed
usage in hours of the ith activity and ĥi the expected/desired
hours of that activity. From the nature of MSE, we can see
that the error margin represents the violation level between
the observed usage and expected usage. The larger the l, the
more severe the patient violates his or her promise, and so
the more critical the intervention response should become.
This is just an example on how the l could be calculated,
and it has great potential to also incorporate other temporal,
spatial, content or context information to reveal the underly-
ing factors causing the excessive use of Internet, as well as
weighting them differently to introduce various tolerances or
priorities so as to accommodate different complex situations.
Moreover, using application interfaces (APIs), we can
integrate into to the device’s operation systems and applica-
tions to collect data. Consequently, the data analysis could
assist or enforce adjustments to the Internet supply using
embedded communications and networking. These strate-
gies will be needed to conduct different human- and/or com-
puter-based interventions, such as human alerting, automatic
slow-down or even turn off of the Internet connectivity, or
start charging fees and implementing other penalties to the
user according to overused time. Here we propose stepped
human- and AI-based intervention strategies and responses
including self-governance, peer-assisted, AI-assisted and AI-
enforced according to the different levels of severity on IA
violation, as shown in Fig. 6.
AI & SOCIETY (2020) 35:245–255 253
Fig. 6  The stepped intervention strategies and responses
The processes of self-assessment, monitoring and stepped
intervention are throughout the life-cycle of the IA recovery
and carried out iteratively until the end of the intervention
Fig. 7  The proposed smart IARF
programme or the recovery goals are accomplished. The
overall proposed IARF is shown in Fig. 7.
5 Conclusion and future work
Today the Internet is widely available and accessible almost
anywhere through our mobile devices and computers via the
widespread use of Wi-Fi and cellular network technology.
This easy access to the Internet has led to an exponential
increase in Internet use in our lives and, in some cases, this
ease of availability has led to excessive and addictive Inter-
net use when someone fails to control and manage his or her
Internet use wisely and productively.
In this paper, we focused on the problem of Internet
addiction and advocate the use of artificial intelligence and
Internet technologies to tackle it. After surveying the current
state-of-the-art, possible risk factors causing the IA problem
and current solutions, we considered the main challenges
that need to be faced for a full exploitation of solutions in
the area of IA. In order to achieve this goal, we discussed a
number of architectural features, including self-assessment,
monitoring and AI learning, and various intervention strate-
gies and responses driven by AI. Additionally, we proposed
a possible smart architecture for an IARF, its possible func-
tionality for AI learning and evaluation, a new parameter
13

254
l of IA violation level, and various intervention strategies
and responses. The proposed framework (i.e., IARF) is re-
configurable, programmable and scalable to the dynamic
changes that could occur during the IA recovery treatment
cycle.
One of the assumptions in this paper has been ‘net neu-
trality’, which is that all Internet users receive the same
level of service. There has been no work on the relationship
between IA and net neutrality. As recent events in the USA
have shown, we cannot take net neutrality for granted in
future. If Internet users are charged more for the same level
of service they currently receive, this could have an effect
on IA in the same way that adding extra tax to cigarettes and
alcohol can reduce smoking and drink addiction. However,
increased taxes can also make the problem worse by forcing
addicts to spend even more on their habits, with the increas-
ing financial strain leading to possible criminal behaviours.
However, it is too early to say what the effects of net non-
neutrality will be on IA.
Given the rate of growth of the Internet as well as peo-
ple’s use of it, we believe it is only a matter of time before
well-informed and effective intervention strategies will be
required for IA. Our proposal is to use the Internet as part
of the intervention strategy and to use AI to maximise pos-
sible effectiveness. In this paper we have outlined a proof of
concept framework that uses AI and the Internet for staged
intervention strategies. It is not known whether our strategy
will work but it is also not clear what the effectiveness will
be of non-Internet-based strategies, given that currently it
is nearly impossible to work or live without the Internet in
some form. We therefore conclude that an Internet-based
strategy to cure IA that is smart in the way that it goes about
doing this is the only way forward currently to preserve and
improve the quality of life of those who use the Internet the
most.
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