Internet dependency calls for increasing attention from experts; it concerns a super investment in online activities. It takes the time and energy normally dedicated to other activities of life, accompanied by an inability to control it, as well as withdrawal symptoms and sometimes withdrawal from social life. The Internet can also be the vehicle through which other forms of addiction develop, such as virtual relationships, obsessive web search, online commerce, virtual sex and gaming (video games or digital games).
The Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS, the National Institute of Health in Italy) is mapping the National Health Service (NHS) services that carry out prevention and treatment activities for internet addiction in order to achieve an estimate and characterization of the use of Internet services.