The threats of excessive internet use among youth in Khartoum state : can Islamic practices help them ?

Abstract EN

Internet addiction is defined as any compulsive online behavior that interferes with an individual’s normal living, causes severe stress, and threatens family, friends, loved ones, and the work environment.

This study aimed to reveal the extent of excessive internet use among Sudanese youth in Khartoum State.

Furthermore, the prevalence of religious practices among this group.

In Sudan, there are many internet users and internet cafes, especially in Khartoum State.

Islam is a religion that teaches the virtue of moderation at both an individual and a social level.

Islam views the natural resources of the world, and indeed human life itself, as things entrusted to us by Allah.

Accordingly, every individual is accountable for how he or she uses these resources.

This is a descriptive study that involved 96 male and female youth in Khartoum state.

The study sample taken from 15 different internet cafes, selected randomly.

A 38 open-ended questionnaire used to collect the data.

Of these, 16 questions related to standards on the excessive use of the internet, and 22 related to demographic information and the nature and extent of the internet use.

The most important results are as follows: There is no excessive use of the internet, among Sudanese youth whereby only 14% of the participants use the internet excessively.

Most of them in are their twenties, male tend to be more vulnerable to excessive internet use than females, and most of the participants adhered to Islamic practices.

Preventive steps should be taken by all internet users in order to maintain an adequate level of use, and parents and educators should direct internet users to adhere to Islamic teachings in this regard.