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European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu Volume 3 │ Issue 9 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.841657 ON ERASMUS+ AS A TOOL TO DETECT AND SOLVE INTERNET ADDICTION Apostolos Syropoulos1i, Lilija Dailidaitė2, Esmeralda Cruz3, Corina Ionescu4, Aylin Kirişçi Sarıkaya5, Renate Wachter6 Greek Molecular Computing Group, Xanthi, Greece 1 Alytaus profesinio rengimo centras, Alytus, Lithuania 2 Instituto de Almalaguês, Almalaguês, Portugal 3 Şcoala Gimnazială Specială nr. 2, ”ucureşti, Romania 4 “hmet Cuhadaroğlu Ortaokulu, Kağıthane/İstanbul, Turkey 5 Bundeshandelsakademie, Laa an der Thaya, Austria 6 Abstract: Although Internet Addiction is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, it is an increasingly prevalent problem that affects a lot of people, including pupils. Erasmus+ Strategic partnerships, which are co-funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union, allow schools to form partnerships that work on projects that are usually not covered by curricula. A group of six schools formed such a partnership to study the responsible use of the Internet. Quite naturally, one of the goals of the project was to see if pupils are addicted to Internet and if they are to help them with all possible ways. Indeed, we have found that some pupils suffer from Internet addiction and we helped the general population to become less addicted to Internet. Keywords: internet addiction, Erasmus+ strategic partnerships, out-of-school learning Introduction The Erasmus+ Program gives the opportunity to schools, from EU countries and a few non-EU countries that participate in the program, to form strategic partnerships whose purpose is to present and study subjects that are usually not covered by curricula. Naturally, these subjects have to fall within the broad scope of this EU program. Such Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 1 Apostolos Syropoulos, Lilija Dailidaitė, Esmeralda Cruz, Corina Ionescu, Aylin Kirişçi Sarıkaya, Renate Wachter ON ERASMUS+ AS A TOOL TO DETECT AND SOLVE INTERNET ADDICTION subjects include new pedagogical methods, the Internet and its ramifications on modern society, sex equality, etc. Six schools from Austria, Greece, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, and Turkey have participated in EU co-funded project entitled Responsible European Digital Citizens (REDIC for short). The aim of this project was to first examine what is a responsible use of the Internet and then to teach pupils how to become responsible Internet users. In addition, pupils should learn how to avoid traps and pitfalls. It turns out that only a user who is not addicted to Internet can be or become a responsible user. Thus it is necessary to conduct a survey to see to what extend pupils are addicted. Then one can design a strategy to combat Internet addiction (e.g., see [1, 2]). Clearly, at the end one should repeat the Internet addiction survey and compare the findings in order to see if the remedy had any effect. Unfortunately, these EU projects do not provide funds to directly affect a big number of pupils. Typically, the effects are indirect. Also, in many cases pupils that initially participated in the project finish school before the completion of the project. Thus, it is next to impossible to measure the effects of such a remedy to the general school population. Although it is out of question to provide quantitative results still one can provide qualitative results. For example, one can notice if there are any changes in certain practices (e.g., whether pupils reveal their passwords more easily than before or whether they are more cautious when posting things on social media, etc.). For downloading the full article, please access the following link: http://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/920 European Journal of Education Studies - Volume 3 │ Issue 9 │ 2017 2