<p>Internet misuse is a growing public health concern. The COVID-19 pandemic, which limited face-to-face interactions, was a particularly challenging period, leading to increased online activity. Social anxiety is linked to internet dependency symptoms, often serving as a safety-seeking behavior to avoid unpleasant experiences in face-to-face interactions. Self-compassion may protect against social anxiety and internet dependency symptoms. In contrast, experiential avoidance may increase their risk. This study hypothesized that individuals with higher internet dependency risk would exhibit higher social anxiety and experiential avoidance, and lower self-compassion than individuals with lower risk. It was expected that social anxiety would correlate positively with internet dependency symptoms and experiential avoidance, and negatively with self-compassion. Self-compassion and experiential avoidance were also hypothesized to play a sequential mediating role in the link between social anxiety and internet dependency symptoms. A total of 633 adults (421 females, 212 males; ages 18–65) completed self-reported questionnaires online assessing social anxiety, self-compassion, experiential avoidance, and internet dependency symptoms. Results showed that individuals with a higher risk of internet dependency showed greater social anxiety and experiential avoidance, and lower self-compassion. Pearson correlations revealed that social anxiety was positively correlated with both internet dependency symptoms and experiential avoidance and negatively correlated with self-compassion. Mediation analyses indicated that self-compassion and experiential avoidance sequentially mediated the relationship between social anxiety and internet dependency symptoms, explaining 44.63% of its variance. These results highlight the relevance of fostering self-compassion and addressing experiential avoidance in interventions aimed at preventing and managing internet dependency, especially among individuals with high social anxiety.</p>