Children addicted to video games ran away from home in the middle of the night to find WiFi when parents turned their internet connection off, says expert::Children have been found sitting by the front door of random homes, desperately trying to tap into the owner’s WiFi connection.
Even more horrifyingly, children addicted to books stayed up late, reading under their bed covers using flashlights…
I’m 90% sure that’s why I needed glasses. Probably ruined my eyes trying to read at close range in the dark after I was told to stop and go to sleep.
I’ve fixed with laser eye surgery now though. Hopefully I don’t fall into the same trap with my phone this time!
I used to do this lol. Lights out at 10 PM on a school night but if I was ever in the middle of an interesting book, I just couldn’t help myself. Would sometimes read till 1 in the morning and then yawn all the day at school.
LOL! Guilty as charged. But I’m better now. I read on my phone under the covers, no flashlight needed. :)
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Glad someone saw this too 😅
Yeah, this headline (with no other context) is so weird. Either that, or an expert made up a hypothetical situation and someone reported it. Probably written for the clicks.
Look, I don’t know anything about these kids, but I wouldn’t trust these “experts” until I learned more.
Kids freaking love games, regardless of other factors. I would have desperately looked for an internet connection as a kid too, and I found ways to sneak away and play video games a lot because my adoptive parents sheltered us. I still loved to read, create things, play sports, and watch TV. “Running away looking for internet” isn’t “video game addiction” in and of itself.
“Person who wants money to treat fake problem says fake problem is a danger to children to scare parents into giving them money. Business Insider is in on the scam.”
Pretty much exactly this. It’s so bad in Asia that I had international students who refused to participate in any activity that looked like a game on classroom computers for fear that their parents would send them to boot camp when they got home.
We should be telling kids about how simple it is to build an antenna, how there are many types for different situations, and how directional antennas work. Buy them a copy of the ARRL books https://arrl.org/ and you’ll potentially inspire an engineer.
Back when I was a kid I got into building a cantenna and aircrack-ng when my parents shut the internet off every night. Wasn’t addicted to games, just found it interesting and entertaining. Also came in handy in the days of shaped internet when you ran out of GB for the month.
You built your own wifi antenna?
A cantenna is typically a regular wifi antenna with a can around it to provide both directional control, and signal amplification. They are actually fairly simple things to cobble together.
This sounds like it was written by a bot
This is interesting. I don’t think any really productive debate is going to come out of this - it’ll be the same one that’s been rehashed a million times - but it’s hard to say “be a parent and control what your children do” when they’re literally running away from home and threatening suicide when the parents try to parent.
I suppose if nothing else, hopefully we get more research and support services for these extreme cases of behavioral addiction.
Yeah, it’s child dependent really. My oldest is pretty sucked into her minecraft and roblox shit but when it comes time to get off, it’s “ok dad.” My youngest on the other hand is a child scorned in the same circumstance. I’m just glad I don’t have worse behavioral issues with them.
Well, if there’s something that has increased compulsive behaviors in gaming, and by design, is the concept of the “daily mission” - punishing players for skipping the game a day or two, very especially on free-to-play games where that’s the only way to afford playing more or less competitively without resorting to mom’s credit card, is a surefire way to make kids feel like the end of the world when they can’t connect for the day.
It’s so important to distinguish between what games kids play. It really does make all the difference and a lot of parents aren’t equipped with the knowledge or tenacity to pursue it.
Have video games now been found addictive by professional psychologists — the only people qualified to make that determination? Last I heard, “technology addiction” was a myth promulgated by abusive “boot camp” operators who were practicing unlicensed mental health care (i.e. scams, and dangerous ones at that).
It’s in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - THE authoritative guide on what is or is not considered a mental disorder, yes.
This is hardly groundbreaking stuff - people can be addicted to porn, food, exercise, pretty much anything. Really the primary criteria in calling any addiction a “disorder” is “what negative effects is it having on your life?” Well, “I literally want to kill myself when my parents cut off the wifi” is a pretty negative effect.
Yes, I’m aware that the APA has recommended much further study in order to determine whether technology use might be an addiction. Or did you not bother to read the page you linked?
I did bother to read it. Did you? Just because it hasn’t been fully fleshed out to be officially listed with diagnostic criteria and full information for the manual doesn’t mean that it hasn’t been defined or that it doesn’t exist or that the APA does not classify it as a mental disorder.
Do you have some kind of ideological problem with the concept of gaming addiction, specifically, in the universe of all the other behavioral addictions out there? Gamers™ sure do seem to get sensitive any time anyone says anything that could be construed as remotely negative about their hobby - like that some people develop crippling addictions to it as outlined in the topic article.
The article makes no such claims. It outlines the major positions and recommends further research. Gaming is not an addiction, according to the APA.
Gambling addiction - a rather well documented phenomenon over centuries - wasn’t even in the DSM until the fifth edition. Gaming addiction will be in the sixth. See you then.
It’s crazy to me that some people don’t believe that this is a thing. I knew this guy who seemed like he had it all. A decent job, a house, a wife and kids, good friends, etc, you name it.
Warning: This gets a bit heavy
Over time, this guy’s gaming addiction cost him nearly everything. He kept calling in sick to work in order to game instead, so he lost his job. His gaming also caused him to neglect getting mental health treatment for one of their children. His wife worked as much as legally possible, but it wasn’t enough for them to keep their house. They were forced to move in with their family for a while, on the other side of the US.
Of course, it didn’t end there. They got a new place of their own somewhere else a few years later, only for him to fall back into those same habits. His wife divorced him when she discovered that he was cheating with someone that he had met while gaming.
One of their kids (may they rest in peace) is no longer with us due to their terrible experiences throughout all of this. You never forget seeing a distraught parent at their own kid’s funeral. I will never forget the horror in their eyes. The guilt.
Gaming addiction is absolutely a thing.
What kind of gaming/game was it? I’m betting either a mobile game literally designed to get you trapped in it, or some hyper competitive lootbox and microtransactionv filled game
Addiction is defined by repeated behavior despite repeated consequences.
My little cousins stole my aunt’s credit card and spent $10k on digital goods. This wasn’t the first time this happened.
There are legitimate concerns about how these services are shaping the minds of children, constantly poking the reward center of their malleable brains and wiring them a specific way to open pathways to addictive behavior. YouTube channels promoting desperate consumerism by featuring kids opening endless “presents” for an hour as an example.
I will admit that as someone who is a bit more tech savvy than the average person this stuff is pretty alarming. I’m planning to become a parent soon and it seems like keeping their usage in check will be an endless game of whack a mole, and that screen/game/content addiction is now the default outcome because they’re all built to be so predatory and addictive by nature.
There can be mental addictions, but older generations don’t tend to care unless it’s something they don’t like.
I don’t feel like I was addicted to games growing up, but I know I was using them for escapism. Nobody from the outside would have looked any farther than “you spend X amount a day playing games”, and ignore why I felt the need for it.
Too many self important people act like addiction is a personal failing when it’s usually somone trying to find some relief in a society that has failed them.
A UK clinic designed for treating video game addiction, originally expected to help just 50 people a year, has had more than 850 referrals since its inception in 2020.
850 game addicts across 2-3 years is pretty small potatoes. Wonder how many alcoholics and gambling addicts there are in that area.
one thing i would be interested in seeing is what kinds of games are causing these problems. I would bet its mostly your mobile gatcha games, at least that kid running away from home must be. A lot of actual psycological research goes into making those games addictive, so no wonder they are addictive. Having actual stats to back it up tho would be nice and could maybe get some restrictions on them passed, especially lootboxes as is somewhat talked about in the article
As somone who has used video games as escapism there could also be something underlying that nobody is considering.
