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

LOL! Guilty as charged. But I’m better now. I read on my phone under the covers, no flashlight needed. :)

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.

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!

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.

'73 de sv1sjp

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.

As somone who has used video games as escapism there could also be something underlying that nobody is considering.

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.

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.

Don't put the devices in their hands until they're older. And even when you do, immediately limit the time from the start. As an IT guy too, it's how I'm doing it. Use an older device without any accounts setup on it. Install fdroid and only get apps from there. Leave it on airplane mode except when wifi is needed (by you).

At this point, my 4yr old gets bored rather quickly with my old phone.

I have a 4 year with unlimited access to her tablet. She will throw it down in a second to go to the park or play with friends. Or just because I told her to put it down.

I gave it to her at 2. I think the key for me is disallowing it in combination with anything else. She can't hang out with me and play on her tablet. She can't play in the park and use her tablet. I also keep her in Amazon's walled garden for now. I've decided that Amazon's opinion about what's good for kids is better than most others. I've also been encouraging my daughter to use it as a learning tool like she'll have to as an adult. She's used to to trying to learn Spanish when she got a friend who spoke it and to reinforce what she's learning in preschool.

All in all, I think that technology is mostly about boundaries. My nephews are addicts but mostly because they have no boundaries. My sister overruled me over having a "digital detox" day after her son had been playing videogames non-stop for 3 days now. Kid watch some YouTube or something. Nope apparently it's summer so he can do whatever. This will definitely not be a problem when school starts 🙄.

Any kid who is desperate enough to leave the house for wifi was failed years ago about boundaries and healthy usage. Their parents are silly anyway. Parental controls can make a literal any device a brick. This is the first lesson I taught my kid. Tablets work at my pleasure. My daughter doesn't even whine about it anymore. Tablet becomes a brick at 8pm sharp and she just plugs it up and gets into bed.

Also says "referrals", so wondering how many of those were actually cases.

I tried that things timeout like crazy these days. you pretty much can’t do anything modern with 56k

Those microtransactions-laden mobile games employs a whole stack of evil tricks to make sure their users got addicted and can't miss even a single day not playing.

I'm sure those kids sneaking out of home to find wifi aren't doing so to play Mario Kart. They're probably playing one of those free to play mobile games.

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.

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.