Some parents are able to get the balance right by integrating sport and social activities into their children's schedule, but it makes you wonder where these children are going to be in 50 years time. Will there be enough help available to cope with the influx of mental illness in generations y and z and how productive will they be?
The parents could just say no.
DISTRESSED families are flooding psychiatrists with pleas for help for children dangerously hooked on computer games and the internet.
The condition known as "pathological internet misuse" is growing so rapidly among adolescents and young adults that it could soon be formally recognised as a mental health disorder.
International mental health experts are considering including "video game addiction and internet addiction" in the next edition of globally recognised Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders "to encourage further study".
One Sydney mother said her 13-year-old son was so addicted to computer games he attended school only intermittently over the past two years and violently resisted attempts to remove him from the screen.
He starts punching holes through the walls, throwing things around and threatening you . . . all this has to do with the most addictive game World Of Warcraft," she said.
Parents have told of children as young as 10 being found asleep at their home computer when they are due to leave for school because they have been up much of the night playing video games such as Minecraft.
Australian mental health specialists believe formal recognition of internet addiction will put pressure on governments to make more treatment options available for victims.
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/d ... 6207549370
