Official News - page 8

REAL LIFE NEWS: DUTCH GAME ADDICTS GET A DETOX CLINIC

A European addiction center is opening Europe's first detox clinic for video game addicts. Keith Bakker, director of the Amsterdam-based Smith & Jones Addiction Consultants, said that video games can be as addictive as gambling or drugs - and just as hard to kick. There are already clinics in the US and Canada, and even one in China, as excessive gaming is increasingly being seen as an ailment requiring treatment.

"We have kids who don't know how to communicate with people face-to-face because they've spent the last three years talking to somebody in Korea through a computer," Bakker said. "Their social network has completely disappeared."

The detox program, which starts next month, will run four to eight weeks.

If any old Compunet-players are reading this, you may remember that we made jokes about being addicted to Fed way back then. "Just one more job... then I'll quit." "So I do Fed a bit. I can handle it." It seems that what was once a joke has become a reality.

So how do you tell if you (or your child) is addicted to games? Symptoms of addiction are easy to spot, Bakker says. Parents should take notice if a child neglects usual activities, spends several hours at a time with the computer and has no social life. That's discounting the social network they may have formed with other gamers online, obviously!

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