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…
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!
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.
'73 de sv1sjp
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.
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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.
Glad someone saw this too 😅
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.
This sounds like it was written by a bot
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.
Just sounds like little Timmy figured out why they’re called mobile games before his parents did.
Good ol’ war driving. Didn’t think this generation would ever have the need, but it really brings me back when we always had shitty internet and I wanted to go play some online games or finish a download.
As someone who is contemplating becoming a parent soon, what’s a good solution to managing screen time? I’m an IT guy so managing their devices will be standardized, but ethically I’m a bit worried about going too far with it. I really want my kids to grow up being creative and a bit bored sometimes so they have to make their own fun, but I also want them to game a bit like when I was a kid. It’s going to take quite a bit of work to restrict access to certain services at certain times of day, plus I’m considering absolutely no social media until they’re in high school but I’m worried that it’ll make them rebel and get desperate
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.
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.
Also says “referrals”, so wondering how many of those were actually cases.
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And how did they run away with that big gaming setup in tow?
Article says they just went and sat on their neighbor’s front steps.
I guess this makes a good argument for slowing down connections to old dial up modem speeds, but you have to wonder if part of it is an underlying psychological problem (possibly related to our current mishandling of society)
I tried that things timeout like crazy these days. you pretty much can’t do anything modern with 56k
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).
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.
No doubt some games manipulate users to increase engagement. This is not addiction. I wouldn’t presume to speculate which games these kids play.
No doubt some games manipulate users to increase engagement. This is not addiction.
You could make the same ridiculous reductionist statement about casinos.
Are you claiming that the statement is incorrect? Or did you just feel the need to show off an ad hominem fallacy?
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.
Addictions are, by definition, mental. They are also complex and multifaceted phenomena with myriad causes and expression.
I’m sorry that you felt failed by society. I hope things are better now.
For me it was that I didn’t have the information I needed to process what I was feeling and deal with what was wrong. I didn’t have the language to even describe that something was wrong.
I know many others in my situation that ended up with worse coping mechanisms in the same circumstance. Heavy drinking and drug use is common in the community.
That said, addictions can be physical. There’s a reason you have to ween people off of certain substances because withdrawal can kill them.
