“I am a mother of two beautiful children, Sara, who is 8, and Jonathan, who is 10. I am more than concerned about their health and behavior. I wish I could get some advice.
The fact is, that I am working all day, and sometimes at night also. My husband does not pay very much attention to them, and sometimes when I come home from work, at 4 o’clock in the morning, I find them in front of the computer. I have no idea what they are doing up so late, and even more…what are they doing on the computer. The problems started when my kids were being tired all day, missing school, and getting bad marks, and I heard from teachers that none of them pays attention to class. I mean…they are too small, and they should concentrate on going to school and getting good marks! Another thing is that their health has deteriorated very much, because they do not get enough sleep.

So…please, if someone could tell me how to deal with this situation…I would really appreciate it.”

Parents and teachers to blame
For Mr Bakker the root cause of the huge growth in excessive gaming lies with parents who have failed in their duty of care. 87% of online gamers are over the age of 18. From that age, help is something they need to seek for themselves, because as you know parents no longer have the legal right to intervene.

For those who are younger, intervention may be the only solution. That means even sometimes literally taking a child away from a computer, removing them from the game for a period of time until they begin to see there are other choices. If parents aren`t there for them, they are more likely to isolate themselves in virtual worlds.

“This gaming problem is a result of the society we live in today,” Mr Bakker told BBC News. “Eighty per cent of the young people we see have been bullied at school and feel isolated. Many of the symptoms they have can be solved by going back to good old fashioned communication.”

At least 10 hours a day playing
George [not his real name] is an 18-year-old gamer being treated at the Keith Bakker`s clinic in Amsterdam. He was spending at least 10 hours a day playing Call of Duty 4 until he sought help at the centre.
“Call of Duty was somewhere I felt accepted for the first time in my life,” he says. “I was never helped by my parents or my school. At the clinic I also feel accepted and have come out of myself.”
Read more about George`s case, here.

More posts about this issue in blogoshere.