Stanford University

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A UK teenager is among one of the first children to be treated for addiction to computer games, it emerged yesterday.

The 16-year-old will undergo a 30-day course at a clinic in Amsterdam, linked to The Priory.

He will join twenty-somethings from Holland, France and Germany, before signing on with Online Gamers Anonymous.

Every member of the group became hooked on computer games after marathon sessions playing World of Warcraft.

“They all looked as white as ghosts when they came through the door,” Keith Bakker, director at the Dutch clinic, Smith & Jones, said in an interview with Contractor UK.

“Despite the fact they are all of above average intelligence; they have troubles in school and have isolated themselves completely from the outside world.”

Studies published by the respected Stanford University claim it is still unknown if addiction to computer games and the Internet can be classified as a clinical disorder.

But experts at Smith & Jones, who have treated ‘lots of kids in the past six months’, suggest such a message could undermine the potential harm of the virtual world.

“Most of the teens we have treated for addiction to computer games eventually see that gaming and chemical dependency are very much the same,” Mr Bakker said.

Pathological Internet Use."

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It was difficult not to listen to a conversation I heard recently while waiting in the check out line at the grocery store. Two women were joking that baseball, cars and beer no longer bring sheer delight to their husbands. You see, their husbands now spend hour after hour typing away "doing who knows what on that Internet." In fact, when one of the men laughs, he says, "LOL, LOL." Yikes! (For uninitiated, LOL is Internet shorthand for "laughing out loud.")

No doubt, the Internet has changed the leisure habits of men and women — and even children. Too much of any one thing can be bad for anyone, and such is the case with what the clinicians call "Pathological Internet Use."

one billion people in the world have access to the Internet

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We are living in exponential times. Over one billion people in the world have access to the Internet. The population of the United States in 2006 was 299 million. Approximately 220 million Americans now have access the Internet and 40% have high speed access. Children go to the Internet for information, entertainment, relationships and support. The number of text messages sent each day is greater than the population of the world. If MySpace were a country, the number of registered users would make it the 11th largest country.

Americans are going on-line looking for information, entertainment and relationships. Use of the Internet (also called the Net) has grown faster than any technology in history including the telephone, television, computers, video games and CD players. The Net provides everyday users with primarily the Web, e-mail, instant messaging, live chat and the ability to purchase goods and services on-line.

the emergence of a new pathology

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introduction - the emergence of a new pathology
one disorder or many - what do we mean by 'cyber addiction'?
precedents - anxieties about broadcasting, the telephone, telegraphy and earlier 'new media' disorders
studies and polemics - writing about "the scourge of the Internet Age"
issues - questions about the basis, prevalence and significance of net addiction
It supplements discussion elsewhere on this site regarding computer rage, sexuality, anxiety and other aspects of life online.