Is Your Child An Online Gaming Addict?
Online gaming has posed some serious concerns during this time when every season there is a barrage of new high tech gadgets that makes online gaming even more accessible than ever. Not only children but even adults are hooked to the point of obsession; and it has spread like wildfire all over the globe from the West to the East.
For parents, it is a truly grave matter when children get addicted to gaming - school grades drop, kids isolate themselves from their friends and their attitudes become more hostile. Regulating the use of computers could be a key to protecting your child from getting addicted, but then you don't know if he or she plays elsewhere instead. And what if your child is already hooked, how do you know he or she is an addict and what do you do to help? Here are some tips to know whether your child is on his or her way towards gaming addiction.
How to Spot Addiction
The top warning sign for gaming addiction in your child is when, from doing fairly well in school, your child's grades are suddenly slipping. You might see your child on the computer a lot of times, thinking he or she is doing homework, but then what you may not know is that your child is actually busily engaged in a virtual game that you are not aware of. Another, more serious, reason for slipping grades could be that your child has also started skipping school to go to gaming arcades or internet cafes to satisfy an obsession for gaming.
A second sign to watch out for is the lack of friends. If your child seems to never have any extra activities after school including the weekends, does not bring any friends home and goes straight to the computer as soon as he or she comes home from school, you better start taking note of what your child is actually doing on the computer. One common effect of online gaming addiction is isolation from friends. All the person ever cares about is his or her virtual persona and all the other gamers online; there are no longer any desire to relate with actual human beings.
When Hobby Becomes an Obsession
A lethargic looking child could be another sign of online gaming obsession. If your child has his or her own computer in his room, it might be that he or she spends all night playing so that you have a kid who is grouchy in the morning and sluggish all through the day.
These are just some of the common symptoms of online gaming addiction, and a lot more could be happening out there that will tell you that your child is one of the millions of obsessed online gamers. But the good thing is that there is now an increasing amount of help coming in the form of therapy, group sessions and the like. So once you see your child seemingly spending more and more time on the computer, don't hesitate to ask what he or she is doing and start talking about it.