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. :)
deleted by creator
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 😅
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.
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.
This is interesting. I don’t think any really productive debate is going to come out of this - it’ll be the same one that’s been rehashed a million times - but it’s hard to say “be a parent and control what your children do” when they’re literally running away from home and threatening suicide when the parents try to parent.
I suppose if nothing else, hopefully we get more research and support services for these extreme cases of behavioral addiction.
Yeah, it’s child dependent really. My oldest is pretty sucked into her minecraft and roblox shit but when it comes time to get off, it’s “ok dad.” My youngest on the other hand is a child scorned in the same circumstance. I’m just glad I don’t have worse behavioral issues with them.
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).
It’s in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - THE authoritative guide on what is or is not considered a mental disorder, yes.
This is hardly groundbreaking stuff - people can be addicted to porn, food, exercise, pretty much anything. Really the primary criteria in calling any addiction a “disorder” is “what negative effects is it having on your life?” Well, “I literally want to kill myself when my parents cut off the wifi” is a pretty negative effect.
Yes, I’m aware that the APA has recommended much further study in order to determine whether technology use might be an addiction. Or did you not bother to read the page you linked?
