"Why don’t you stop staring at the computer?. Read something, go outside and play. You just sit in front of the screen for hours on end." The answer is usually: "Leave me alone". I am already on level four. I still have five to go." And the clicking of the keys continues and the voice of the animation continues to sound from the computer. Your child is addicted to computers. There is no getting away from the Internet, the games, the chats, the electronic exchange with like-minded people. This now affects millions of children and young people, and has become an established term that parents, teachers and even medical professionals have to deal with. Because pathological computer use is now already recognized as a disease.
For many parents, this is a problem they cannot cope with, a problem they capitulate to. You have to realize: You can use the computer to improve your knowledge, to explain questions – but you can also use it to escape into a make-believe world. And you can get the wrong person on the Internet: People who unscrupulously exploit children and young people and criminalize them via the Internet. Computer addiction is dangerous – for children’s and young people’s attitude to life and for your health. Therefore, here is the important topic for all parents: "Computer addiction: How to get your child off the computer."
How to recognize: My child is addicted to computer games
Addiction develops slowly in children and adolescents. But they inevitably slide gradually into the stage of an addict. Until finally the addiction dominates their life. To prevent this, you need an early warning system: you need to notice when the game becomes an addiction. To do this, these tips:
- Those affected develop an inner compulsion to sit down at the computer and play. If you notice that your child forgets to eat and drink, still can’t get away from the computer late at night and reacts more and more angrily to reminders, neglects his or her social contacts and loses friends – then it is high time to intervene. And if the school or the apprenticing company informs you that the child is missing more and more often, then your child is addicted to computer games.
- Once affected sit in front of the computer, they know no limits and find no end. Even if they have resolved to play only a certain time, they can not stop. Their objections and requests are simply ignored.
- Increase the pressure or get your child to say, "Okay, I’ll limit my screen time" then you notice after some time: it can not keep its promise, it fails and squats after a short time again in front of the keyboard – then the passion for computer games is already long ago into a dangerous addiction unbeaten.
- Even if your child neglects his friends and even sports because of his passion for computer games, you may not notice any physical withdrawal symptoms for a long time as in the case of drug addiction. But watch out for these phenomena: It becomes irritable, anxious, nervous and is often depressed. It loses its zest for life when it is excluded from access to the screen for a long time or even renounces it by its own power. It shows clear withdrawal symptoms.
- The longer children and young people live in this closed-off world, the more their brains become dulled. The dose of the drug "computer game must be increased to experience the longed-for inner kick. This means that they have to play more and more often and for longer and longer periods of time. If your child talks more and more about wanting to reach a higher level – then the addiction is there.
- A very clear sign of a slide into computer game addiction is when even threats of punishment such as house arrest or the withdrawal of pocket money do not help and the addict consistently avoids the topic.
- Those affected by addiction know very well that they are behaving wrongly. That is why they try to deceive their family or friends. They use lies, they cover up their addiction, they pretend to do important work on the Internet – just to continue living out their computer addiction.
Causes of computer addiction
When the problem of computer addiction arises in a family of children or teenagers, parents naturally ask themselves: "Why is my child so addicted?. Other children have no problems with this." For the causes and the emergence of computer addiction or addiction to facebook there are many explanations.
- If the activity on the computer results in a sense of achievement or recognition from other players, your child will want to have these experiences again and again. This intensifies the activity on the screen. Or participation in chat or facebook.
- Very often, negative feelings and experiences are the reasons why children and adolescents play on the computer. You can relieve grief, frustration and anxiety in the process. Scientific research has shown that psychological processes similar to those of alcohol and drug addicts take place in the brain of addicts.
- This gambling addiction of your children keeps building up if you do not intervene. Family life suffers, so does the psyche and health of your children. Because, of course, such intensive squatting in front of the screen is also detrimental to health. It goes on the eyes, spine and joints are damaged by the mostly wrong posture in front of the computer. Because that’s the case, this article may also include tips on how to get your kids off the computer should not be missing.
Tips on how to help your computer-addicted children
When parents notice that their child spends almost all of his or her time in front of the computer, that they hardly participate in general family life, that they isolate themselves, that contact with friends breaks off, and that school performance drops and education is at risk, then it is high time to act. It is not too late, because not everyone who plays too much is already an addict. But you should take measures, offer your child help. For this in this article some tips: