Teen Net addictions growing

A growing number of parents and family therapists are seeking help for teens who appear to be hooked on cyberspace.

Addiction specialists say in some cases kids are jeopardizing their health through compulsive Internet behaviour that includes staying up all night, skipping school and withdrawing from real-life friends to get immersed in online games or surfing the web.

“We’ve been receiving at least a couple of calls a week asking, ‘How do you deal with Internet addiction?’” says Bruce Ballon, a psychiatrist with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. “(Society is) just starting to realize — oh my God, it’s so huge.”

In response, CAMH has just launched a pilot program to treat teens with problematic computer behaviour from excessive online gaming to gambling.

Internet addiction came into the spotlight this week after the disappearance of Barrie teen Brandon Crisp. Brandon went missing Thanksgiving Monday after his dad removed his Xbox from the house. Steve Crisp says he had confiscated it at least 20 times since Brandon became “obsessed” with the online war game Call of Duty 4. He began to skip school and stay up all night. The teen hasn’t been seen since that day.

Those who treat teens agree that, like other addictions, excessive Internet use is a sign of underlying problems and often goes hand-in-hand with mental health issues such as depression.