Rehab for Kids

It’s no secret that nowadays kids have pimped out bedrooms including TVs, laptops or computers, Playstations, X-boxes and Wii’s.

Its been reported that a London clinic is launching the country's first therapy programme for children addicted to the internet and computer games. Like me you maybe think errr what the hell is going on with todays world, but really thinking about it, children are not as active as there use to be. Yeah I'm old school, I used to love P.E at school. Don't get me wrong, computer games were great at the time but playing football on the street corner with my friends was our number one hobby (I rememeber shouting out car when a car was coming so we all stopped).

Nowadays the computer games are more advanced, social networking is a bug and you can watch all sorts on the internet now. I was a little bit confused when my little brothers got homework and were told to research on the computer (what happened to books).

I never had to go to rehab for playing Pro Evo for hours upon hours, but this clinic wants to treat children as young as 12 that have serious issues, such as flying into a rage if they have been told to switch it off. Its been said that they will have to go cold turkey and also be taught face to face social skills.

Question may be how long should a child be on a computer? A survey of a secondary school children revealed that more then a quarter are spending more then six hours a day on computers. Some symptoms are said to be sleep disorders, fatigue and depression. This is really beyond a faze if these reports are true, but is rehab the answer? I'm just thinking of all these other so called clinics that celebs attend and are in and out more times then a 24hr McDonald’s drive thru.

A friend of mine was going on about internet bullying, I'm still abit confused on how you can but then again anything is possible, but can't you just block them?! Just reading in the paper that a young girl took an overdose after class mates tormented her on Bebo. I mean this is taking things to far, if you are like that then don’t display yourself to the internet world as you can be open to anything. In a perfect world yes people will say great things about you but hey that's not the world we live in and for that sake people, kids etc need to learn to keep some things to themselves. It’s like people want everybody to know everything about them.

This computer and internet issue is not just a children problem as adults suffer too. Maybe you could be one of them without realising.

Here is a list of key things to spot if you are an addict:

Do you ignore and avoid other work or activities to spend more time on-screen?

Do you often check messages or e-mails before doing something else you need to do, even delaying meals?

Do you prefer to spend time with people online or through messaging to socialising?

With the world going crazy with Blackberries and IPhones, it seems that we have gone crazy for these gadgets that allow us to use facebook, msn and other social sites on our phones. Just think sometimes before you spend hours on end on the internet, or perhaps even try a good old fashioned chat face to face!

With all this being said…..make sure you keep reading this blog! :)