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

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 157 points –
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
businessinsider.com

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.

66

You are viewing a single comment

Gambling addiction - a rather well documented phenomenon over centuries - wasn't even in the DSM until the fifth edition. Gaming addiction will be in the sixth. See you then.

I look forward to seeing if you actually are able to predict the future, Nostradamus.

It's crazy to me that some people don't believe that this is a thing. I knew this guy who seemed like he had it all. A decent job, a house, a wife and kids, good friends, etc, you name it.

Warning: This gets a bit heavy

Over time, this guy's gaming addiction cost him nearly everything. He kept calling in sick to work in order to game instead, so he lost his job. His gaming also caused him to neglect getting mental health treatment for one of their children. His wife worked as much as legally possible, but it wasn't enough for them to keep their house. They were forced to move in with their family for a while, on the other side of the US.

Of course, it didn't end there. They got a new place of their own somewhere else a few years later, only for him to fall back into those same habits. His wife divorced him when she discovered that he was cheating with someone that he had met while gaming.

One of their kids (may they rest in peace) is no longer with us due to their terrible experiences throughout all of this. You never forget seeing a distraught parent at their own kid's funeral. I will never forget the horror in their eyes. The guilt.

Gaming addiction is absolutely a thing.

What kind of gaming/game was it? I'm betting either a mobile game literally designed to get you trapped in it, or some hyper competitive lootbox and microtransactionv filled game