A mother’s battle to save her teenager’s life from online gaming

Connor now says “Mum, I want to stop. I need to stop. But I’m scared of upsetting people.” He has made this decision to change so I can help him . His obsession with living in a virtual world has consumed his life, and destroy ed his education. It ha s left him without real - life friends. It ha s driven his father and me to despair. We ha v e already tried conventional medicine, including antide pressants, psychology sessions, fitness coaches and special diets. However, I have to admit that, in the end, there is little we can do except be patient, be loving and keep setting boundaries for Connor. Studies suggest that as many as 600,000 computer us ers in the U.K. can be classed as “Internet addicts” because they find it so difficult to keep away from computer games, social - networking sites and checking email. Such users struggle to control the time they spend online, and become depressed if forcibly deprived of Internet contact. Depression is c ertainly a factor for Connor. He ha s been through a lot: knocked down by a car aged 12, since then he has been with a permanent limp. He’ s witnessed me and his father divorce, and we’ ve mo ved house from London to Surrey. And on top of all that, Connor ha s begun working for his pre - university requirements. To me, the problem sometimes seem s to be school; Connor is truanting. He i s tired and stressed. So, I cut back my work as a media consult ant to be around more at home. But he f inds new ways to sneak away from school to use his computer at home, only now he ha s to act even more sneaky to avoid me. However, his father thinks differently. One Christmas, I took Conn or’s younger brother and sist er away so his father and he could be alone together and talk. He was optimistic. But shortly after that, on just the second day of the new term, he found Connor hiding in the bathroom, having sneaked back into the house. In fact, he turned up at home seve ral times that week, once having gone missing for so long that he called the police. That time, he eventually found him hidden, wrapped up in a duvet inside a cupboard. “ What is so awful about school ?”, he asked in frustration. Connor admitted to him that school wasn’t the problem. The real issue — it began to emerge — was that he was frightened of the world. He has turned instead to a virtual world where he can hide away. He f inds it in the form of massively multiplayer online role - playing games (MMORPG) — a type of Web browser - based game in which huge number of players interact within a virtual world, often a sci - fi or fantasy scenario.