Computer kids swamp games addiction clinic

The Sunday Times July 23, 2006

A DUTCH clinic that has begun offering the world's first treatment for computer game addicts has been overwhelmed with pleas for help from parents and children all over the world, writes Matthew Campbell.

"It's amazing, I've never seen anything like it," said Keith Bakker, the American director of the Smith & Jones clinic in Amsterdam. "The phone has been ringing constantly. Computer game addiction is obviously an even greater problem than we imagined."

In a 16th-century building on one of Amsterdam's canals, the clinic will begin treating two teenagers from Britain this week and other sufferers are being signed in from America and Asia.

"These are perfectly decent kids whose lives have been taken over by an addiction," said Bakker, a former drug addict.

"Some have given up school so they can play games. They have no friends. They don't speak to their parents."

Last week Bakker took his first group of "gamers", as he calls them, on a parachuting trip to take their minds of their computers. Treatment also involves meditation, fitness training and group therapy. It is supervised by what Bakker called "some of the top addiction specialists in the world".

Although experts are still debating whether excessive game playing counts as an addiction, Bakker has no doubt that the symptoms are the same.

"If we see a car burning outside, we don't sit around wondering what to call it," he said.

"It is not a chemical dependency, but it's got everything of an obsessive compulsive disorder and all of the other stuff that comes with chemical dependency."

Tim, a 21-year-old from Utrecht, said he had hardly left his bedroom for five years because he was so obsessed by his computer games. "My room was a mess," he said. "Curtains drawn, pizza boxes, empty bottles and junk food wrappers everywhere . . . I didn't even get up to use the bathroom but peed in a bottle while I kept playing."

His parents were frightened of him because, weighing more than 21 stone, he was too strong for them to confront. Eventually they threatened to kick him out unless he enrolled for a month of therapy.

Bakker said he had been hearing horror stories from parents about their children's addiction to computer games. One couple brought a six-year-old to the clinic, hoping the boy could be treated.

"All we could do was have a chat with him," said Bakker. "He used to be a perfectly healthy kid but they gave him a Nintendo and he changed. He doesn't talk to his friends any more."

Many adolescent addicts have stopped maturing because of their addiction, claims Bakker.

"I've met 19-year-olds with the emotional intelligence of 10-year-olds," he said, "because when they were 10 a parent said ‘Here, have this Game Boy', and they haven't stopped playing ever since."

South Korea and China, where people are particularly passionate about computer games, are discussing with manufacturers ways of discouraging compulsive behaviour.

Bakker thinks that European and American distributors should issue warnings about the dangers.

A 28-year-old South Korean died of heart failure last year after playing a computer game for 50 hours at an internet cafe. The family of a Chinese teenager who killed himself after playing a game for 36 hours is suing the distributor.

The problem is certain to grow. Many of the most addictive games are played on the internet with multiple participants. According to market research, the online market is expected to grow from £1.8 billion last year to £9 billion by 2011.