Berlin (dpa) - To recognize warning signs of a child's internet
addiction, parents must keep a watchful eye on his or her online
activities as soon and as persistently as possible.
This is the advice of Klaus Woelfling, psychological director of
the gambling addiction outpatient department of the Clinic and
Polyclinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the
University of Mainz in Germany.
"Parents should make sure their child doesn't become withdrawn and
isolated," Woelfling said in an interview with dpa. If family members
notice this sort of behaviour in a child, they should address it, he
advised, adding that "the lines of parent-child communication must be
kept open."
Online computer games, experts say, hold the greatest addictive
potential for young people. "Games are very compelling because they
stimulate the desire to keep solving new tasks," Woelfling noted.
Social networks and chatrooms can become addictive as well. "Users
try to take on an attractive identity they may be unable to in real
life," Woelfling said. They then have fewer negative experiences and
a chance to make innumerable friends on the internet. "Basically
they're never lonely and always find an open ear."
Woelfling said that internet consumption was problematic when
users developed an irresistible urge to be online and could no longer
control the start, end and duration of an internet session. "They
continue even though they know it's harmful," he said. If they are
forbidden from going online, they can show withdrawal symptoms
including aggression, insomnia or depression.
Parents of such children should turn to an addiction counselling
centre for information on possible psychological therapies, Woelfling
advised.
According to a study by Germany's Federal Health Ministry, young
people aged 14 to 24 are especially prone to internet addiction: 2.4
per cent of them are considered addicts, and 13.6 per cent are
classified as "problem users."
Woelfling said there are no hard and fast guidelines on how much
time online is safe. "The content can affect people differently," he
remarked. But he said experience had shown that non-addicted users
were online fewer than three hours daily, and addicted ones about
eight hours.
Children who are at risk need not be kept away from the internet
altogether, Woelfling pointed out. They can continue to visit areas
of the web that lack addictive potential. "It's important to learn
how to use the internet in a controlled way," he said. This can only
succeed when potentially addictive sites are avoided.
Copyright 2011 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH