First kids set to receive NHS therapy treatment for gaming and social media addiction
KIDS will start getting NHS treatment for gaming and social media addiction from next month.
Health bosses are launching a specialist clinic aimed at helping youngsters as young as 13 tackle problem behaviour – such as being constantly glued to screens.
They expect the first child to be referred to the service within days and for therapy sessions to begin in November.
It comes after the World Health Organisation classified gaming addiction as a medical disorder.
Symptoms include lack of control and prioritising playing time over eating, studying, friends and family.
Youngsters aged between 13 and 25 whose lives have been “wrecked” by their obsession will be treated at the new London-based Centre for Internet and Gaming Disorders.
Skype sessions will also be available for patients outside the capital.
Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists will work with youngsters, with treatments including talking therapy and group family sessions.
OBSESSIVE BEHAVIOUR
The centre will also help kids who are addicted to gambling.
NHS chief executive Simon Stevens said: "This new service is a response to an emerging problem, part of the increasing pressures that children and young people are exposed to these days.”
But he warned industry must also do more to help vulnerable Brits – and not just cash in on “obsessive or harmful behaviour”.
Other nations have already clamped down on the problem.
In South Korea, under-16s are banned from accessing online games between midnight and 6am.
This new service is a response to the increasing pressures that children and young people are exposed to these days.
Simon Stevens
Meanwhile, in Japan, players are alerted if they spend more than a certain amount of time each month playing games.
In China, internet giant Tencent has also limited the hours children can play its most popular games.
Claire Murdoch, NHS national mental health director said: "Compulsive gaming and social media and internet addiction is a problem that is not going to go away when they play such a key part in modern life.
"The NHS is rising to the challenge - as it always does - with these new, innovative services, but we can't be expected to pick up the pieces, which is why tech giants need to recognise the impact that products which encourage repeated and persistent use have on young people and start taking their responsibilities seriously too."
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The new national service is being launched alongside 14 gambling clinics for adults being opened across England.
Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones, director of the national centre for internet and gaming addictions, said: “The centre for gaming and internet addictions is the first and only specialist service on the NHS.
“I am grateful to the NHS for recognising the problem, which will ultimately see us helping thousands of children and young people.”
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