Video Game Addiction Unhealthy for Youth

For most young people, playing games on a computer, video game console, or handheld device is just a regular part of the day. Most are able to juggle the multiple demands of school, sports, work or chores, and family life. Gaming becomes an addiction when it starts to interfere with a person's relationships or their pursuit of other goals, such as good grades or being a contributing member of a sports team.

A new study finds that one in ten youths, aged 8 to 18, show unhealthy and pathological signs of video game addiction. Researcher Douglas Gentile, from Iowa State University, found that 8.5 percent of 1,178 youths studied are addicted to video games, using the same standards for addiction used for pathological gamblers.

Young people, who often feel powerless in their daily lives, suddenly have the ability to command armies, drive (and crash) cars, and wreak havoc on a virtual world with no real-life consequences. This is seductive!

Here are some symptoms of game addiction - the more of these symptoms you can identify, the greater the need to get professional help:

Most non-school hours are spent on the computer or playing video games

Falling asleep in school

Lying about computer or video game use

Choosing to use the computer or play video games, rather than see friends

Being irritable when not playing a video game or being on the computer

Tips to Prevent PC Video Game Addiction

Offer the child options, such as outdoor activities, clubs, and hobby activities.

Help your child interact with other children in the neighborhood. Most video games are solo activities, whereas basketball, soccer, and many other sports make interaction and teamwork key.

Seek professional help if the video game playing is obsessive or interferes with housework, schoolwork, or eating and sleeping. Video game addiction is real, and very serious.

Consider eliminating purchases of more video games to allow the child's interest to die a natural death. People, children especially, tend to get bored with activities that don't change over a long period of time.

Set down strict gaming and internet rules. Monitor the sites your child uses and learn how to use PC Video Game Parental Control (http://www.any-parental-control.com) to control the time your kids spend on video game playing.

PC Video Game Parental Control -- Control Kids' Video Game Playing

Video and computer games offer a particularly appealing escape to socially maladjusted teenagers, most often boys, who find it intoxicating to become immersed in a world completely under their control. You can't watch your kids 100% of the time that they're online, so it is necessary for parents to install a professional PC Video Game Parental Control to monitor and control kids' pc video game playing. SurveilStar PC Video Game Parental Control allow parents to manage who your kids play with, how and when they play, and for how much time. Using parental controls helps to ensure a fun, secure, and appropriate gaming experience for you and for your family.

Besides control kids' pc video games playing for preventing them from video game addiction, PC Video Game Parental Control (http://www.any-parental-control.com) also has the following key features:

Key Features of PC Video Game Parental Control

Take screen snapshots in real-time and watch the screenshots in video-style playback

Record the date and time, contents, subject and any attachments of the email sent or received

Record all the visited websites, URLs, captions, users, and computers to estimate users' browsing activity

Block IM Chats IM outgoing files with specific application names

Run in stealth mode that would not be known by your kids

Remotely monitor and control kids' online behavior even though you are not around

Easy to use and install which do not demand a degree in Computer Science to configure and operate

More cool features in: http://www.any-parental-control.com