Internet addiction- we can help

Image: netaddiction.com

I found this article which was on the Adelaide Now site at the weekend and found it very touching. A mother was at her wit’s end trying to deal with her son’s internet addiction and seemed to be running into dead ends with respect to gaining any real help. A further article on the Adelaide Now site today came as a great surprise because it looked like Adelaide, at least, was going to do something about this awful problem simply by getting it out into the open and letting that mother know the community was on her side. We do need to get it into the open and we do need to help those parents who are stuck in their private hell with a child addicted to the internet. Were it drugs , alcohol or depression the help would readily be there. Dr. Kimberly Young is a psychologist who specialises in internet addiction. Her site is helpful but she also has an internet addiction test. There is also a helpful article about the addictive personality on the New York Times site in the Science section.Digital Fortress also has a post which discusses internet addiction and how it is affecting us with some interesting graphics. As teachers we are well placed to do something useful with regard to supporting parents with children who are addicted to the internet. Last year, for the first time, I had year 8s who were falling asleep in class just about because they were on their computers too late at night. I have also previously been involved with parents who had older children who spent far too much time on the internet and ,because of the position I held, I was able to provide a useful pathway to re-engaging those students. It is important for intervention to occur so that it does not reach the stage where the child leaves home , as was the case for the mother who was trying to get help. It serves no useful purpose to ignore destructive behaviour in the hope it will go away.