As the parents of a missing Barrie, Ont. teen fear he was lured away from home by fellow Internet gamers he met online, a Canadian university has established an institute to find treatments for online gaming addictions.
Fifteen-year-old Brandon Crisp left his home 10 days ago when his parents revoked his Xbox privileges, fearing he was spending too much time playing "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare."
Crisp's parents said the teen had become "addicted" to the game and often took it away from him as a disciplinary measure.
The boy has not been seen since Thanksgiving Monday.
Internet addiction is a relatively new affliction that researchers are only now beginning to study.
Dr. Louise Nadeau is the head of a new institute at the University of Montreal that will study so-called Internet junkies.
Nadeau told 麻豆影视 that being a "slave to the screen" can lead an online addict to stop eating and bathing and to miss work and school.
"The other thing, of course, is the fact is that the users feel extremely uncomfortable when they are away from the screen and they are obsessed with getting back in front of the screen," Nadeau said.
Nadeau will determine how to accurately diagnose and treat Internet addictions and the low self-esteem that may be at their root.
For Fraser Hogg, the online game World of Warcraft gave him a sense of achievement that he didn't feel in his everyday life.
"There is a type of fun that you don't get in the real world that you get in an online world," Hogg told 麻豆影视. "Because I'm always this thin, lanky guy, in Warcraft I can be a huge warrior, a beefy kind of linebacker or I can lead people, I can give directions, and you can't really do that in the real world."
Hogg kicked his habit and now makes sure that his university education comes first.
"You can't pay your rent with it," Hogg said of his video game hobby. "It's not going to keep you warm at night. While it is fun, there are other things out there."
Like Hogg, 40-year-old former Internet gaming addict Brad spent too much time and money on Internet games.
"I was pretty hardcore," Brad, who prefers not to give out his last name, told 麻豆影视. "I was 60 to 80 hours a week."
He began playing online games in 2001 after going on stress leave from his job.
"The games are very open-ended in a sense. They have no beginning, no middle and no end, and they have a lot of objectives, things you can do, people you can be, vast worlds to explore," Brad said. "And for someone that is experiencing a lot of problems in their life as I was at that time, it is very, very appealing."
His addiction left him unable to work and with $24,000 in debt.
He stayed up until nearly 5 a.m. the day of his wedding to play video games out of fear that he would be computer-less during his three-week honeymoon.
Last Christmas, he attempted suicide.
"It was pretty clear to me that I had hit rock bottom," Brad said.
Brad now runs an online support group for Internet junkies (see link at right) and has even appeared on Dr. Phil to warn of the dangers of web addiction.
"My message is simple," Brad said. "This is a real addiction and other people that have the same problem can get help."
Nadeau has tips for parents of adolescents who may be spending too much time on the web. She advises parents to keep computers in the living room or other common areas of the house, rather than in a child's bedroom.
She also recommends that parents establish family rituals when possible on evenings and weekends, to help keep the kids off the Internet.
"Anything that is a pleasure can become a problem and it is the same rule for Internet as it is for alcohol and other activities," Nadeau said.
With a report from CTV's medical specialist Avis Favaro and senior producer Elizabeth St. Philip
