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First ever detox clinic set up
for internet game addicts
Amsterdam - A 28-year old South Korean died of heart failure last year after playing a game called "StarCraft" for 50 hours at an Internet café.
The parents of a 13-year old Chinese boy who killed himself after playing a computer game for 36 hours are suing the game's licensed Chinese distributor.
"Gaming is the greatest danger to young people that has ever come along," said addiction expert Keith Bakker, who is offering the serenity of a 16th century townhouse on one of Amsterdam's canals to coax those trapped in the fantasy world of online games back to reality.
The townhouse, where sunlight warms the honey-colored wood of the centuries -old floors, houses Europe's first clinic for people hooked on playing online games.
The clinic is run by addiction consultants Smith & Jones, who felt there was a need for treatment even though experts are still debating whether excessive game playing is an addiction.
"We started seeing it about two years ago, people started coming in with gaming as sort of a secondary problem," said Smith & Jones Director Bakker, 45.
"Then, we got one kid who was gaming 18 hours a day and I wanted to send him somewhere and we looked around and there was nothing, so we started looking into it," said Bakker, who had struggled himself with drugs and alcohol in the past.
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