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Facebook is taking over Australian teenagers, psychologists say
by:
By Evelyn Yamine From:
The Daily Telegraph November 29, 2011 12:00am

Facebook ... should parents be more vigilant with their kids? Picture: Supplied
TEENAGERS are becoming addicted to Facebook and are allowing the social network site to "take over" their lives.
Psychologists have told The Daily Telegraph they receiveregular requests for help from parents whose teens are so consumed by Facebook that it dramatically interferes with their school work and sleep.
And the trend is on the rise.
It comes as The Daily Telegraph yesterday revealed a push to have video game addiction labelled a mental disorder after a deluge of cases where teens are skipping school and becoming violent because they are hooked on role-playcomputer games.
Clinical and organisational psychologist Dr Darryl Cross said adolescents felt a strong need to know what was going on and what people were saying about them, leading to them accessing Facebook at all times of the day and night.
"When it takes over and interferes with other aspects of functioning and living, then you've got an addiction," Dr Cross said.
"I find some studentsare staying up excessively late and losing sleep because they get into a dialogue that takes them well into the night. There is often a lack of concentration in school as a result."
He said wireless internet was making it easier for children to become addicted because they had 24/7 access to the sites via their phones or iPads.
"If they have wireless in the home, it's absolutely deadly," Dr Crosssaid.
"Adolescents have more access than they ever did before and they can't control it."
Psychologist Jocelyn Brewer, who is part of the Network for Internet Investigation and Research in Australia team, said teenage girls were much more "over engaged" when it came to Facebook.
Ms Brewer said girls constantly checked the site and "get hooked" on the reinforcement they received which made themfeel good, like people responding to their posts or commenting on how good they looked in photos.
And parents didn't know how to keep up.
"There's a huge gap for parents in expertise about kids' use of technology," Ms Brewer said.
"They don't understand."

Push to recognise 'pathological internet misuse' as a mental health disorder
by:
By Bruce McDougall From:
The Daily Telegraph November28, 2011 1:40AM

A scene from World of Warcraft. Picture: Courtesy of World of Warcraft The Daily Telegraph
DISTRESSED families are flooding psychiatrists with pleas for help for children hooked on the internet.
The condition known as "pathological internet misuse" is growing so rapidly among adolescents and young adults that it could soon be formally recognised as a mental health disorder.International mental health experts are considering including "video game addiction and internet addiction" in the next edition of globally recognised Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders "to encourage further study".
One Sydney mother said her 13-year-old son was so addicted to computer games he had attended school only intermittently over the past two years and violentlyresisted attempts to remove him from the screen.
"He starts punching holes through the walls, throwing things around and threatening you ... all this has to do with the most addictive game, World of Warcraft," she said.
Parents have told of children as young as 10 being found asleep at their home computer when they are due to leave for school because they have been up much of the night playing videogames such as Minecraft.
Australian mental health specialists believe formal recognition of internet addiction will put pressure on governments to make more treatment options available.
Sydney psychiatrist Philip Tam believes internet addiction should be classified as a disorder.
Dr Tam, a leader in the field, said a website would be launched this week to help carers, families and counsellors...