Internet addiction rewires teenagers' brains and may make them more likely to engage in other addictive behaviour, new research suggests. Signalling between different areas of the brain related to controlling attention and understanding our own emotions were altered in youngsters addicted to being online, say scientists. Their findings, published in the journal PLOS Mental Health, indicate that internet addiction is associated with disrupted signalling in the regions of the brain involved in multiple neural networks. Study co-author Max Chang said: 'These networks play an important role in controlling our attention, in association with intellectual ability, working memory, physical coordination, and emotional processing. 'All of which in turn have an impact on mental health.'

Parents shouldn't take away consoles from children who show signs of gaming addiction because it could lead to physical violence, a psychologist has warned. Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones, head of the National Centre for Gaming Disorders, says it can become a police matter when kids lose access to gaming. The centre – which along with the World Health Organization recognises gaming addiction as a disorder – is seeing teens who are gaming up to 14 hours a day. Children are hooked on Call of Duty, Fortnite, FIFA, Angry Birds, War Zone and Minecraft, but no game is necessarily more addictive than any other. According to the centre's founder, it has dealt with 745 patients since it opened in October 2019, including 327 last year.

The teenage joy of late-night gaming sessions faces an uncertain future in China. Tech giant Tencent has launched a time-sensitive facial recognition system that prevents minors from binging on video games after dark. The platform, called "Midnight Patrol," arrives amid a moral panic over gaming addiction among children in China. Under-18s are now barred from gaming between 10PM and 8AM, and must register for games using their real names and government ID numbers. Here's how AI can improve your company's customer journey Tencent's system uses a facial verification system connected to a public identity database to detect minors posing as adults during the curfew. "We will conduct a face screening for accounts registered with real names and that have played for a certain period of time at night," Tencent said on Tuesday, according to a translation by news outlet Sixth Tone.

For many years, parents have raised concerns that their child might be addicted to video games. Now, a new ruling by the World Health Organization (WHO) gives credence to those beliefs, as the agency agreed this weekend to recognize gaming addiction as a mental health disorder. To be diagnosed with this disorder, people must be playing video games so much that it'takes precedence over other life interests.' A new decision from the WHO has recognized'gaming addiction' as a mental health disorder. The change has been reflected in the WHO's International Classification of Diseases (ICD), a list used by health providers as a guideline for diagnosing patients. Gaming disorder falls under the WHO's list of'mental, behavioral or neurodevelopmental disorders' and closely mirrors the language used by the WHO to describe'gambling disorder.'

Video games are one of the most misunderstood forms of entertainment. In one sense, it's easy to see why: if you haven't had much interaction with them, watching someone play one can be a pretty unsettling experience. Gamers can often give the impression that they're glued to the screen, absorbed in what feels like the digital equivalent of junk food. At best, it seems like a pointless thing to do; at worst, we worry that games are socially isolating, or actively harmful. One of the longest-standing tropes about video games is that violent ones – like Call of Duty or Fortnite – can cause players to become more aggressive in the real world.

Health professionals have spoken out about the impact playing Fortnite has on children - likening its addictive nature to that of hard drugs. Played by more than 200 million users, the cartoon multiplayer shooter game is costing children sleep, their school work and causing them to become violent. The latest instalment of the popular video game Fortnite: Battle Royale is seeing children drop out of social activities like playing sport. Behavioural specialists say that some children are even battling gaming addiction as a result from constantly playing the game. Health professionals have spoken out about the impact playing Fortnite has on children likening it to them being addicted to drugs.

How much gaming is too much gaming? This is the question Japan's pre-eminent addiction expert, Dr. Susumu Higuchi, is trying to answer as he treats people whose lives have been destroyed by video game addiction. Online gaming addiction has become the fastest-growing form of addiction in the 21st century, and it's the most vulnerable people -- children -- who mainly fall prey to its psychoactive effects, Higuchi says. As head of the Kurihama Medical and Addiction Center in Kanagawa Prefecture, which started the country's first program for internet addition in 2011, Higuchi is rolling up his sleeves to tackle a scourge that has eaten into the vitals of our society. "This isn't just about Japan, it's happening all over the world," Higuchi said in a recent interview.

"If I wasn't gaming, I was thinking about gaming". Sean - not his real name - has told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme about how gaming addiction took over his life to the point where he lost his family and his job. Matthew Preece, a senior therapist at the UK Addiction Treatment group (Ukat), says there has been a "significant" increase in the number of people seeking treatment. The group, which has traditionally treated people for alcohol, drug and gambling problems, says that it has seen the number of people wanting help with gaming addiction rise year-on-year from four in 2014 to 22 in 2018. Sean was one person who became addicted.

The design of online games has reached a new level of sophistication, appealing to millions of people. There are more than 2.3 billion active gamers in the world this year, of which almost half spend money on games. A recent report by the international games market research company Newzoo estimates that the global games market will reach $137.9bn in 2018, with digital revenues accounting for 91 percent. As the gaming phenomenon grows, the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified a new disease - gaming disorder. The WHO defines the disorder as "a pattern of gaming behaviour with increasing priority given to gaming over other activities ... and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences."

Kendal Parmar's son went from being a sporty and sociable boy who loved school, to a child who would stay in his room and rarely go outside. The change in his personality was down to a gaming disorder that crept up on him at the age of 12, when he started secondary school. Three years later, Joseph is still struggling with the problem. Parmar says the biggest sign that something was wrong was the amount of arguing that would occur when she asked him to stop playing video games. "Eventually his habits developed and he was gaming all the time. He became too terrified to go to school and he was terrified of people," she says.