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A NINE-year-old girl is reportedly in rehab for her addiction to an online video game.

The girl is said to have wet herself during a 10-hour-long binge on Fortnite — and even hit her dad in the face when he tried to take away her Xbox console.

The girl’s mum Carole, 36, told the Sunday People: “We had no idea, when we let her play the game, of the ­addictive nature or the impact it could have on her mental health.

She would secretly play the survival shooter game during the night and didn’t even get up to use the toilet because she couldn’t prise herself away from the screen.

‘My husband saw her light on in the night and found her sitting on a urine-soaked ­cushion playing the game.

‘She was so hooked to the game she wouldn’t even go to the toilet.’

“She is in ­therapy for the addiction after she ­became withdrawn, ­agitated and disturbed from playing up to ten hours a day – sometimes playing until dawn, wetting ­herself so she didn’t have to leave the screen.

“This is a serious issue which is destroying our little girl’s life and someone needs to step in to ban it before it becomes an epidemic.”

The young girl confessed she had been getting up in the middle of the night while they were asleep, sometimes playing the game until 5am.

Counsellor Steve Pope, who is treating the girl, told the paper that the game is a “gateway” into further addictions and gambling in later life.

Psychologist Dr Linda Papadopoulos warned: “Parents need to look out for changes in behaviour and make sure their child has a good balance with other social and physical activities”.

We recently shared a post – What Parents Need to Know About Popular Online Game Fortnite

Another Mum claimed her son, 10, is so addicted to online game Fortnite he is moody and aggressive – and she wants it banned!

She revealed that Leo, 10, started shunning family time in favour of facing off against other kids online.

FORTNITE has recently been blasted for its violence and predatory voice and text chat features.

According to new research one in four children have been contacted by someone they don’t know across some of the most popular apps and games currently out.

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  • wow….i find this to be very disturbing on so many levels.
    How on earth did this even start? What was she doing playing such a game in the first place? Why was her internet time not supervised?

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  • I don’t understand how children that young are playing games like that?? Don’t people check out the games before allowing their kids near them??

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  • This is scary and dangerous especially at such a young age. You don’t realise just how addictive games can be until you hear something like this happening. These type of games need to have some type of restrictions on them

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  • Wow that’s scary I hope she gets the help she needs.

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  • Woah that is the most extreme case of game addiction I’ve seen. And at 9 years of age! Wow I thought I was bad at 16 staying awake until sunrise then sleeping all day. I lost a lot of my life to game addiction where I could have been out with friends or meeting boys. Although I did manage to meet my now fiancé on Xbox haha and he stopped my game addiction. I wish you could set like a time restriction on Xbox consoles to stop someone playing over a number of hours.

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  • It’s sad that things are coming to this. My hubby was a little addicted to World of Warcraft before we met I think but he straightened himself out when he started to have a life and he was never as bad as the above. I think parents need to be careful and seriously monitor any kind of screen time.

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  • This is terrible. Thank God my son is not a serious gamer. He will play AFL or the car racing every now and then, but has never been interested in gaming the way many kids/teens are. This is so concerning and something that parents need to be aware of. I know many parents who comment on their kids and gaming but don’t seem concerned enough to monitor, control or change the behaviour.

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  • Wow now that is scary. I wish her all the best and hope rehabilitation works.

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  • Poor little girl, I hope she gets over her addiction. What concerns me is the possibility this will lead her to other addictions later in life.

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  • I think this child would have a addiction to anything at some stage of her life and this is just going to be the start of many addictions. Online games are not addictive. Check out this link to see how addiction really works https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8L-0nSYzg it explains it really well.

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  • Sadly this is becoming all too common, I still blame parents for not supervising kids and knowing what they are doing at all times. I never allowed my son to play games online or these types of games, now as a teenager he self regulates and hardly plays games at all preferring to use the computer for more creative pursuits, I feel lucky I don’t have to deal with this problem and feel sorry parents have made this innocent mistake not knowing how addictive gaming can be. There needs to be more regulation regarding online gaming, how can a child access rated M games?

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  • You can’t just blame the game when the site I checked had a rating of M for mature people and then teens above it. So this isn’t appropriate for children that young.
    If parents need support and help visit https://www.esafety.gov.au
    Sites like this can help you talk with you child. Also ask your school if they have access to online support or if they can direct you to helpful sites.

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  • Think I would have stepped much earlier than the parents did so that this didn’t become the result.

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  • This is certainly a frightening level of addiction.

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  • I can understand this game is addictive and find it concerning that kids at such young age get pulled into this. I think it’s most important we as parents limit computer time for our kids and keep an eye on what they’re playing on the computer.
    Hope this wee girl finds the help & cure she needs !


    • I’ll show this article to my son, who has been playing this game lately !

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  • I wouldn’t have let her have the console in her room in the first place

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  • I hope she gets the help she needs for such an addiction.

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  • What were they doing that they totally missed what was going on?? This sort of addiction doesn’t just happen over the space of a week or so.

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  • Its ok for them to say they want this game ban and well if indeed it is that addictive I agree but the story states the dad found her sitting on a urine soaked cushion, she hit her father in the face …they knew what she was doing, seriously why did they not put a stop to this early on.

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  • Terrible. How can a 9 year old be allowed to play so long?

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