Teenager with X-box addiction - advice please

My GS aged 14 is addicted to his gadgets, X-box and Blackberry. His mother is constantly battling with him over the issue. I think it's a not uncommon situation.

It might be wise for the parents (is there a father in the family?) to have a word with his form teacher at school or perhaps there is a pastoral tutor they could speak to. This addiction is not uncommon at that age.

My 4 year old GS loves the computer - he wants to look things up about trains/dinosaurs/planes - all the things that little boys love. It is a job to deflect him from it, so I can imagine how difficult it might be with a teenager.

And not just teenagers! My husband is completely addicted to his PS3, and the violent games that he plays on there, spends hours up there every day. His daily routine consists of, get up, go in back bedroom (games room), light gas wall heater AND halogen heater (he doesn`t like being cold), come downstairs, have a drink, back up onto the game. Comes down about 3pm, eats his warmed up lunch, back upstairs, down around 11pm, eats warmed up tea, then channel hops on the telly till he goes to bed. And he will only play the really violent games. He only took it up at the age of 57, he`s now 68, but he certainly makes up for lost time!

I might admit to a measure of addiction to G'net, but that's a bit different from being hooked on violent games which is not at all healthy, especially for a teenager.

a thought most teenager,s were addicted a no my grandson is .

anno there is a father, not sure how effective he is ...but have asked what his views are. numberplease I'm astounded, I think I'd head for the hills... [take hat off emoticon].

Get him interested in constructive games like Minecraft, which can be played on the X-box and the PC. Many teachers approve of it because there's a lot of skill development in it and networks of interested teenagers exchange ideas and chat online about it (monitored by adults, of course). My grandson leaves my 37 year old son standing now - son has a 2:1 degree in computer sciences and has built his business on the internet, but now it is grandson who builds additions to his websites and troubleshoots glitches - he's 12. It's interesting enough to attract teenagers, and quite 'cool.' Grandson has just been to a Minecraft Convention in Paris with his dad, and mad some new friends to correspond with in Germany and Holland, so a bit of a diversion from gaming.

Grandson has built his own server, and is allowed to have it on for two hours a day, after completion of homework. This was agreed with the other parents of the boys who play Minecraft with him. They can't log in till grandson's server goes on. He only gets to access the X-box when he visits his dad's house, and the PC is at home. 15 and 18 games are not allowed - too violent, even for adults. I can see why the friend is worried - watching many of those violent games are very lifelike with high definition graphics, and the subjects prowl official buildings looking for victims/'terrorists' to pick off with assault rifles and rapid action shotguns, leaving mangled bodies pouring with blood. Not difficult to see the correlation with school campuses and deranged teenagers, as has been in the news.

Minecraft has captured the interest of three of my GC, 7, 8 and 10. 8-year-old GS got a cool Minecraft hoodie as a Christmas present. The availability of these products shows what a cult game it has become.

wi64 that seems like a very good solution! will suggest it.

Distraction Grannyknot--she needs to replace the game with something just as good--parents do think that it is going to be impossible to find something to replace Games but it can and has been done--for eg getting him involved in a sport is a good one, tapping into what he likes other than the game and going for that--I think the aim would be to cut down the time that he is using the games thingymajig and defently putting a complete stop to the violent ones, the boy is only 14 so he is still under parents rule, it may cause a stink at first but once children know that the parent means what they say, then they usually abide by a rule...