The "Parents' Manual for Taking Care of Children in the Cyberspace Era", has been designed by child and adolescent psychologists, and is based on successful ways of resolving game addiction.

About 80 to 90 per cent of parents and children who attended correction camps, group therapy and consultations provided by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Rajanagarindra Institute, had significantly overcome the problem, its director Dr Bundit Sornpaisal said.

Two years ago, the Mental Health Department decided to establish the Centre for Game Addiction Prevention at the Rajanagarindra Institute to tackle rising problems among teenagers from online games and the Internet, director-general ML Dr Somchai Chakraphan said.

So far, the centre had spoken to about 1,000 parents and 300 "game addicted children" for rehabilitation and consultations, Bundit said.

Jintana Charoensuk, a mother whose son had a severe case of game addiction, said: "Thanks to the institute, I realised my son saw the whiteboard as a blood-red colour, and could not get the game out of his head while we sat in a classroom at the institute."

Because of his online game addiction, her son had changed for the worse - and spent most of his time playing just one game. He became moody and physically violent, she said, and his Grade Point Average had dropped dramatically from about three to one.

"I didn't expect him to stop playing that game, but simply to make him become more disciplined, which he was after seeking help from the institute," she said. "For me, I had to understand him more and be able to keep a cool head.

"Normally, parents and [game-addicted] children develop a good rapport after the rehabilitation camp, and that is the key to success," Bundit said.

Produced and distributed by the Rajanagarindra Institute, the manual includes a 30-minute long guide to help parents, and a mini-handbook that comes with a questionnaire to help assess game addiction levels. Some 2,000 copies of the manual are available at the institute in Bangkok. For details, parents can call 02 354 8305 up to 6.

Arthit Khwankhom

The Nation