Fortnite-Addicted Teenager Headbutts Mother After She Takes Away PS4


A 14-year-old boy headbutted his mum after she took away his PS4.

His mother, Britta Hodge, believes that her son, Logan, is addicted to online gaming. At the moment, he is ‘obsessed’ with Fortnite.

Britta claims that Logan spends ‘all night long’ in their home in Sydney, Australia, and ‘only leaves to eat or go to the toilet’.

She’s revealed her struggles on Australian TV show, 60 minutes, saying: “It’s not as simple as taking the cord away and going, ‘Oh well, bad luck, you haven’t got the internet’.

“Because the repercussions from that – angry, aggressive – we’ve had to call the police. I have been headbutted, I’ve had concussions.”

Credit: 60 Minutes

Two years ago, Logan would ‘often go out with friends’, she added. However, since buying the PS4 he’s been addicted to Minecraft, Call of Duty, Destiny and Ark.

He is banned from playing until 4pm, but still spends all of his free time playing games.

In a recent interview with 9Honey, Britta said: “An addiction is an addiction. It doesn’t matter if it’s drugs, sex or online gaming.

“It’s chronic. We’ve been to doctors who have said ‘I don’t think we’ve seen such a chronic case’.”

This comes after The World Health Organisation (WHO) officially announced that Video Game Addiction is a mental health condition.

After qualifying it as such, children in the UK will have access to treatment on the NHS. WHO estimates that up to six per cent of children are affected with the condition.

The UN health agency said that classifying Gaming Disorder/Addiction as a separate condition will ‘serve a public health purpose for countries to be better prepared to identify this issue’.

It will also be added to WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), reports NME. The 11th edition of ICD covers 55,000 injuries, diseases and causes of death.

The proposal was accepted it as a condition after Dr Shekhar Saxena, director of WHO’s department for mental health, told ITV that this is in addition to “the need and the demand for treatment in many parts of the world”.

Credit: Pixabay

WHO defines Gaming Disorder as:”Impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.

“For gaming disorder to be diagnosed, the behaviour pattern must be of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning and would normally have been evident for at least 12 months.”

Dr. Vladimir Poznyak, a member of WHO’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, said: “Millions of gamers around the world, even when it comes to the intense gaming, would never qualify as people suffering from gaming disorder,

“And let me emphasise that this is a clinical condition, and clinical diagnosis can be made only by health professionals which are properly trained to do that.”

However, Dr Joan Harvey, a spokeswoman for the British Psychological Society, has criticised the move. She says that it will cause unnecessary panic among parents.