Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

'Screenagers' Get Internet Addiction Treatment at U.K. Hospital

by Terrence O'Brien on March 20, 2010 at 09:00 AM

The Capio Nightingale Hospital in London has just launched a rehabilitation program dedicated to Internet addiction. The program is being offered as a one-stop shop for intensive in-patient treatment, day care, and group therapy sessions. While treatment will be offered to children as young as 12-years old, it is particularly aimed at tech-junkies aged 15 to 17.

The need for Net addiction centers isn't a new thing. The U.S. got its first such center in August of 2009, and the issue is serious enough in China that not only are there dedicated summer camps there, but Web addiction is a clinically defined illness, as well.
.
What makes the London program unique is that the spokesperson for Capio Nightingale Hospital, when speaking with the AFP, may have coined a new term: "screenagers." Richard Graham, the lead consultant at the hospital, said in a statement that the rehab program aims to "transform screenagers back into teenagers." So, will the phrase catch on? Will Web and video game addicted teens from here on out be known as "screenagers?" Well, our friends at Engadget seem to like the term, and we all know that as go the blogs, so goes the world. [From: AFP, via: Engadget]

Tags: CapioNightingaleHospital, health, InternetAddiction, NetAddiction, psychology, rehab, rehabilitation, screenagers, teens, top

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular