Recently the "Sims" virtual game has created a new Facebook game called "The Sims Social." Like the other types of Sims games, users develop a virtual "identity" online and even buy a residence, accessories and more to make the character more realistic. Now the character can also engage in social relationships using more advanced features in the virtual gaming program, including sexual relationships, according to a recent article on Net Mums.

It’s this element of the game that has experts and safety consultants like Charles Conway alarmed because users develop and follow virtual relationships through their Sims characters. Some of these relationships may turn sexual, including choices of where the players will engage in intercourse, such as different locations around the house.

Even more alarming is the way the game gives users rewards in the form of points for these relationships and encounters, which help the user move forward to new levels of the game. Though the game is played on Facebook, which is set up to ask for age verification, the verification may not be fully authentic when it comes from kids or minors.

Others have entered debates about whether or not the Sims Social game encourages other types of cybersex beyond game settings, such as through online chat rooms. In some cases, sexual predators can establish a "friendly" relationship with underage gamers online and then try to escalate the relationship to sexual encounters. It is believed that as many as 40 percent of teens have "friends" through Facebook that they’ve never actual met and don’t know.

Parents are encouraged to set firm Facebook boundaries and to be aware of sexual elements that may not at first be obvious in some Internet-based games.

A recent study in the UK highlighted the strong feelings kids have about the advertising they see. A survey asked 2,300 individuals under the age of 18 what they think about how the alcohol industry markets their products. The survey was conducted by Alcohol Concern and is reportedly the largest ever conducted regarding teens’ views of alcohol marketing.

The results sent a strong message to the alcohol industry:

• 60 percent of participants in the study said they wanted advertising in cinemas to be shown only in connection with films regulated for those 18 years and older.
• 58 percent of respondents indicated that they wanted alcohol advertising to be shown only after 9 p.m.
• 59 percent wanted alcohol promotional information to be displayed only in supermarkets and liquor stores.

The chief executive of Alcohol Concern, Don Shenker, says that the results of the survey highlight the need for greater protection for teens from alcohol advertising. Even kids know that the advertising provides a temptation that is not healthy for them.

The survey shows that the regulations that are in place to protect teens from exposure to alcohol advertising are not enough, says Shenker. The government needs to examine whether the current restrictions are adequate to prevent teens from drinking alcohol. Shenker says that the survey results are a clear indication that kids don’t believe that the regulations are protecting them.

According to Alcohol Concern, the alcohol industry spends around £800 million each year to market alcohol to consumers. The group also reports that in just one match of the World Cup, 1.6 million children experienced exposure to alcohol advertising.

In a response from the Advertising Association, a spokesman said that the organization is not surprised that kids think that companies should have freedom to advertise alcohol to adults, but in support of regulations that protect kids. The spokesman said that these regulations are already working.

The survey’s findings highlight the need for caution in advertising. It is difficult to imagine a sports game without alcohol advertising, but this significant change may be necessary to provide the protection needed to safeguard teens from alcohol.

In Science Daily, a recent article suggests that there are other factors that increase the risk of alcohol onset among teens such as age, race, team sports and their position in the social network arena. The study further found that being in close proximity to the most popular peers was a definite factor in the onset of drinking. The study surveyed over 2,600 students in 7th through 11th grade from 1995 to 1996 and also interviewed their parents in two different groups.

The study showed that the density of the networks magnified the spread of influence among the adolescents and also amplified the dynamics. The findings also suggest that limiting the size of these social peer groupings may have a positive influence on delaying the onset of alcohol usage. Some experts argue that smaller schools and their ability to provide a smaller group of peers could be positive in decreasing this problem.

Fascinating enough is the new era of social networks online popping up such as GroupMe, Path and Rally Up, which all focus on limiting the size of friendship groups. The study also pointed out the role parents play in their children’s’ lives. Having family fun together is beneficial to delaying the onset of alcohol use. Results parallel previous studies that show low family interaction and drinking among parents are further linked to initial alcohol usage.

Researchers hope to explore more ways to understand how the density of online social activity influences and increases this problem among adolescents.

Research also indicates that teenagers in the U.S. are experimenting sexually sooner than before, which may be a consequence of heightened exposure to sexually-themed materials online and in music and television. For some teens, this activity can lead to obsessive thoughts about sex that interfere with daily living. For others, it can be the starting point for a sexual addiction, which can have lifelong emotional and physical consequences.

Similar to other addictions, a sexual addiction may lead to a loss of control for a teenager. They may be unable to control unwanted sexual thoughts and may spend hours viewing sexual materials online. They may also lose social connections and suffer in school.

Sex Addiction Treatment for Teens

Many teens are too ashamed of the problem to seek help, and many adults may consider the obsessive behavior a normal part of adolescence. Few sexual addiction treatment options exist that are tailored toward adolescents, but more inpatient and outpatient programs are becoming available as research broadens toward teens and sex addiction.

Some treatment centers focus solely on teens with sexual addictions and offer custom treatment strategies that involve several areas, such as learning new ways of coping with triggers or new techniques for handling stress. New skills for working through social situations may also be offered, as well as treatment through outdoor or physical activities.

Many teens may use sexual behaviors as a way to escape negative feelings, so learning new coping tools can be effective. New strategies for returning to their normal environment are also part of the treatment for teens with sexual addiction.

Signs of Teen Sex Addiction

Parents should look for changes in their teen’s behavior, such as more time alone in their room or secrecy about their Internet searches. Some teens may begin a sexual addiction through sexting, so parents are also encouraged to know what messages their teens are sending and to whom.

Internet filters can help prevent a teen from viewing sexual material online, but no filters are perfect. Experts recommend not allowing a teen to browse the Internet alone in a private room, but rather in a common room of the home.

Having an upfront conversation about sexual addiction and sexual materials online can be helpful preventative strategies for helping teens avoid the dangers of sexual addiction. Professional counselors can help parents approach the subject effectively and to learn ways to maintain the conversation throughout their child’s teen years. Research indicates repeating the conversation is more effective than only discussing it on a limited basis.

Susan F. Tapert, with the San Diego Healthcare System, points out that heavy use of alcohol can interrupt the growth of normal brain cells, especially during adolescence. Tapert says the effects could last for months after the teen consumes alcohol.

A study published online recently from the October issue of Alcoholism, shows the areas in which drinking-related problems can cost your memory. Driving can be affected, as well as your ability to read maps. You may experience problems with figural reasoning, such as with geometry and also remembering certain driving routes or directions to places. You may even have trouble remembering sports events and re-enacting certain plays that were more complex. The research was conducted on 95 teenagers and tested things such as memory by using an MRI to scan the brain. Researchers also conducted interviews about substance abuse among the teens.

Teenage girls who were already serious drinkers had less brain activity in many areas than those who didn’t drink at all and teen boys that drank excessive amounts showed some brain abnormality when measured against peers who didn’t drink. However, the difference between drinkers and abstainers that were boys was less than it was among the girls. Gender differences could be related to hormonal differences between the two sexes or perhaps due to the fact that girls’ brains develop earlier than boys.

Published in Biological Psychiatry, the study indicates that the genes that influence a teen’s desires to smoke, and their level of susceptibility to addiction, change as the teen reaches adulthood. Researchers concluded that if a teen exhibits behavior that is especially tuned in to pleasure, disrupts home or school life and seems to have no relevance for the negative outcomes, this teen may be genetically more likely to experiment with smoking and continue to smoke.

By the numbers, teens who had specific levels of variance in two genetic areas had a three times greater likelihood of becoming a smoker, and a risk two times greater than other teens of carrying the smoking habit into their adult life.

The actual act of beginning to smoke may also be related to how a person’s genetic make-up responds to dopamine. Certain genetic variations occurring in the genes connected to dopamine processing indicated that some teens could be more influenced to start smoking as a teen. This risk could be as high as 1.3 percent over teens without this genetic variance.

It’s a different genetic influence that may dictate whether an adult begins to smoke, says the research, such as the person’s ability to cope with stress, whether or not they are depressed and their levels of anxiety. Scientifically, it’s an effect related to cholinergic receptors, which monitor things like mood and a tendency to self-medicate.

While still early in its research phase, the study could help establish the possibility of genetic screening to allow people to know how great their risk for smoking or smoking addiction is, and could also help boost research toward medications that change the way a person reacts to nicotine.

One area that has been explored is the connection between parents and drinking behaviors. There are genetic connections between parents that have alcohol use disorders and adult children that also struggle with alcohol use disorders. However, there is also a link between alcohol use disorder and antisocial behavior that requires exploring within the context of parental influence.

Patock-Packham and Morgan-Lopez have released a study in 2010 that explores the complex connection between antisocial behaviors, alcohol use and parental roles. Understanding that some individuals may use alcohol as a means to cope with their negative experiences, the researchers sought to understand the link between the three areas.

Antisocial behavior reflects a lack of concern for others and often coincides with alcohol use disorders. This is often a result of the person self-medicating with alcohol. The researchers examined the parental influence on reasons for both drinking and antisocial behavior.

The researchers investigated the direct and indirect links between parental bond and antisocial personality, along with pathological reasons for drinking, alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. The aspects of the parental bond that were examined were care, rejection, overprotection, autonomy and neglect.

The study utilized a two-group SEM path model using college students. There were 164 female and 240 male student participants.

The results of the study show distinct patterns among the male and female participants. The perception among women of having a caring mother lowered the likelihood of antisocial tendencies. A perception of having been rejected by the father was directly linked to pathological reasons for drinking.

The female participants who felt neglected by their mothers showed a direct link to alcohol-related problems.

Feeling neglected by one’s father was directly linked to alcohol-related problems among males. Antisocial personality was reflected when the mother was perceived to be neglectful and the father was perceived to be overprotective.

The findings of the study indicate a strong gender match for parent-offspring effects on children. The study’s results also suggest that the parental influences on vulnerability for alcohol use and antisocial behaviors are very complex. The genders of the respondent and the influencing parent must be considered jointly.

Defining Internet Addiction

The essence of addiction, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is uncontrollable, compulsive drug seeking and use, even in the face of negative health and social consequences. Clinical diagnosis of various addictions involves use of diagnostic codes. However, Internet addiction does not appear in the list of mental disorders in the bible used by clinicians: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Published by the American Psychiatric Association in 1994, DSM-IV was revised in July 2000. The current edition is DSM-IV-TR. The next revision, DSM-V will come out in 2012. But the American Psychological Association has formally recognized Internet addiction as a disorder.

In 2003, the term Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) was coined, referring to a condition where people who compulsively and excessively use the Internet, achieve a “high” from such use, and continue to use the Internet despite serious negative consequences. In essence, the Internet controls their lives, causing severe disruptions.

Interestingly, China issued the country’s first diagnostic definition of Internet addiction in 2008, according to a report in China Daily. According to the Chinese definition, Internet addicts are classified as those who spend at least six hours online a day and have shown at least one symptom in the past three months. The Chinese doctors said symptoms of Internet addiction include yearning to get back online, mental or physical distress, difficulties in concentrating and sleeping, and irritation. In the same announcement, Chinese doctors indicated that 80 percent of addicts could be cured with treatment, which usually lasts about three months. But no specifics on treatment were released. Earlier surveys of Chinese youth found that 10 percent of Internet users suffer addiction, and about 70 percent are male.

How Widespread is Internet Use?

With the ubiquity of computers, it’s almost impossible to know the real numbers. However, a 2005 Pew Center report on teens and technology found that about 75 percent of all online teens (about two-thirds of teenagers overall) used IM, and nearly 50 percent used it daily. A 2007 Pew Research Center study showed that 89 percent of teens used the Internet at least once a week, with 61 percent saying they logged on every day. All that time spent online wasn’t doing homework, either. The Pew results showed that most of the time teens spent online was devoted to private communications – such as IM, email and chat.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Generations Online in 2009, the percentage of American teens aged 12 to 17 online in 2008 is now 93 percent, compared with 87 percent of this age group in 2005. The report says teen users are more likely than older users to read other people’s blogs and to write blogs of their own, to use social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) and to create profiles on those sites. They use social networking sites to keep track of their friends and to update their own activities on the sites so others can stay informed, and to communicate with them. As for favorite teen online activity, the report says it is game playing, with 78 percent of teen Internet users aged 12 to 17 saying their favorite online activity is playing games. The second most popular online teen activity is emailing, with 73 percent of teens surveyed saying they use email. Interestingly, emailing has lost some ground since 2004 when 89 percent said they used email. The vacuum has been filled with IM, social networking and blogging, according to Pew researchers.

What is clear from the Pew research is that Internet usage by teens is more widespread than ever. Some 80 percent of teens aged 12 to 17 have broadband Internet access at home. Furthermore, it isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

Symptoms of Teen Internet Addiction

Consistent with some of the signs that Chinese doctors identified, teens suffering from Internet addiction will most likely exhibit some or all of the following symptoms:

• Excessive time – Your teen devotes increasing amounts of time to the Internet. This involves all forms of Internet activity, from instant messaging (IM), to email, surfing sites, participating in chat rooms and researching or doing schoolwork. Ironically, many parents fail to curb their teens’ Internet usage because they believe their child is doing schoolwork when, in fact, the teen is using the Internet for other purposes. Some teens have become so hooked on the net that even poor grades or the loss of an after-school job doesn’t hamper their obsession with being online.

• Withdrawal from friends, activities – As the teen spends more and more time online and not in the physical company of others, the pattern emerges that he or she withdraws from friends and normal activities.

• Lies – Asked about the amount of time spent online, what they were doing, or confronted with evidence on cell phone bills for texting, IMs, or downloading, your teen gives you elaborate and fabricated dissertations – all in an attempt to divert your attention from the fact that he or she is spending way too much time online.

• Fatigue and other physical symptoms – Your teen looks and acts sleep deprived. You see dark circles or puffiness under their eyes, or bloodshot eyes. They seem tired all the time, due to the fact that they stay up late or get up early so they can be on the Internet.

• Denial – I don’t have a problem. Your teen will argue that he or she doesn’t spend too much time on the Internet. It’s for school. Everybody does it. It’s no big deal. These words, or something similar, will become commonplace the longer your teen spends on the Internet.

• Poor grades or job performance – Evidence of decreased attention paid to activities and responsibilities due to increased time spent on the Internet shows up in poor grades your teen gets or his or her job performance that suffers.

• Emotional outbursts – When asked about time spent online, your teen may erupt in an emotional outburst, be angry or irritable whenever they’re not online.

Diagnosis for Internet Addiction

Addiction researchers, in the absence of an official DSM diagnosis, have proposed a set of criteria for Internet addiction. The following criteria are based on diagnostic standards for pathological gambling.

In diagnosing Internet addiction, the patient must meet all of the following criteria:

• Preoccupation with the Internet – The person is either thinking about the last online activity or planning ahead for the next cyber session.

• Requires more time to be satisfied – The person needs to devote more and more time to being on the Internet in order to feel the same satisfaction.

• Inability to stop – The person has tried, but failed, in past attempts to cut back, control, or stop their use of the Internet.

• Emotional changes – The person exhibits restlessness, moodiness, depression, or irritability when attempting to cut down or stop using the Internet.

• Stays online longer than intended – Despite intending to stay online only a certain period of time, the person repeatedly stays on past the intended deadline.

In addition, the patient must meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Uses Internet as escape – The person tries to escape from problems or relieve an unpleasant mood (such as anxiety, depression, guilt or helplessness) by using the Internet.

• Lies to others about Internet use – In a desperate attempt to conceal the extent of their Internet involvement, the person consistently lies to parents, friends, therapists and others.

• Jeopardy or loss – Consistent use of the Internet by the person has put at jeopardy or caused the loss of a relationship, job, career or educational opportunity.

Types of Treatment for Internet Addiction

Professional counseling often proves effective in moderating Internet addiction. Such counseling may utilize various approaches, modeled after treatment for other addictive behaviors. Psychological intervention may involve changing the environment in which the teen normally interacts with the computer. It may involve altering the associations the teen has with the Internet, or decreasing the reinforcement he or she receives from nonstop Internet use.

Identifying triggers involved in Internet addiction is another area where psychological counseling is important. Such triggers are the thoughts and feelings that precede the teen’s use of the Internet.

Training in social skills development or communications is also recommended, as many teens that have become addicted to the Internet are socially withdrawn and lack the ability to communicate easily with others on a face-to-face basis.

As with other addictions, recognition that relapse is a common occurrence means that effective treatment will also concentrate on relapse prevention skills. This means identifying situations that may trigger the teen’s falling back into excessively using the Internet and putting together an action plan for dealing with such situations – thereby avoiding or reducing the possibility of relapse.

One point that is also common to other types of addictions holds true for Internet addiction as well. Left untreated, Internet addiction can consume more and more of your teen’s time and energy, physical and emotional consequences may ensue, and relationships, grades, job and career opportunities may suffer.

What Parents Can Do

This is a tricky situation. Parents want to encourage their teens to become independent, while still retaining core family values and remaining an integral part of the family unit. Part of the maturation process involves separation and growth. Raging hormones, peer influence, societal trends, underlying emotional, behavioral or substance abuse problems may all contribute to a teen’s difficulty in being able to distinguish or curtail inappropriate behavior. When it comes to Internet addiction, then, parents need to tread lightly – but be firm.

Unlike addiction to alcohol or drugs, total abstinence is not generally recognized as an effective treatment for Internet addiction. While some treatment professionals may argue that abstinence is effective in curbing Internet addiction, we, as parents, know that cutting off the access to the Internet for our teens is simply not practical. First of all, even if the access is removed at home, there’s always availability at school, at the public library, at a friend’s house, on the cell phone or other mobile devices. By cutting off all access, you will only alienate your teen – which is not something you really want to do.

What, then, is appropriate in helping to stabilize inordinate use of the Internet by your teens? Most addiction experts who are gaining expertise in treating Internet addiction say that learning how to use the Internet in moderation is – or should be – the main objective in treatment.

Parents may find that getting some form of professional treatment for their teen will prove beneficial. This may be private counseling or a type of support group that deals specifically with Internet addiction. To rule out an underlying medical condition or aggravating mental disorder, have your teen examined by the family physician. If there is a biological dimension to the Internet addiction, such as anxiety or depression, the physician may prescribe an anti-anxiety or antidepressant medication.

As nurturers, role models and the authority figures, parents also need to be understanding and supportive of the teen’s emotional needs, especially in trying to reduce their child’s dependence on the Internet.

Other suggestions include:

• Engage your teen in family activities that do not involve computers or the Internet.

• Participate as a family in recreational pursuits or hobbies that get the teen out of the house – and away from the Internet.

• If the teen has a cell phone, restrict IMs or downloading.

• Insist that the teen be a part of the family unit for a certain period each evening. This could be prime time, or right after dinner.

• Have your teen do his or her homework in the kitchen, family room, living room or den – where you can interact with and occasionally monitor any Internet activity.

• Take the computer out of the teen’s bedroom.

• Make casual use of the Internet a privilege – and tie it to achievement of good grades in school.

• Help the teen identify another pursuit or activity that he or she is passionate about and encourage participation in such an activity.

• The parent that is the same gender as the teen should spend quality one-on-one time with that teen. Go places together, engage in conversation, laugh and have fun together. This does not take the place of family activities, however, as both are important.

Still confused? Don’t be. Seek the advice and counsel of a professional, educate yourself as much as possible on Internet addiction, and work together with your teen to help moderate the amount of time spent on the Internet. Be supportive, loving, and be there for your teen. This will make all the difference in the world.

Article by Suzanne Kane

Science Daily recently posted a release covering a study done by the University of Washington’s Social Development Research Group. In this study, researchers found new evidence supporting the theory that parents do play a key role in whether or not teens who experiment with tobacco go on to become daily smokers before they graduate from high school.

“If parents really don’t want their children to smoke they need to communicate that by establishing clear guidelines in their families about not smoking and discuss them with their school-age children.” said Min Jung Kim, a research scientist with the University of Washington’s Social Development Research Group and lead author of the study.

This is great news for parents, of course, but they can have the opposite impact at the same time. In fact, parents can increase their children’s chances of smoking by their own use of tobacco.

“If parents smoke, teens have more access to cigarettes than teens that have non-smoking parents. A second preventive measure for smoking parents is to quit smoking themselves,” said Kim.

In addition to parental influence, other factors that contributed to the likelihood of a teen smoking include having friends who smoke and their involvement in other problem behaviors, such as skipping school, fighting and vandalism.

According to Kim, most smoking prevention programs do not directly address the role of parental smoking or the link between anti-social behavior and smoking, which commonly occur together.

A recent study by Douglas Gentile with Iowa State University and the National Institute on Media and the Family, (Minneapolis, Minnesota), sought to study the behaviors of children and adolescents regarding video games.

An addiction indicates not that the subject engages in a behavior frequently or even for long periods of time, but that the behavior damages multiple levels of functioning. Some examples would be damage to family, social, school, occupational and psychological functioning.

The study sampled 1,178 U.S. residents aged 8 through 18. The research measured video game use based on 11 criteria based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The criteria were similar to those used to identify pathological gambling. Subjects that exhibited at least half, or 6, of the symptoms were identified as pathological video gamers.

The symptoms used to define pathology included salience (the activity dominates the person’s life), euphoria or relief, (the activity provides a “high”), tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, conflict (the activity leads to conflict with persons close to the participant), and relapse.

In addition to pathological indicators, the study also assessed the participants’ video game habits. They measured weekly amount of video game play, knowledge of game ratings, household rules for game use, school performance, attention difficulties, and other indicators.

In the national sample of 8- to 18-year-olds, 8.5% of participants showed a pathological pattern, indicating a rating of at least 6 out of 11 indicators were exhibited.

Pathological gamers spent twice as much time as non-pathological gamers playing video games, were more likely to have a video game system in their rooms, had lower academic performance, and were more likely to feel that they were addicted to video games.

The results indicate that 88% of American youth between the ages of 8 and 18 at least occasionally play video games. Though video game usage seemed to yield a similar pattern relative to age that television viewing exhibits, with video game frequency playing decreasing in high school, the study found that adolescents play video games with less frequency as they get older, but with longer playing time per session.

Overall, only about half of the participants indicated that their homes had rules about video games, and a large percentage of the youth owned M-rated games.

The core limitation for this study is that it does not provide evidence for the possible causal relationships among the variables studied. For instance, it may be possible that pathological gaming causes low academic performance, or it could be as probable that children that have poor school performance seek out video games as a respite from the demands of academic and social pressures.