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Pro Level Gamer, nearly died from his addiction 

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Increased usage of games during COVID19 has highlighted the need to protect Gamers with VPN and parental control.

Updated October 2021: Autumn 2021, We have witnessed a huge rise in concern from parents about gaming. Especially, their aggressive, sulky behaviour, their addictive compulsion to games, lack of interest in anything else. 

  • Gaming is larger than Sports and movies combined
  • Serious people are campaigning to make Fortnite, League of Legends Olympic sports
  • Fewer kids are playing physical sports than gaming
  • Gaming companies reported a 70% usage increase during COVID, Users, time spent daily
  • Public Servers* are no place for Kids
  • China own many of the world best know games 

This true story is about a boy called Jamie. His story appeared in the international press as a warning to parents we worked with the young man in question to help him kick the habit. We helped him see it was a problem. We helped him learn his way through his Minecraft addiction that lasted more than a decade from the age of 14.

Serious Blood Clot

In the end, he suffered a blood clot, linked to spending eight hours a day at a desk for his studies in the entertainment industry. Jamie compounded his inactivity by excessively video gaming for hours (days) on end in his free time. Sometimes Jamie played from Sunday evening until Wednesday mornings. 

He required surgery to remove a potentially fatal clot and stop it from spreading to his heart or brain. He has since altered his sedentary lifestyle. “That clot nearly finished me off, so I've had to change the way I live to avoid those risks" Jamie said. 

Thankfully he had a full recovery, now keeps his gaming in check, and started a business helping kids and parents deal with a gaming obsession. He has since moved to a different end of entrainment, movies. He was badly infected, with the same conditions sometimes experienced by frequent long-haul flyers: deep vein thrombosis.

Jamie's guidelines for gamers

He brings his huge experience witnessing first-hand the bullying and "griefing" that has accompanied the surge in popularity of online gaming, as well as the physical risks associated with excessive gaming. He advises users to take a break and take a short walk every hour, doing regular exercise and spending no more than an hour or two playing games at a time. This is a must, non-negotiable. He remains a devotee of gaming - he has pulled back from his past as a "pro-gamer" ranked third in Europe for his abilities, which he said led to him neglecting his final school year studies and had a disastrous effect on his life. His business helps control and moderate large Minecraft games, especially for young kids. Kids are welcomed to the game, overseen, then gently logged out when time is up.

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Parents are overwhelmed by kids gaming online, which is why we strongly recommend always on 'parental control' for gamers. We helped him learn his way through his Minecraft addiction, lasting more than a decade, from the age of 14.

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Popularity of gaming online like Fortnite, outstrips even Man Utd. 

End of Manchester United?

Games have overtaken the music and movie industries in global sales and importance to the young. In the UK, twice the number of young men play online games then follow TV sport like the premier league. So much so, Fortnite is being seriously pushed as a potential Olympic sport. Anyone for dressage?  

Parental control helps

Parental control comes would help here, using online internet safety rules and guidelines to help Jamie here. We could have chopped his game time up into little bits prevening from sitting still for hours on end. Check out Nord VPN for gamer protection

Time limits can be imposed on players of all ages which are great for digital wellbeing, great for online gaming and necessary physical outdoors activity.

Roblox, since the start of coronavirus;

  • No. of Players 150 million, up 50 million
  • Daily Users 40 million up from 10 million in 2018
  • Average time per day per player 3.7 hours up 70%
  • Sales in 2020 $928ml up from $47ml in 2017
     

Switch off In-App Purchasing

Switch off In-App purchasing today on all devices in the house as Roblox has got a lot better at selling stuff to its gamers and it is not a fair fight. All of this is also true for Fortnite, Minecraft, Nintendo.

VPN protects gamers

We recommend Nord VPN for gamers,  Gamers can improve performance, shield their identity protecting their online privacy. Also, a VPN can prevent so-called DDoS attacks which will knock out your WiFi for days unless you know how to re-instal a router, gamers often engineer attacks on each other o knock the other guy out of the game.

Comment:

Sitting is the new smoking, that’s what they say, and this story is the perfect explanation, this boy’s gaming addiction destroyed his school years, denying him college, addicted to online gaming as it took over his life.  Now in his early thirties, he says gaming destroyed his confidence, ability to concentrate and complete simple things in normal life. 

We need gaming protection for gamers, with time limits for kids, time blocked off for study, sleep and other things. As well as the regular stuff like preventing kids from visiting sites that show violence, adult content, cruelty or inappropriate content. 

For Protection


Nord VPN for gamers

Parental Control

Articles of Interest
 

1. Why gamers really need VPN

2. Our No.1 most-read ever Internet safety tips for kids

3. Is it good for my kids?  Fortnite - Explained

 

We think it's the best parental control there is to protect your kids!

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