he gave up watching tv or talking to friends in class ix the rays got him a computer to reward him for his academic performance i have a different set of friends on twitter who i have never actually met or known but we chat about our interests or whatever strikes the mood nair says but adils gaming obsession soon led to him failing a subject then a class till he eventually dropped out of school my friends are all online diya nair 24 is on twitter facebook pinterest and instagram through her waking hours he even ate his meals at the computer table fearing a break might affect his score the challenge is to recognise that theres a problem she finds going to a dinner or movie pointless she asks in exasperation among the top three students in his class ishans day increasingly became about his online scores by 17 his behaviour had become rough and violentthe we have even seen cases where children have been online for 19 hours at a time his need to constantly be online would make him issue threats to end his life by jumping off the balcony of their multistoreyed building in bengaluru excessive internet use is seen as a behavioural addiction which means losing the ability to stop going online to the point where it impacts on other areas of your life including relationships emotions social life and school while diya has to keep her obsession in check at work rhea jha 11 had no such barriers it is a worrying sign adil khan was a single child whose father would shower him with expensive gifts among the top net addictions are gaming social media and porn in that order we advise parents and children to spend time together talk to each other ask the child to take interest in other activities cultivate a hobby or sport sharma says ishan had broken the tv his fathers laptop and even started hitting himself pricking his head with a safety pin or using a blade to slash his fingers now we receive fivesix cases and some of them are cases of selfharm a recent uk study found that 373 of 15yearolds were extreme internet users spending at least six hours a day on the net in india internet use above five hours is considered excessive says dr yatan balhara from the aiims internet deaddiction centre both rhea and adil had to go for counselling rhea was online fivesix hours a day and had built up the persona of a loner who was living with parents who did not love or understand her excessive internet use among young people is making many lose control often with serious consequenceskolkatabased nina ray will not forget the morning when her son hit her all for the love of computer games it was only when he started playing computer games endlessly for 1012 hours a day that things spiralled out of control there is reason to worry if