Fortnite addiction: Girl, 9, in therapy after becoming hooked on violent survival game

Survival game: Addictive online game Fortnite
Robin de Peyer11 June 2018

A nine-year-old girl was left needing therapy after becoming addicted to hit online game Fortnite.

The primary school pupil stayed up at night playing the violent survival game on her X-Box as her parents slept.

She was so hooked that she wet herself rather than get up to use the toilet, the Sunday People reported.

Her mother, Carol, 36, told the paper: “We had no idea, when we let her play the game, of the ­addictive nature or the impact it could have on her mental health.

“She is in therapy for the addiction after she became withdrawn, agitated and disturbed from playing up to ten hours a day – sometimes playing until dawn, wetting herself so she didn’t have to leave the screen.

The game has been downloaded millions of times

“This is a serious issue which is destroying our little girl’s life”.

Fortnite, a survival shooter game, has been played by 50 million people and endorsed by celebrities including England footballer Dele Alli.

The girl’s parents only realised there was a problem when they received a call from their daughter’s headteacher after she fell asleep in lessons and her grades began to slip.

They also became suspicious after £50 payments were being made on a monthly basis from their credit card, which was being used to buy extras to enhance performance on the free game.

Steve Pope, an addictions counsellor treating the girl, said he has been contacted by dozens of parents who fear their children – some as young as eight – could be hooked on the game.

The Evening Standard has contacted Fortnite’s makers, Epic Games, for comment.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT