A report on Ananova today, discusses the dangers of prolonged gaming sessions after a boy was taken to hospital after playing Counter-Strike solidly for nine days and nights. The fourteen year old from Romania was playing over the net via a local internet café, and doctors at the hospital said he was both mentally and physically exhausted.

The boy's mother said he had lost weight, stopped washing, skipped classes at school, and even stolen from his own home to fund the addiction. Surely this is a time when the café owner should have had 'quiet word' before the situation got out of hand? The boy's mother is to press for rules which exclude those of school age from such establishment's after 10pm.

By Luke Guttridge