西班牙治疗儿童手机依赖症

Spain treats child phone addicts
Experts are concerned by children's increased use of mobile phones

西班牙治疗儿童手机依赖症

专家们十分关注儿童手机使用量增长的问题

Two children in Spain have been admitted to a mental health institution to be treated for addiction to their mobile phones, Spanish media report.

The children, aged 12 and 13, were sent to the clinic by their parents, who said they could not carry out normal activities without their handsets.

据西班牙媒体报道，西班牙一家心理健康研究所接纳了两个患有手机依赖症的儿童。

这两个孩子，一个12岁，一个13岁，是由他们父母带到诊所来的。他们父母说，这两个孩子离开了手机就不能正常生活

They were doing badly at school and lying to relatives in order to get money to spend on their phones.

They have been learning to cope without their phones for three months.

他们在学校表现很差，而这一切与他们一直想方设法在手机上花钱有关。

他们已经开始为期3个月的训练，来学习在没有手机的情况下生活。

Dr Maite Utges, who runs the Child and Youth Mental Health Centre in Lleida, near Barcelona in north-eastern Spain, said it was the first time the clinic had treated children who were dependent on their mobile phones.

这家儿童与青年心理健康中心位于巴塞罗那附近的莱达（Lleida）。其负责人麦特•乌特哲斯（Maite Utges）博士说这是该诊所第一次治疗患有手机依赖症的儿童。

"They both showed disturbed behaviour and this exhibited itself in failure at school. They both had serious difficulties leading normal lives," she was quoted in Spanish papers as saying.

The children had owned their phones for 18 months, and their parents had made little effort to restrict their use before noticing how serious their dependence had become.

“他们都有不正常的行为，并且在学校表现很差。他俩都很难进行正常生活。”她对西班牙报纸如此说道。

这两个孩子用手机都超过了18个月。而他们的父母在发现他们对手机产生严重依赖之前基本没有对他们使用手机作出严格的限制。


'Tip of iceberg'

冰山一角

Dr Jose Martinez-Raga, an expert in addictions, said children who developed a dependency on mobile phones, like those who over-used video games, often became irritable, withdrawn and antisocial, and their school performance deteriorated.

He warned these cases could be the "tip of the iceberg", and that mobile phone addiction "could definitely be a danger in the future".

依赖症专家，胡赛•马丁内斯-拉加博士说患有手机依赖症的孩子，就像患有电子游戏依赖症的孩子一样，常常变得易怒、消极和不易交往，而他们的成绩也会变差。

他警告说这两个病例可能只是冰山一角，而手机依赖症“将必然是未来生活的一大危害”。

Fears have been raised in a number of countries about the adverse effects mobile phone use may have on children.

Dr Utges recommended that parents not allow their children to have mobile phones until they reached 16 years of age.

许多国家已经开始担心儿童使用手机所会产生的负面影响。

乌特哲斯博士建议父母禁止16岁以下的孩子使用手机。