Kids Now Being Treated for Cell Phone Addiction

It's come this this. Too much time texting is now an addiction.

Two children have been admitted to a mental health clinic suffering from an addiction to their mobile phones.

The Spanish boys, aged 12 and 13, were spending up to six hours a day chatting, sending texts, playing games and taking pictures on their phones.

One deceived his grandmother and other relatives into giving him money to fund his habit. The boys were taken to the clinic by their concerned parents.

Yesterday, the head of the clinic called for parents to ban their children using mobiles until they are 16.

Dr Maite Utges, director of the Child and Youth Mental Health Centre in Lleida, north-east Spain, said: 'It's the first time we have applied a treatment for curing a dependency on a mobile phone.

'Both showed signs of behavioural problems and were failing in school. Both had problems living a normal life without their mobile phones.'