Walsall child in care over parents' gaming
A child was taken into care after its parents were found to be neglectful - with spending too much time on video games among the reasons behind the move.
Playing computer games was highlighted as one of the alleged actions deemed as 'neglect' prompting social workers in Walsall to intervene.
Council chiefs have insisted a range of issues and factors would trigger such action to be taken.
A leading children's charity has also said excessive gaming alone would not be the only reason for intervention.
Details have been revealed under a Freedom of Information Act request into children being taken into care across the country and also cites an example of bad teeth in the borough.
An estimated 30,000 young people are taken into care each year and other reasons highlighted in other parts of the UK are parent's smoking.
Around 20 million Brits are regular gamers spending an average of nine hours each week playing popular titles such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty.
Claude Knights, chief executive of charity Kidscape, said she didn't believe that excessive gaming on its own would cause a child to be taken from relatives.
"If anything is taken to an extreme it does affect family life," she said.
"I just couldn't believe that in itself would be a factor on its own.
"There would be a raft of issues that would cause concern. It is a very serious thing to take a child from its own family."
Councillor Eddie Hughes, portfolio holder for children's services, said: "Walsall Council provided this information under a FOI request and included reference to specific factors as detailed within the request.
"As stated in the FOI response - issues around the safeguarding of children in the Walsall borough are taken very seriously and if a child is taken into authority care many factors would be taken into consideration.
"The specific indicators cited in your article would not be looked at in isolation, but as part of a range of issues affecting the safety and well being of a child."
Video game addiction is hypothesized to be an excessive or compulsive use of computer or video games, which interferes with a person's everyday life.
It is said video game addiction can lead to social isolation, mood swings, diminished imagination and to hyper-focus on in-game achievements, to the exclusion of other events in life.
