'Fortnite' addiction is real, and parents are failing to take responsibility

Several articles have been published in the last few months about "Fortnite" and children becoming addicted to it. At the end of November, Bloomberg reported a piece that has reverberated in the minds and homes of parents with teens and adolescents: “'Fortnite' addiction is forcing some kids into video-game rehab.” While as a parent I completely understand how hard it seems to be to police a child as they fight the pull of "Fortnite," a post-apocalyptic competition, on the other hand, it seems like some parents are acting like they aren’t in charge of their home, devices, or money.

While children can be unpredictable (they say and do things out of your control), devices can be cut off, put on pause, sold, given away, or thrown in the trash.

The mom in the Bloomberg piece said her 17-year-old son was logging on for up to 12 hours a day. His grades were suffering and the kid wasn’t sleeping. "We’d made some progress in getting him to cut down his 'Fortnite' hours and get better sleep, but he’s slipped back into his old habits,” Vitany said. "I've never seen a game that has such control over kids’ minds."

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