A nine-year-old girl is reportedly in rehab after becoming so addicted to a computer game she wet herself in order to keep playing (Picture: Fortnite)

A nine-year-old girl is in rehab after becoming so addicted to a computer game she wet herself in order to keep playing.

Her mother, Carol, 36, said she and her husband Richard bought her an Xbox in January and she downloaded Fortnite.

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But in mid-March, they were contacted by her head teacher, who said her grades were slipping and she kept falling asleep in class.

She complained she was too tired to go to gym or ballet class, and Carol began noticing there were regular payments to Microsoft on their credit card, of about £50 a month.


The furious parents confiscated the Xbox, but the child reportedly lashed out and hit her father in the face.

The girl’s grades slipped, and she was staying up until 5am playing the game (Picture: PA)

But the parents only realised how bad things had become when Richard found his daughter sat in a puddle of her own urine.



Carol told the Mirror: ‘My husband saw her light on in the night and found her sitting on a urine-soaked ­cushion playing the game.

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‘I found her backside was red raw. She was so hooked to the game she wouldn’t even go to the toilet.’

Shocked, they asked the little girl to talk to them about what had been happening, when she revealed she had been playing for up to ten hours a day, sometimes until 5am.

Since Fortnite was released last July, more than 40 million people have downloaded it.

40 million people have downloaded the game since its release last year (Picture:Getty)

The multiplayer shooting game’s most popular format sees 100 people jump out of a plane to land on an island and fight until only one is left.

The girl has since been getting psychotherapy treatment.

Thankfully, she is reportedly getting back on track with her schooling and sports.

But her mum said: ‘I urge every parent out there to know what this game can do, how it sucks young children in and could ruin lives.’

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