(woman laughs)
I love designing games
because I can make it how I want it to move.
So is this what you coded over here?
Yeah, so when you set up and it begins
this is what it creates.
Oh, nice.
I'm amazed of how much work and effort goes into it
but how,
how wonderful it is.
I was addicted to video games.
I'm working on that addiction, on how to control it,
and knowing how to make it into something good.
Like coding.
That's phenomenal.
It makes you want more.
It's,
it's kind of like with nicotine
and it, you have to, it's tough,
because every time you go on it just grows
until a point where that's all you think of.
And that's why it's,
that's why it's tough to get,
to not play it as much.
There's days I look back
and it's like,
it's almost like a dream, it's almost like a
catastrophe that's occurred
and you're looking back at it
and you're amazed that you got through it.
I've been bullied since kindergarten.
Like any chance they could,
they would just bully me.
They'd bully me because of my medical condition.
They called me "infected"
because I had kidney disease,
and they didn't wanna be around me,
and it just became,
one point it became unbearable.
About six years old,
Sean started playing the Xbox.
It was a lifesaver for me
when you're having to balance cooking, and cleaning,
and working, juggling all of that
to have this technology
entertaining your child.
I slowly learned about multiplayer.
I just couldn't believe I was
playing with other kids.
I couldn't play sports,
I couldn't be running 'cause I'm not fast,
I couldn't do a lot that they did.
When I could beat the kids at multiplayer,
that became like a different thing
where I was achieving something.
I was happy and I was also achieving things.
I was beating my bullies.
I felt like an outcast almost.
At school.
And I felt like
nobody really liked me.
And then when I went into the virtual world,
it just became
almost like visiting a different planet.
I was just amazed
of how different things were.
If someone was saying stuff,
I could just get out of the game,
join a different server, a different game.
I had the control to do different things.
I had the control to not be bullied,
to have happiness where
things were nice.
It was
a castle in a cloud, a castle made of candy,
it was a happy place almost.
So I started playing it all the time.
Sneaking it.
I used my iPad to play it,
I was sneaking it all the time.
The other kids were playing it,
and they could see that I was better than them.
I don't wanna lose, I don't want them to beat me.
I had to keep the score
to one point when I was sneaking in the middle of the night
because then I could just catch up over night.
And one night he tripped over the router.
Three o'clock in the morning on a school night
and he's trying to plug the router in
to get games.
I took away the iPad,
and then he went onto my computer.
When I shut that down and locked it,
he went onto my phone.
So every time I would set up another barrier,
he would go down another path.
I snuck it about 10, 12 times a day.
And one point I was doing it during tests and quizzes.
I figured out ways how to sneak it
and then switch back.
And even though I was, like, getting caught,
I kept doing it, 'cause I kept wanting that sense of
I'm winning, and even if I would just have it
for like a few seconds, it was still that sense of
I am winning.
With the video games,
he led me to believe I'm doing my homework,
I'm doing my schoolwork.
And he was historically an overachieving student.
He graduated with the
Presidential Academic Achievement award just last year
and it wasn't until I got his final report card
and he had a D- in math.
I was devastated, it was like someone dropped a bomb on me.
Like how did this happen,
how did this downhill spiral happen
and happen so quickly?
The last day of school when I reviewed all of his grades
and got the report card,
I pulled out all the technology.
My skin was crawling,
I just, I had to get back on
to have that feeling again.
I started to get all stressed
and I started to get anxiety and
it just started to build up and build up.
He was constantly scratching himself.
He was having these tantrums.
Everything was a fight.
I had never seen anything like that.
By day five, he was just
beyond impossible.
He was hitting himself at one point,
just hitting his arm.
I just couldn't handle it anymore.
And then I ran away.
He's gone out in the middle of the night.
Someone's picking up, I'm thinking the worst.
He's been duct taped, put into a cage,
and he's gonna be, you know,
worse than death.
And he was a few blocks over hiding in
a neighbor's shed.
All I remember was holding him.
If I could go into a virtual world with him,
if I could go into his virtual place where we're safe, I.
The first thing I did was get him immediate help
and I sent him
to Camp Poconos.
They have a program for
internet addiction, video game addiction.
We learned how to control time on tech.
We play out skits of to do if and when we're bullied.
And then we just do fun activities.
How to live a happier life.
While he was away,
I did a lot of research.
There wasn't a lot out there,
yet there were folks starting, trying to understand this.
My goal was to get him the help to understand this.
So how do we change this?
If he enjoys technology, how do we flip the pancake?
One point, one of his teacher's reached out,
they set him up for an elective which was coding.
How do we handle this and how do we handle tech?
My first reaction was, well
you need to feed the beast,
but you need to feed it in a productive manner.
He has this craving and this enjoyment and this desire
to be in the tech field.
Feed it in a productive manner.
And my feeling was, let's get him into coding.
Let's get him behind the scenes of computer
and if enjoys it that much,
maybe he'll decide to design a game
and go down that path.
He started doing that.
When he comes to me and says, "Mom, can I show you
the latest thing," that's the good stuff.
Since coding started, so it began trimester,
And we learned, she tought us the basics like,
how to make variables.
And this is measure 12, to measure 15.
The background's gonna change to electronic.
If you're making your own
you can make it however you want it.
I can make games that other people can play
and other people enjoy.
Yeah in coding class we had a challenge
and the dance party and then it was me versus another kid
and then the class voted for which one they liked better.
And I won, it felt pretty good.
Then after 44.
♪ She like to move it, move it ♪
♪ He like to move it, move it ♪
♪ We like to move it ♪
It would change to nothing, 'cause then it fades out.