We have been saying "Stop Virtual Autism" and we support children with mental illnesses for 7 years

The joy we experience when we find out that we will become parents does not compare to anything in the world and since then we have been dreaming of the moment when we will hold our child in our arms for the first time. For some parents, this joy is overshadowed by worry when they discover that their little one was born with a health problem.

In a world where technology can be a reliable ally in many areas, it can erode, over time, the health of children who spend more and more time in front of electronic devices and can develop a type of autism, virtual.

MaxBet, together with the Association for the Mental Health of the Child, is with the parents who fight, day by day, a fight with virtual autism and we chose to support the Foundation's activity since 2012 to give the little ones a chance at a normal life.

A “Stop Virtual Autism” campaign has been launched, which aims to raise awareness and train state institutions and parents about the impact of the consumer virtual environment (tablet, smartphone, TV, computer, laptop, etc.) on children aged between 0 and 3 years.

The campaign aims to reduce the number of children with a diagnosis of psychomotor developmental delay, speech and language developmental delay, opposition and/ or behavioral disorders and worse than that, ADHD or even autism, caused by excessive TV viewing (more much more than 4-5 hours/ day) or the use of other forms of virtual reality (smartphone, tablet, computer) by children.

We believe that any support given to the Association is important to continue its work and we want to offer it to parents, whose children suffer from Virtual Autism, a hope and a helping hand, and we promise them that we will continue to be with them.

During 5 years, 2012 - 2017, 110 new children entered the Association's programs were evaluated, in 2018, 74 were evolved, and in 2019, by the end of August, 123 children. Compared to last year, the total number of children evaluated and diagnosed with Virtual Autism, within the Association, has doubled.

Therapy programs were initiated and continued, both at the Center and at home, with a total of 211 children with mental health problems. Of these, 12 were examined at the Center, 44 at home, and the remaining 155 benefited from the complex initial and periodic evaluation program.

The specialists in the field performed 179 evaluations, out of which 138 initial and 41 periodic evaluations. Of the 138 children, aged between 0 and 3 years, initially assessed, 132 had a history of consumption of more than 5 hours a day.

Virtual Autism is booming, with all the efforts of the Association for Child Mental Health so far, but we hope that together and through the continuation of the project more and more specialists and parents will be informed and educated about the effects of excessive consumption of "screens” on children.