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'Haul Videos' Showcase Shopping Addictions

BOSTON (CBS) -- A lot of people are going to cringe when they tear open their holiday shopping credit card bills. But for some teenagers, shopping is a year round addiction. Some experts say a new internet craze, called haul videos, is making the problem even worse.

There are tens of thousands of these videos on YouTube. They look online versions of the Home Shopping Network, instead of selling the clothes, teenagers show off their latest mall purchases. Shopping addiction expert April Benson calls it a dangerous phenomenon. "Instead of 'show and tell', it's 'shop and tell,'" she explained.

Here's how it works. First, kids power shop, buying as much as they can afford and often even more. Then they post a video of all they hauled home. Kids say it is no different than trying on clothes for their friends just on a larger scale.

WBZ-TV's Sera Congi reports.

Critics say it sends the wrong message to kids.

"It's certainly emphasizing again that consumption is where it's at," Benson said. Experts fear these videos will convince kids that buying is the best way to have a better life. "It's a message that happiness is only as far away as the next purchase," Benson added.

According to experts like Benson, this kind of shopping can lead to huge credit card bills. It is a vicious cycle 21-year-old self-proclaimed shopaholic Angelica Boccella has been trying to break. "I was buying things and then forgetting I had them," she said showing off the nearly 300 pairs of shoes she has stacked in her closet.

Angela's mother said her addiction started at the young age of 10 and then spun out of control when she got a job at a clothing store. "The manager said we love your daughter because when we give her a paycheck, it goes right back into the store," she said. "I owed crazy amounts of money and I had zero in my checking account to pay for it," Angelica said.

"People think it's not as dangerous as drug addiction, alcohol addiction eating disorders, but it can be. Suicide has been linked to debt in college students," Benson warned.

Angelica has cut way down on her spending and she has a warning of her own for the girls in those haul videos. "If you are always worried about what you're going to wear and what styles are in then you lose sight of your priorities."

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