Video Game Addiction: Nearly 1 In 10 Children Is At Risk

Roughly 1 in 10 children who play video games are at risk of becoming pathologically addicted to them, found a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.

That means for every classroom of 30 kids, three of them could develop a hardcore digital addiction that boosts the risk of depression, social phobia and poor school performance, the study found.

Over a two-year span, researchers from the U.S., Hong Kong and Singapore studied the video game habits of 3,000 Singaporean children from grades 3, 4, 7 and 8.

Kids who averaged 31 or more hours of gameplay a week were classified as pathological or "obsessive" gamers and were determined more likely to develop serious mental health issues.

Inclined to believe video game addiction is just a passing phase? WebMD reports that 84 percent of students who were considered addicts when the study began were still addicted two years later.

Still, such findings are preliminary. U.S. News reports:

Although pathological video gaming appears to share a number of characteristics with other addictive behaviors, such as pathological gambling, the researchers noted that "pathological gaming" is not yet an established psychological disorder.

Comments

[jacomo1025]

09:33 AM on 01/23/2011

When I first read the article, I was ready to jump on the video addiction wagon. But after giving the whole thing some thought, I'm not so sure. Many of the popular games are so complex that it takes hours and hours to master, so that could account for the gaming marathons. As for the team games, kids have the opportunity to learn skills in sportsmanship and develop a positive level of competitiveness. What is worrisome is the anti-social 30 year old, living in their parent's basement, surrounded by a bank of monitors, playing video games all day long. I know that's a stereotype, but I'll bet that's what many parents are worrying about when they see their kids glued to the PS3.

[garystartswithg]

10:31 PM on 01/23/2011

I don't understand why people demonize gaming -- a gambling can obviously make it harder to pay the light bill, an alcohol addiction can make it harder to pay your light bill and rot your liver at the same time. there are real reasons why they are considered bad. if you have an addiction to one glass of wine a night that isn't so bad though, and buying a lottery ticket every time you buy gas or a gallon of milk is ok by most people's morals. If you are raising cabbage on farmville and not feeding your family at the same time that is a little more than a game addiciton -- you got some serious issues.
Is gaming any better or worse way to waste time than any other means of wasting time -- like commenting on HuffPost? I doubt it. In fact the way some people run rampant on these boards just to be contrary is freakishly anti-social, and probably should be a much bigger concern than playing games in your leisure time.

[NinaColbert]

10:42 PM on 01/20/2011

I had to lock away the playststion. My kids played non-stop and when I set a time limit, they would quarrell when their time was up. I hated the fighting. On two occasions, I left them to play to see what they would do.
They played from 10 am to midnight, without stopping to eat or drink! Even when I told them food was on the table they could not voluntarily come away from the game.
Off course it was no surprise that my older son flunked all his freshman classes in his first quarter, his room mate moved in with an X-box!
Tweleve thousand dollars later, with nothing to show for it, he is back,enrolled in a local college. He has to live at home so I get to police his homework -again.
I do believe that some kids can have control but many do suffer from an uncontrolled addiction.

[ritgar]

06:04 AM on 01/21/2011

Absolutely true & I went thru the same with my son. Not only was the $13K in tuition lost for a semester, he also lost his 50% scholarship! His friends are Doctors, Lawyers & Engineers - he was in his mom's basement playing games. He also moved home &I'm the police force - but it is really hard.

[NinaColbert]

10:20 PM on 01/21/2011

There are too many challenges to raising kids these days. Not only do we have to fear drugs, drink and inappropriate relationships but we now have to fear technology that we voluntarily bring into our homes.

[lessthansign3]

10:04 PM on 01/20/2011

Video games are not the problem... they are a symptom. Those kids are unhappy, depressed, anxious, or bored with school to begin with. The vast majority of kids who grew up with video games in the 80s and 90s are not only well-adjusted adults, but many of us were playing video games during high school when the "cool kids" were out getting drunk and high. We also developed excellent hand-eye coordination (I type at a max. 100 WPM with excellent accuracy, and I will gladly attribute that to the many hours I spent playing Sonic the Hedgehog when I was 6 years old), which is incredibly important in today's world. Studies are beginning to show that video games are actually *GASP* GOOD FOR YOU! :D

If your kid is locked in their room all day playing World of Warcraft, then find out why. It's not the game, I can guarantee it. Are they having problems with other kids or friends at school? Are they just naturally shy and need help learning how to make friends? Are they depressed about something? If they weren't playing video games, they'd probably be doing something else like watching TV or smoking pot. Given the alternatives, I'd rather have my kid playing video games.

[canukian]

02:40 PM on 01/22/2011

I'm so glad that we have your opinion to refute the empirical evidence provided above. I will now disregard the study above because of your heartfelt belief.

[garystartswithg]

10:37 PM on 01/23/2011

if one study created all global warming theory then i would be a crazy pants tea bagger too.

[Heretical-Eggs]

01:31 PM on 01/23/2011

I played video games in the eighties, and I have have played video games including a number of mmos during the last decade. I can say with certainty that the games I knew when I was kid are nothing like games that we have seen over the last decade.

Today's video games especially the genre of mmos are intentionally designed to be addicting. I don't need to cite any evidence because a simple google will yield a bounty of articles from various valid sources. I can cite from personal experience that they are indeed addicting. I am a balanced and happy adult, and when I played, I did only for fun. Yet, I had to be very careful not to be sucked in.

I can agree that many kids and adults use video games to escape some underlying problems, and yes, parents should be aware of these problems. However, I feel that video games are so insidious today, that if I were a parent, I would be very strict with my child's access to them.

As for typing fast, I don't think a regimen of video games is the proper way to acquire that skill. One can in fact take a typing class. I did, and I can still type almost as fast with correct grammar and spelling as my thoughts come out which is rather fast. Video games however did give me a minor case of carpal tunnel once.

[Heretical-Eggs]

01:39 PM on 01/23/2011

Woops, I forgot to include an article in my second sentence. I suppose I don't type as well as I thought. Oh well...

[Peabody II]

07:29 PM on 01/20/2011

"Video game addiction" = "Digital Autism"

[Cole 33]

03:28 PM on 01/20/2011

this is silly without much info.

what KIND of video games were they playing, tons of video games now are incredibly interactive. Rock band you need three people all interacting together to play. My wife and I love playing tennis together when we can't get outside.

My young cousin plays a game thats team based and he has to coordinate with those he's playing with toward a specific goal.

Video games aren't pac man anymore.

My wife hated when i got a PS3, but now when she can't make it to the gym, she plays this workout video game, and it's def not passive she's def sweating when she's done.

Video games are changing entertainment and they are making games that get you off the couch and hit audiences that normally wouldn't play games.

So if my kid is playing 31 hours a week of interactive tennis, boxing, fencing, golf, something interactive like that, it's not AS MUCH of a problem.

I'm way more concerned if my kid was watch 30 mins of the jersey shore every week.

[lessthansign3]

10:11 PM on 01/20/2011

Even before these nifty workout games, there were always multiplayer games that fostered that kind of social activity. My boyfriend and his friends were total dorks, and rather than go out and party like the rest of their high school peers, they got together on Friday nights to play Halo and consume large amounts of pizza and Mt. Dew. My friends and I would play Mario Kart on the Nintendo 64. Even when I was really young, my older brother and I would play our Sega Genesis together. We bonded over those games, despite being three and a half years apart in age.

Video games are constantly looked down upon by those who've never tried them. I grew up with them, so perhaps I'm biased, but I believe that they had a positive impact on me.

[Cole 33]

12:03 PM on 01/21/2011

It def depends on whether you grew up with them. Video games are being made for everyone now, my wife who never played video games LOVES rock band and tennis and boxing. they are incorporating family style games that everyone can play

[Majestry]

01:55 PM on 01/20/2011

From 6th grade through the first year after high school, I played, on average, 50 hours or computer games per week. I played MMOs like Everquest and World of Warcraft endlessly. I did learn a lot of positive things playing since I was a leader in some of the best guilds in the world and learned how to coordinate groups of people, manage large group tasks, deal with clashing personalities, etc, but I did spend my life at the computer.

There were things that lead me to playing video games instead of doing other things including a very unsightly disfigurement that ruined my ability to be social. Now, I have come to the conclusion that I can't play computer games for a while and be done. I don't play. Even though I'm no longer "addicted," it hasn't improved anything as the original reason for my escape into computer games still exists.

[jsgaetano]

01:17 PM on 01/20/2011

So... would you rather have them addicted to drugs, or video games?

[Cole 33]

03:17 PM on 01/20/2011

Or tv. Kids watch FAR more than 31 hours of tv a week.

[JStading]

06:32 PM on 01/20/2011

Why chose?

[jsgaetano]

12:18 AM on 01/21/2011

Good point!

[Payforit]

12:12 PM on 01/20/2011

I was a proud member of the computer club at my high school ten years ago when I graduated. We played games as much as we possibly could. None of us did drugs, none of us got anyone pregnant, almost all of us got good grades and went on to college; the one's who didn't get good grades had parents that weren't strict and let them get away with it. Two of my friends from the club now work at Google making a boat load of money in their late 20s.

I'm doing extremly well myself and still play video games whenever my wife will let me get away with it.

[zannamar]

01:08 PM on 01/20/2011

So you and your highschool classmates are the 9 in 10.

[DrSnuggles]

11:53 AM on 01/20/2011

Interesting, but what does this mean for the actual children involved? It's easy to claim that video games are psychologically addictive etc. etc. but the only thing we know for sure is that the children are choosing the games over other activities. The question is why?

For example, a child is choosing video games over social interaction. Are they doing this because social interaction isn't readily available? Or are they doing this because they actually prefer isolation to social interaction. Obviously, we need both (every couple of weeks I have to hole up for a day and be alone) but there's alot more going on here than video games are evil and addictive.

Most likely video games are an enabler for children who do not want to or cannot develop social skills.

[Cole 33]

03:19 PM on 01/20/2011

well we don't know that the game they played werent' socially interactive.

the other night, my wife and I and two of our friend played tennis and golf all together on the wii, super fun, very interactive, and way better than sitting passively in front of the tv on a cold rainy day

[purenergy]

03:34 AM on 01/20/2011

We have a PS3 that my kids are not interested in, they want to play outside. But they do like to watch mom and dad act a fool playing Sing Star.

[KEATSnSKYESMOM]

11:46 PM on 01/19/2011

Just kids? My husband loves him some video games. Madden Football, Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto . . . Madden Football . . . did I say Madden Football?

It doesn't really bother me (ok sometimes it does) but it helps him relax after a hard day on the job.

My kids are only allowed to play video games on Fridays and Saturdays. They are timed and if my son screams while playing he gets three warnings and it is turned off. He is autistic too so I have to be super careful - he could play all night and not eat and go to the bathroom on himself.

[Forester]

06:19 PM on 01/19/2011

There are literally hundreds of thousands of hours spent by game developers and digital graphics artists to make these games addictive. The cost to my kids in wasted hours, days, weeks, months is very real, but I too have been hooked on Quake and other FPS games. The problem is they need to be more engaged with actual people out in the sunshine when they are that age. I have been pretty successful in using their gaming time as a reward for good grades and alternative activities, as opposed to punishing them for abusing it. Parents needs to take a serious look at this issue whether their kids are "addicted" or not. If your kid has obsessive tendencies, pay even closer attention.

Addiction is defined as : being abnormally tolerant to and dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming.

[teva]

03:27 PM on 01/20/2011

How did you switch from, perhaps, your children playing when they wanted and the reward system? I have been thinking of doing something like this myself.

[Fred Butters]

06:00 PM on 01/19/2011

The type of person who needs to play video games that much may have a problem that isn't caused by video games. But of course, we always have to blame something.

[Forester]

06:10 PM on 01/19/2011

Q: Do you have teen aged sons? No, I didn't think so.

Opinions are fine, but judgments without experience is a waste of everybody's time.

[Acert]

02:51 AM on 01/20/2011

It's ironic (and hypocritical) that you would say that, right after you judged Fred Butters without experience.

[Fred Butters]

06:28 PM on 01/21/2011

Haha, well I guess that's your opinion. Sorry your son is an addict.

[Acert]

05:23 PM on 01/19/2011

So over 90% of children in Singapore, who play video games, are NOT at risk of addiction.

[maebven]

05:10 PM on 01/19/2011

Hmm, anyone notice the similarity between Huff. Post (my latest addiction) and World of Warcraft? We get rewards for posting (badges, friends, followers). That gives us a tiny ego rush that keeps us coming back to spread our invaluable opinions and spend more time at the HP. Again...hmmm...