Video Game Addiction

More and more children and young people play video games and, as a consequence of their incorrect use, end up becoming addicted to them.

So much so that in 2018, due to this growing problem, the World Health Organization (WHO) categorized video game addiction as a mental health disorder, including it in the section related to addictive disorders of the International Classification of Diseases.

Advantages of Video Game Use

There are numerous and important advantages for programs aimed at preventing video game abuse and dependence. Among these, the following stand out:

• They are a fun form of entertainment that should not be incompatible with other activities, even outdoors.
• They promote concentration, selective attention, STM, LTM, mental agility, and visuospatial aptitude…
• They develop hand-eye coordination and reflexes, as well as reaction time.
• They provide a good learning environment as they develop curiosity and creativity and can foster creative applications.
• They boost self-esteem.
• Many video games are educational and decrease the likelihood of problematic behaviors.
• They promote socialization by being part of a gaming “community.”
• They can mitigate stress.

Disadvantages of Video Game Use

Video games are under scrutiny by all of us who work in child and adolescent health. And, although not all disadvantages are applicable to all video games, this should allow us to be more aware at the time of purchase, by reading detailed information, the recommended age…

Among the main disadvantages of video game use, we find:

• Transmission of violent values. Although many may think that these values will not be transmitted to the child’s or adolescent’s general behavior patterns, since one is the virtual world and the other is the real world, this is not true.

In fact, psychologist Albert Bandura was the one who told us about vicarious learning or modeling as a way of acquiring new behaviors through observation. In this learning, the reinforcement of a behavior is based on those cognitive imitation processes of the model’s behavior. Therefore, adolescents exposed to violent video games can learn models to interact and respond violently with their social environment and, as they associate positive feelings with violence, systematic desensitization occurs. From this point, an adolescent can understand violence as something normal and tolerable, becoming insensitive to the pain of others.

• Transmission of sexist values and, specifically, the transmission of attitudes that promote sexual role stereotypes or, in other words, the belief that people are different based on sex and assigned social role. In this sense, many video games present women as sexual objects, give them a socially irrelevant and male-dependent role, which means they foster sexist behaviors from which we should already be distanced. This is relevant since the learning of values shapes the personality of children and adolescents.
• When excessive time is dedicated to video games, the time that can be dedicated to other necessary, convenient, or pleasant activities is limited, reduced, or even eliminated.
• Some strategy, action, or role-playing video games produce a very high stress response, which causes physiological anxiety symptoms.
• Problems in family and social relationships. The excessive use of video games, in terms of time, reduces the time that can be dedicated to family activities or social interactions that make behavior adaptive and healthy.
• Secondary physical effects. Exposure to excessive optical stimulation, in some cases, with large bursts of light at once, the radiation emitted by the screen, incorrect body posture, and even the lack of hygiene in some rooms where games are played for hours, without going out, ventilating, eating, or showering, seriously harms the health and well-being of children and adolescents.
• Addiction. Some of the above issues favor an excessive use of video games that could turn into abuse. However, we would speak of online game addiction if, in addition to the above, the person cannot carry out their daily activities, needs to play for increasingly longer periods to achieve the same objectives, and experiences intense discomfort when they are deprived of playing video games for a period – for example, due to punishment.

Guidelines for Managing and Limiting Video Game Use

1. Establish a play schedule. Before starting to play, plan together: how long you will play and when it will be time to stop to do other activities or maintain healthy relationships with family and friends. Some games do not save the results obtained if a certain phase is not reached, which always postpones the completion and the child or adolescent sees their desire to play enhanced. In contrast, in online multiplayer mode, games do not end even if the player has left the match, but this also favors delaying completion. Therefore, agreeing on a start and end time becomes a fundamental control mechanism as it allows for regularity in eating and sleeping patterns and the completion of daily, school, and household tasks.
2. Specify the activities to be carried out during periods when not playing. Taking into account both school and daily tasks, as well as leisure activities – not linked to video games – family and social, that are healthy alternatives.
3. Avoid or control online video games. Due to their characteristics, they are the most addictive on the market and for several reasons: as I have already mentioned, the activity continues even if your child has left the game, which favors a delay in completion and enhances the desire to continue playing; they do not have a determined end as there are always more levels to achieve, more points to obtain, and even, in some of them, money; establishment of virtual communities of players with similar interests, with the consequent sense of belonging. Therefore, it is important to control the time our children spend playing online video games until we have a free time organization structured well enough to prevent us from spending too much time playing them.
4. Do not install the game console or computer in the bedroom. When playing in the bedroom, all the behaviors described above are enhanced, it favors family and social isolation, alters the completion of school, daily, and household tasks, disrupts eating and sleeping patterns, which can be interrupted, and makes it difficult to perform tasks with the family. It is better to have both the game console and the computer in one of the common areas of the house such as the dining room, living room, or a family room.
5. Know the video games your children use. This way, we control content that, by age, we consider undesirable and, on the other hand, it breaks the generational barrier that the emergence of new technologies creates.