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What are the risks of online gaming?

Although there are some great benefits to online gaming for young people, there are important risk factors that might impact their wellbeing.

Games can offer young people a sense of escape from the reality of the world and the social aspect of some games can help children feel part of a community. However, without the right guidance on what games to play or when to play, children can be exposed to certain risks such as in-game bullying, online grooming or in some extreme cases gaming addiction.

Below we’ve provided advice on some of the potential risks and things you can do to support young people on these issues to build their resilience and help them make safer choices while gaming.

Recognising the signs

There has been a lot in the news about online gaming addiction as one of the risk factors associated with video games. Many parents and carers worry that their children may become addicted to their video game pastime.

This is not surprising. As with any hobby — football, chess, reading — those who enjoy playing video games for leisure will do so enthusiastically and deeply. This can lead to a desire from children to play for longer and more frequently. Of course, video games are designed to minimise the hurdles to repeat play and maximise enjoyment. This persuasive approach means it’s important for parents to guide children with screen time limits (available on consoles and smartphones) as they develop their own healthy boundaries.

Gaming addiction classified as disorder

These worries have been intensified with news that the World Health Organisation (WHO) adding “gaming” under the section that deals with ‘Disorders due to addictive behaviours’ (category 06) which also deals with alcohol, drugs, gambling. There has been strong disagreement among experts on the inclusion of video gaming in the ICD-11 list.

This criteria, when endorsed, aims to identify extreme cases of behaviour as addiction. The average child who plays a lot of games is not addicted. Only when their gaming is to the severe detriment of other parts of life — including schoolwork, relationships, personal hygeine, health and other areas. When they continue to pursue video gaming in spite of the negative effects for at least 12 months does it start to fall into this diagnosis.

Also, it’s important to understand that the levels of dopamine that games create in the brain are only a tenth of those created by chemical substances that can be addictive. Withdrawal symptoms from video gaming could include behaviours such as irritability or aggression as well as other impacts to mood rather than chemical withdrawal associated with substance abuse. Addiction treatment is about helping children form new habits to change this behaviour.

Managing online interactions

Like many things in life, video games are much more fun when played with other people. Recently that has transitioned from playing with people in the same room to other people online.

Additionally, the numbers of people that can participate in a single game has greatly risen. The popularity of Fortnite stems in part from its inclusion of 100 strangers in the same fight to the death.

Growth of social networking in gaming

Also, the level and types of communication online games offer has evolved significantly over recent years. Whereas games were seen separately to social media, they now greatly overlap with online kancilwin social sharing sites. In fact, most children’s first interaction with someone they don’t know online is now more likely to be in a video game like Roblox than anywhere else.

Use of personas to hide real identities

In these games, players do not necessarily know who they are playing with. Online personas in the games may report to be other children but it is hard to validate if this is the case. Because of this, parents and carers need to understand the games their children are playing and how to set them up safely.

Handled sensibly, playing with other children online can enrich a child’s enjoyment and also bring them into contact with others from around the world with different cultures and outlooks.