why the kids are inside

From the «scary outside» department:
Title: It’s not them, it’s us: the real reason teens are ‘addicted’ to video games | Keith Stuart and Keza MacDonald
Author: Keith Stuart and Keza MacDonald
Date: Tue, 09 Jul 2024 09:30:12 +0000
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/09/its-not-them-its-us-the-real-reason-teens-are-addicted-to-video-games
Podcast Download URL: https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1947b3e9be117188c583200886727ba0ef6e1506/0_336_5040_3024/master/5040.jpg?width=460&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=441bd11d49f61ad6b23c83a370effc1b

We criticise children for not going outside – while curtailing their freedoms
and closing their spaces

On Sunday the Observer magazine published a sensitive piece[1] about video game
addiction, speaking to therapists working in the sector and one affected
family. Genuine, compulsive, life-altering addiction, whether to video games or
anything else, is of course devastating for those affected by it. Since the WHO
classified gaming addiction as a specific disorder in 2018[2] (distinct from
technology addiction), the specialist National Centre for Gaming Disorders set
up in the UK has treated just over 1,000 patients. Thankfully, the numbers
suggest it is rare, affecting less than 1% of the 88% of teenagers who play
games.

The article asked, “why are so many young people addicted to video games?”,
which no doubt struck a chord with many parents who despair at the amount of
time their children spend in front of computers and consoles. Speaking as the
video games editor and correspondent at the Guardian, however, we think that
most of us who are worried about how long our teenagers are spending with games
are not dealing with an addiction problem, nor with compulsive behaviour. If we
want to know why many teens choose of their own free will to spend 10 or 20
hours a week playing games, rather than pathologising them, we ought to look
around us.
Continue reading...[3]

Links:
[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/07/video-games-why-are-so-many-young-people-addicted (link)
[2]: https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/frequently-asked-questions/gaming-disorder (link)
[3]: https://www.theguardian.com/games/article/2024/jul/09/its-not-them-its-us-the-real-reason-teens-are-addicted-to-video-games (link)