Many doctors are concerned about the high use of computer games by children and young people. What mental and physical problems may arise from excessive use of these games? How can these problems be reduced?

In recent years, videogame addiction has become an immense problem that affects adolescents and young children all over the world, as well as being a leading cause of low school performance. Numerous health-related issues resulting from high usage of computer entertainment are being discovered;

however

, the best solution is yet to be found. One of the main problems video gaming creates is the inability of youngsters to form social relationships outside the online world.

That is

to say, communication and social interactions between young children is deteriorated by their lack of real-world contact.

For instance

, researchers have discovered that psychological afflictions,

such

as autism and depression, are strongly related to computer games. Another issue is that a lot of games promote violence and criminal behaviour.

Consequently

, children are encouraged to play games that affect their personality development.

For example

, games like Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed, are war-related and promote crime and gunfights. A

third

problem that arises from videogame addiction is poor academic performance and attention deficits. A typical example of

this

situation is that young individuals play videogames at night and during the day they experience tiredness and their academic results are no longer up to standards. Dealing with

this

issue involves a lot of steps and cooperation between the child’s family and teachers.

Firstly

, parents should read game labels when they purchase them because the producers introduced age-related warnings,

such

as PEG-18. In

this

way, they can control what games their child plays. Another solution would be to replace computer gaming with family board games and activities,

therefore

, promoting familial relationship development.

For example

, organising a day of the week into a game-day helps children develop their social skills.

Also

,

this

matter can be addressed by communicating better with the school teachers to observe the youngster’s behaviour.

As a result

, a problem in academic performance can be detected early and programs for videogame addiction could be organised by the school psychologist. To conclude, online gaming dependence is an important issue adolescents face and we need to tackle

this

obstacle urgently.

Although

there are many difficulties in addressing it, I believe that with enough support from the families and schools, our children will get the help they need.