Is your child glued to the computer screen?
It could be that your child simply plays a lot of computer games and researchers have now identified the top warning signs.
Many children and young people play a lot, games such as Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft, often with both known and unknown online players.
This can be a great way to socialize with friends and acquaintances. But for some it can get completely out of hand.
However, Lars Wichstrøm, professor at NTNU’s Department of Psychology, said: “If gaming over a long period of time affects the young person’s ability to interact with the outside world, this may be due to computer game addiction or ‘Internet gaming disorder.’”
An international research group investigated how symptoms of computer game addiction develop, and how stable these symptoms are from childhood to late adolescence.
Two factors replicated across age and gender among those diagnosed with IGD: high involvement (high gaming) and negative consequences (harmful consequences).
“About one in ten boys met the diagnostic criteria for computer game addiction, called ‘Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD)’, at least once between the ages of 10 and 18,” Wichstrøm revealed.
Boys are most likely to become addicted to gaming, while only 1 to 2 percent of girls develop these types of problems. An average incidence of between 5 and 6 percent therefore conceals major differences between men and women.
“Boys are simply more competitive,” says Wichstrøm.
“We don’t really know why more boys are becoming addicted, but boys have always been more interested in gaming than girls, be it computer games, ludo or chess,” he added.
When boys and men do things together, it often revolves around an activity, such as playing football, carpentry or playing. Girls don’t need this kind of structure as much.
“The brain releases dopamine in the reward center when we do activities we enjoy, such as gaming. This release increases when we expect a positive experience and when the expectation is actually met,” says Beate W. Hygen, senior researcher at NTNU Social Research AS.
Parents who wonder whether their child could become addicted to computer games would be wise to address this early.
“Children who are heavily involved in gaming in their teenage years are likely to become even more involved later in life. They are also more likely to experience negative consequences, especially when they are 14 to 18 years old,” Wichstrøm explains.
