Yeesh, "kids today"... are all video game addicts???

[Darren Dirt]

http://health.usnews.com/blogs/on-parenting/2009/4/20/is-your-kid-a-video-game-addict-2.html

Are nearly 10 percent of kids and teenagers who play video games showing signs of addiction? That's the word from a report in the journal Psychological Science, which says that 8.5 percent of the 1,178 kids ages 8 to 18 who were randomly sampled by a 2007 Harris poll showed at least 6 of 11 addiction symptoms.

As the Washington Post pointed out in its story this morning, if 8.5 percent of American children and teens are addicted to video games, that would add up to 3 million kids. It's hard to imagine that many kids could be in serious trouble from playing, say, Halo. Just spending a lot of time gaming doesn't mean a kid is in trouble, notes David Gentile, the Iowa State University psychologist who conducted the study. He used the same criteria used to evaluate pathological gambling in the DSM, the diagnostic standard for psychiatric disorders. Gentile's study is the largest involving a nationwide sample to look at video gaming.


Up to four bad habits won't get you diagnosed; with five or more, start worrying. In Gentile's study, the youngsters who had more than four pathological symptoms of video gaming also were more likely to have trouble in school, even after the researchers controlled for the amount of time spent playing. In other words, the problems with school weren't just caused by the fact that gamers spent so much time at the console.

The bottom line: You already know if gaming is causing problems for your child and your family. And if it is, you know the solution, too.

"How do I get this demon out of my child's bedroom?" The doctor has gotten to the point where he asks the child: "What would happen if your mother took the video game out of your room?" The kid then looks at the doctor as if saying: That would never happen. Shifrin, wearing his hat as a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics, says: "We want to empower parents to realize the actual definition of parenting is as a verb, not a noun." The academy recommends that children spend no more than two hours a day with all screen media, on average. That means TV, video games, computer, and iPhone.

"Children will always ask for more," Shifrin notes. "And parents always have to set up those boundaries."

If you think your child's already too deep into video games, here are resources to treat video-game addiction. But for most families, the answer will be: Turn off the box.

[Thorin]

Your title:

Yeesh, "kids today"... are all video game addicts???

Your quote:

http://health.usnews.com/blogs/on-parenting/2009/4/20/is-your-kid-a-video-game-addict-2.html

Are nearly 10 percent of kids and teenagers who play video games showing signs of addiction?

"all" is a lot more than "10 percent".  That being said, there are a lot of interesting articles discussing the concept of videogame addiction.  For instance:

Elsewhere in the world, the problem is recognized as huge. Governments in China and South Korea have helped fund treatment centers and hotlines for electronic game addicts. Keith Bakker, director of the Smith and Jones Center in Amsterdam, a residential detox center that treats video game addicts from around the world, compares their poison to crack cocaine. But "it's easier to treat a coke addict than it is a gamer," he says. "The gamer's denial is so great, and it's compounded by family and community," he says. "Who in the world thinks gaming is a problem?" At first, the center kept gamers physically apart from other addicts, but results were much better when the kids took group therapy with residents troubled by eating disorders, marijuana, or cocaine. "They began to see the similarities between themselves," Bakker says. After they stop denying they have an addiction and the damage it's causing, he notes, many young people never pick up a game again.

[Thorin]

And here's an interesting quote regarding the study discussed in the original post:

Dr. Cheryl Olson, co-author of Grand Theft Childhood, disagrees with Professor Gentile's conclusions.

"The concern here is labeling normal childhood behaviors as 'pathological' and 'addicted.' The author is repurposing questions used to assess problem gambling in adults; however, lying to your spouse about blowing the rent money on gambling is a very different matter from fibbing to your mom about whether you played video games instead of starting your homework," Olson told GamePolitics.

"It's also very questionable whether kids as young as 8 can accurately fill out a self-administered online questionnaire, especially one that uses questions designed for adults."

While I still see the idea of gaming addiction as an unanswered question, I believe Dr. Olson has a point. How many of us, as children, opted to play games instead of studying for a test? How many of us still use games as an escape when life sucks? How many of us ever asked mom for "just a few minutes more" when she attempted to pry us away from the Super Nintendo?

[Darren Dirt]

"all" is a lot more than "10 percent".

Sometimes it feels like "all" kids are no-will-power zombies when it comes to those damn blinking lights...


but I obviously feel "balance" is possible, I don't think my kids are "addicts" any more than I am addicted to Wikipedia and IMDB. Sure, going over the line is a daily occurence, but I try to temper that hobby with other activities. Trying to teach the kids the same (hooray for warm weather!)

While I still see the idea of gaming addiction as an unanswered question, I believe Dr. Olson has a point. How many of us, as children, opted to play games instead of studying for a test? How many of us still use games as an escape when life sucks? How many of us ever asked mom for "just a few minutes more" when she attempted to pry us away from the Super Nintendo2600?

Updated quote cuz I'm an old man.



PS: anyone else pretty much immediately think of "The Game", an episode of ST:TNG where (dammit) Wesley was The Hero? ...I'm so sleep-deprived today, I think my neutrinos are drifting 

[Thorin]

Here's an easy test if you think someone's psychologically addicted to something: Can they go without for a week and remain civil?  Yes, we all have cravings for the things we do regularly.  Playing video games tickles our pleasure centers (that's why we play them), and we like our pleasure centers tickled.

In the case of my son, I've noticed a distinct personality difference between when he's played video games and when he's not in a day.  Especially if he's played for more than an hour - he gets real surly afterwards.  What I've been doing is pointing it out to him and discussing how he's friendlier and more helpful when he hasn't spent a couple hours on der blinken lighten.  I understand how he feels - I can get the same way when I'm playing games and have to stop, and it takes a conscious effort to break out of the just-played-but-now-can't funk.

Last summer, the way we handled it is that we explained to the kids they could have two hours a day of screens, three hours if it was a rainy day, and up to one hour could be brought forward from the previous day if it hadn't been used (but not from multiple previous days).  Then we explained the limits were being placed because screens aren't inherently bad, but because too much screen time gets in the way of other things that kids like doing or that are good for them.  We asked the kids to keep track by themselves of how much time they spent in front of screens (iPods with movies on them, computers, TVs, DSes, Wii, etc).  This went surprisingly well - getting the kids to watch their own activity made them aware of their activity.  Even when they went to their friends' houses, they'd keep track (although at friends' houses, especially those who like lots of videogaming, they did go over their daily limit).

This is what it comes down to.  As parents we need to help the kids understand why different things are good or bad for us, and help them learn to navigate through the good and the bad.  I happen to think that most things aren't inherently bad for us, so long as we engage in them in moderation.  My kids sometimes drink pop, but understand fruit juice and milk and water are important.  My kids sometimes watch a lot of TV, but understand that it's good for their imaginations to go build a fort in their bedroom or plant flowers in the garden.  They don't just get rules, they also get an explanation of why the rules are important.  And if they can provide a reasonable explanation to why a rule should be changed or amended, I'm open to it.

Now to tie that back to the original post...  If kids (even teens) are left alone to play video games in the basement for hours and hours on end and they don't see how that could have a negative effect, maybe their parents are failing to adequately explain the concept of balance and moderation, or even failing to set basic rules?

[Darren Dirt]

Here's an easy test if you think someone's psychologically addicted to something: Can they go without for a week and remain civil?

My son is 13.

He's not civil normally.

Playing video games tickles our pleasure centers (that's why we play them), and we like our pleasure centers tickled.

Hey, did you just read the summaries of that ST:TNG episode?

In the case of my son, I've noticed a distinct personality difference between when he's played video games and when he's not in a day.  Especially if he's played for more than an hour - he gets real surly afterwards.  What I've been doing is pointing it out to him and discussing how he's friendlier and more helpful when he hasn't spent a couple hours on der blinken lighten.  I understand how he feels - I can get the same way when I'm playing games and have to stop, and it takes a conscious effort to break out of the just-played-but-now-can't funk.

Seriously, good point and I appreciate your honesty there... me too, if I get interrupted when I'm in the middle of a 9-tab browsing session (thanks to Google News, or some related video on Youtube, dammit...) I am a little less... civil.

[Tom]

Here's an easy test if you think someone's psychologically addicted to something: Can they go without for a week and remain civil?

My son is 13.

He's not civil normally.

Playing video games tickles our pleasure centers (that's why we play them), and we like our pleasure centers tickled.

Hey, did you just read the summaries of that ST:TNG episode?

In the case of my son, I've noticed a distinct personality difference between when he's played video games and when he's not in a day.  Especially if he's played for more than an hour - he gets real surly afterwards.  What I've been doing is pointing it out to him and discussing how he's friendlier and more helpful when he hasn't spent a couple hours on der blinken lighten.  I understand how he feels - I can get the same way when I'm playing games and have to stop, and it takes a conscious effort to break out of the just-played-but-now-can't funk.

Seriously, good point and I appreciate your honesty there... me too, if I get interrupted when I'm in the middle of a 9-tab browsing session (thanks to Google News, or some related video on Youtube, dammit...) I am a little less... civil.

Hah. I got you all beat. If anything or anyone changes my plans, my entire day is ruined It can cause plans for the rest of the week to fall to ashes which then makes me very... not civil.

[Mr. Analog]

I'm so sick of hearing about this crap...

Something fun sucks kids time, there's a shock, clearly they are addicted and the Government must do something about it.

Now, I'm just thinkin' out loud here... but if you've got a kid with inexplicable mood swings possibly tied to mental stimulation with no physical outlet and they are over the age of 10... well, there's fur where there was no fur before...

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=30892316

[Darren Dirt]

Something fun sucks kids time, there's a shock, clearly they are addicted and the Government must do something about it.

Only if you live in China or Korea

[Darren Dirt]

and they are over the age of 10... well, there's fur where there was no fur before...

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=30892316

lol! reminds me of -- but far "cleaner" than -- this

[Mr. Analog]

Something fun sucks kids time, there's a shock, clearly they are addicted and the Government must do something about it.

Only if you live in China or Korea

Heh, Quoted for Truth.

I guess as has been pointed out by many others on other forums all around: the study, if accurate, shows that more than 90% of kids are just fine...

[Thorin]

So here's the actual study: http://www.drdouglas.org/page_resources_articles_2009gtext.html.  It's an interesting read, although a bit long.