The World Health Organization has recently recognized video game addiction as a mental health disorder, listing it in the International Classification of Diseases. This has once again reignited the vexed debate about how much time children spend in front of screens.

In my family, this is a debate which is rehearsed weekly, if not daily. My wife hates video games and has often threatened to throw our game console out of the window. The only thing that’s stopped her is that the console doesn’t belong to the kids; it’s mine.

I have played video games my whole life, being old enough to have owned one of the very first Pong games as a child. We loved it, but I think it’s safe to say there was no risk of getting addicted to knocking a square ball around a TV screen with a sliding paddle.

Space Invaders and Pacman were too expensive for a child of my background, although a friend of mine developed a genuinely problematic addiction to fruit machines, which culminated in him being caught stealing to feed his habit. However, the advent of personal computers was a turning point; like many others, I persuaded my parents to get us one on the basis that it would be “educational”, then spent hours playing Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy.

In fact though, those early computers really were educational. They were so primitive that you needed some basic understanding of coding just to use them. I used to write my own games, and ironically if I’d spent more time indoors in front of a screen it could have led to a lucrative career. Instead, I joined a band and spent my summers in garages and dank rehearsal rooms.

I continued to play games, however, and have watched the form evolve over the decades. Video games seem to me to be in a similar place to cinema a hundred years ago: still developing, often at the center of moral panics, but well on the way to becoming the dominant narrative art form of the century.

To non-gamers, that may seem a ludicrous claim but if you think games are just about blowing up aliens, then you really should check out some recent releases. Big “AAA” productions have more scope and ambition that Hollywood blockbusters, and often better storytelling. Meanwhile, the independent scene often features quieter games focused on relationships rather than action, exploring emotional and moral conundrums. (Full disclosure: blowing up aliens remains a popular theme too.)

So I refuse to let my PlayStation be thrown out of the window and I don’t want to deprive my kids of something which has given me so much pleasure over the years. Besides, the ability to play and discuss games is important socially for their generation.

There is nothing innately addictive about video gaming. It gives pleasure, which releases dopamine in the brain. It’s the constant attempt to regain that dopamine high, with constantly diminishing returns, which leads to addictive behavior, whether the chosen addiction is gaming, gambling, or social media.

Of course, games are designed to encourage “just one more go”. The best provide enough challenge to keep you engaged without being so hard that you’re deterred. And kids find it hard to know when to stop. Screens and sugar, I always say, are the two things which children can’t be trusted to regulate themselves.

So the answer, like most things in family life, is compromise and variety. Game playing is allowed at agreed times during the week, and it’s a privilege which can be (and often is) withdrawn as a sanction for misbehavior. Outside that time no gaming is allowed, even sneaky minigames on a smartphone.

I refuse to believe that children sink into addiction when their parents are properly engaged with their lives, taking an interest in them and sharing interests with them. My kids play video games, but they also ride bikes, play sports and music, go to museums and art galleries, and hang out with their friends.

Blaming addiction on the addictive activity, when it’s one that many enjoy without harm, is a cop-out. It lets addicts disclaim responsibility for their own behavior, and parents off the hook for their responsibility to their children.

Photo: Filipe Fortes via Flickr

When I first came to China, foreign video console games were banned–not that I had noticed given the number of stores selling them illegally by Nanluoguxiang and in tech areas, such as Zhongguancun. It was only when I inquired on the high cost of consoles and their games, especially when compared to PC games, that I was told they’re actually black market products. Good, I thought, now my husband has no reason to buy the latest Playstation.

While parents debate over screen time and the possible harmful effects of gaming, game developers are creating educational games that encourage social responsibility, environmental awareness, and social skills. And let’s not forget those fun games that teach kids to code–because, as we all know, programmers are the future doctors and lawyers in our society!

Researchers have been confusing all of us with their zigzagging, one minute opposing all gaming for its fictionalization and violence, and the next minute singing its praises. The most recent fact everyone seems to agree on is that video games are mostly harmless and can stimulate a child’s brain in a positive way. So there you go! Games are good for kids, hence why the console/game ban was lifted, and life is good, right?

Wrong. Online gaming, one of the largest growing industry in China, is also China’s new evil. The industry only grows because the number of players grow. Although there have been attempts to prevent minors from gaining access to online games, the numerous internet cafes all over the country allow anyone to play 24/7, or until they run out of money.  Sometimes, teens don’t just run out of money, they run out of food, water, or even their lives.

Online gaming addiction has become such a big issue that suspicious boot camps have opened up shop, beating the addiction out of kids.  Rehabilitation centers for misbehaving children are usually just kids who would rather play games than study, but are treated as if they’re headed to juvi. Recent headlines showcased an angry girl who, upon escaping from a four-month-long, hellish experience at such a boot camp, tortured and killed her mother in revenge.

This is not the first time China has attempted to control the gaming habits of its youth.  In March 2011, China had released “The Parents’ Guardian Project for Minors Playing Online Games”, which gave parents the right to monitor their children’s gaming habits directly from the game operator’s website.  Game operators were required to have a special login for parents, so that parents could firstly, see how much time their kids were spending online, and secondly, request restrictions on their child’s account or freeze/delete the account entirely. The project clearly wasn’t successful given that a new project has been proposed.

The new proposed project, aimed to instill a night-time curfew for gaming minors, was first implemented in South Korea. In that project, they prevented under 15 year olds from playing online games between midnight and 6am, slowing down their network speed considerably (we, behind the Great Wall, know what that’s like!). In China, Global Times reports that players who are below legal age would be prevented from gaming from midnight to 7am.  The idea being that all players must register with an ID, but fake IDs are prevalent and authorities have not been vigilant about requiring all the country’s game operators to comply.

Or at least they haven’t in all the games that I have played in China…

Photo credit: Pixabay, Battlenet