The effect of video games

Mental Health Impacts
The next big worry expressed amongst many parents is the effects that video games can have on their child’s mental health. Many parents often believe that their child’s anxious and depressive states are somehow linked to the amount of time spent playing video games.
The popular belief is that the more time a child spends playing video games, then the more likely they are to show depressive symptoms. Also, The World Health Organization, in 2018, classified gaming addiction as a mental disorder.
They define gaming addiction as “a pattern of gaming behavior (“digital-gaming” or “video-gaming”) characterized by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences.”
Though, it can only be classified as a disorder if these patterns occur over a 12-month period and cause serious impairment in other areas of social life (e.g. family, friends, relationships, school, work etc.).
Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of research evidence that supports the issues that video games can have on young people’s mental health, with China, in particular, being concerned. One 2-year longitudinal study in Singapore found a correlation between video game usage and symptoms associated with mental health problems.
The researchers found those whose gaming addictions were high showed many symptoms of depression and anxiety and had a tendency to achieve low academic grades in school. However, lowered levels of these symptoms and improved grades were found among those whose gaming addictions had lessened.
This would explain why, in the year 2000, China introduced a complete ban on the sale of all game consoles in the country after Chinese health officials expressed their worries about the threats that video games pose to the mental health of young people.
However, due to repeated violations of this law, the ban was ineffective and eventually overturned in 2014, allowing companies like Microsoft and Sony to sell their consoles, Xbox and PlayStation respectively, on the Chinese markets.