What should children do if they keep their hands on the machine? Expert: Schools may consider introducing online game elective courses for children over half of the summer vacation | Question | School
"I wish I could hold my phone and play from morning till night during the holidays. The food is not delicious, I don't sleep well, and I don't have the energy to do homework." Li Yan couldn't help but sigh when she mentioned her son's addiction to games during the summer vacation. In this game of competing for children's time with games, there are still many parents who share the same worries as Li Yan.
The topic of gaming has repeatedly sparked social discussions, and gaming addiction has also attracted attention from the medical community. In 2019, the World Health Assembly approved the Eleventh Revised International Classification of Diseases. Among them, "gaming disorder" is included as a new disease in the "disorders caused by addictive behavior" disease unit. Subsequently, the National Health Commission released the Expert Consensus on the Prevention and Control of Game Disorders.
The internet is becoming increasingly popular, and the user base is becoming younger and younger. The impact of gaming disorders caused by game addiction on the physical and mental health of children and adolescents is expanding. So, what exactly is a gaming barrier? How to prevent and respond? With these questions in mind, the reporter interviewed relevant experts.
Addicted to games, is it a disease
Su Wei has loved playing games since childhood, but before high school, he was able to control himself and his grades were also good. But after entering high school, he spent more and more time playing games, coupled with the increased difficulty of high school courses, Su Wei's grades plummeted, and his psychological pressure also increased. In the end, he developed to the point where he could not continue his studies and had to take a leave of absence to go home. He began to isolate himself, became silent, refused to communicate with his parents, and after a period of time, he was diagnosed with a gaming disorder. The number of teenagers affected by gaming disorders, like Su Wei, is increasing.
Related research shows that in China, the incidence of gaming related illnesses can reach 17%. Based on previous research results, the average incidence of gaming disorders is about 5% and remains relatively stable. The majority of people with gaming disabilities are males, children, and adolescents.
"Whether in outpatient or inpatient departments, the number of cases of play disorders in children and adolescents is increasing," said Liu Yan, a psychotherapist at the Addiction Medicine Center of Beijing Huilongguan Hospital.
"According to the diagnostic criteria of ICD-11, gaming disorders are characterized by persistent or recurrent game behavior patterns, with core manifestations including uncontrolled gaming, game behavior becoming a priority in life, and not being able to stop even if negative consequences are caused. Game behavior patterns can be persistent or active and last for 12 months, but if the symptoms are severe enough and meet other diagnostic criteria, the duration can be less than 12 months. Game behavior patterns lead to significant personal, family, interpersonal relationships, academic, occupational, or other functional impairments," said Yang Kebing, director of the Addiction Medicine Center at Beijing Huilongguan Hospital.
"Game disorders can seriously affect a person's normal life. In addition to seriously damaging social functions, they may also cause physical problems such as malnutrition and decreased vision. Related problems with wrist and finger joints are also common. Irregular sleep patterns and day night reversal can also lead to emotional problems such as depression and anxiety, which have a huge impact on both body and mind," said Yang Kebing.
"Game disorders are worth being vigilant about, but just playing games is not necessarily a game disorder." Yang Kebing suggests, "If repeated game behaviors are aimed at promoting social interaction, relieving boredom, regulating emotions, etc., and do not have other necessary characteristics of game disorders, it cannot be diagnosed as a game disorder. Many teenagers may exhibit longer or more frequent game behaviors during holidays, and if it is only a temporary problem, it does not constitute a game disorder. Parents do not need to be overly nervous and can balance their holiday phone or computer usage time by increasing other activities. In addition, for individuals related to the game industry, high-intensity game behaviors may be part of their professional content and should not be diagnosed as a game disorder."
Although most children in daily life experience addiction to games, they have not reached the level of game disorders, which is considered a harmful game behavior that poses a risk of health damage. However, there has not yet been a state of health damage. In this regard, parents should observe and intervene in a timely manner to avoid developing game disorders. If it is found that a child's game behavior is becoming more and more out of control, such as playing games for longer periods of time, which affects daily life and learning, they always think about things related to games even when they are not playing. If they cannot play games, they will have temper tantrums, restlessness, and other situations. They have realized the many disadvantages of playing games, but still cannot reduce their game time. It is recommended to seek professional help. The game disorder questionnaire can be used as a self-test. "The auxiliary tool for game addiction level, but the final diagnosis still needs to be completed by professional medical students," said Yang Kebing.
Behind their love for play lies their psychological needs
"Most of the patients with play disorders are children and adolescents aged 10-18 years, especially adolescents." Yang Kebing said, "This is closely related to the younger age of the game audience. Data shows that in 2021, the number of Internet users of minors in China will reach 191 million, the Internet penetration rate of minors will reach 96.8%, and the Internet penetration rate of primary school students will reach 95%, an increase of 2.9 percentage points over 2020. The trend of younger age of minors accessing the Internet is obvious. Children and adolescents have not yet fully developed their brains, and their outlook on life, world outlook, and values are not yet mature. With strong curiosity and limited self-control, they are more likely to be affected by games and indulge in them."
"Almost all of my friends around me play games, and we often make plans to play together," said Xiaofei, a sophomore in junior high school. During the interview, the reporter found that games have become an important part of adolescent social interaction, which undoubtedly strengthens the presence of games in adolescent life.
Adolescent emotional and psychological problems can also lead to dependence on games. "Especially during adolescence, with rapid physical and mental development, as academic pressure increases and they crave recognition from others, games within reach become their emotional outlet. For teenagers who lack confidence due to setbacks in their studies, appearance, or interpersonal relationships, playing games can also avoid evaluation anxiety caused by face-to-face communication and allow them to express themselves in a relaxed manner." said Yang Qingyan, Deputy Director of the Addiction Medicine Center at Beijing Huilongguan Hospital.
"For parents, addiction to games can be a behavioral deviation, but for children, it can be a way of self rescue and a distress signal." Liu Yan told reporters, "As one of the vulnerable groups in society, emotional problems of children and adolescents are not only personal problems, but also a reflection of social pressure and family problems transmitted to their children. Many parents are particularly angry when they see their children addicted to games, thinking that games developed by game companies have made them look like this. But why do children continue to play games for a long time? Even if they know it will bring a lot of negative effects, they still have to play? Repeated game behavior means that this thing is valuable to them. They may find it difficult to obtain in life through games." "Things such as a sense of achievement, companionship, pleasure, etc.; or hiding in games to avoid various pressures, unsatisfactory social relationships, etc. Therefore, instead of just blaming, parents should think more about how to meet these psychological needs in life and help their children return from games to reality."
"A good parent-child relationship is a protective factor for gaming disorders, and conversely, conflicting and tense family relationships can also push children towards gaming." Liu Yan reminds, "Especially after entering adolescence, teenagers' self-awareness increases, making them prone to impulsiveness and rebellion. During this period, if parents cannot respect their needs for independent development and still demand that their children must obey themselves, it is easy to generate conflicts. Children will resist their parents' control and refuse to communicate with them through playing games."
"In terms of individual traits, poor delayed gratification ability is also a risk factor for gaming disorders, which is often related to parents' excessive indulgence and failure to effectively cultivate their children's related abilities." Yang Kebing said, "From the type of game, online games have a higher risk of gaming disorders than offline games. Large multiplayer online role-playing games, first person shooting, fighting, and real-time strategy games are more likely to make people addicted. Research has found that offline game modes can significantly improve online addiction behavior."
Professional treatment is essential for dealing with gaming disorders
"I also tried to hide my phone and cut off the internet, but it didn't work in the end. Nowadays, electronic devices such as phones and tablets are everywhere. Taking away my child's phone, he can still use his grandparents'. We can't keep an eye on him, so all we can do is take him out for more activities and enroll him in a swimming class, hoping to minimize his time playing games." Faced with her son's addiction to games, Li Hong told reporters about her troubles.
"We oppose parents using violent and punitive behavior to counter their children's gaming behavior, such as disconnecting the internet, dropping computers, and even driving their children out. Such behavior often leads to greater resistance, and forced withdrawal may escalate parent-child conflicts and even cause harmful consequences." Liu Yan said, "Family development also needs to keep up with children's development. Parents can understand the psychological characteristics of adolescents at different stages, learn to identify and respond to their children's psychological problems, and adjust their education methods according to their children's development needs. When families cannot handle their children's problems, do not hesitate to seek medical help, and actively seek professional help."
From a medical perspective, how should we deal with gaming disorders? "The treatment methods for gaming disorders include social psychological therapy, drug therapy, and physical therapy, among which social psychological therapy is the main method, including individual therapy, family therapy, group therapy, behavioral replacement therapy, etc." Yang Kebing introduced.
We will first understand the past medical history and other conditions of patients with gaming disorders, and determine their status through medical history collection, mental examination, physical examination, auxiliary examination, and other methods to determine whether they are simply having gaming disorders or comorbidities with other mental problems. In terms of treatment, we usually start with individual psychological therapy to further understand the patient's situation. If problems are found between the child and parents, family intervention is needed. Family therapy will guide family members to discover their own problems, encourage them to adjust their words and actions, construct common family goals, and eliminate conflicts. Group therapy is also a good treatment method, allowing patients with similar problems to share their experiences together. In this process, they will find themselves not lonely and through mutual understanding, they will find themselves not alone. Support obtaining certain psychological energy. In addition, there are also behavioral replacement therapies, such as providing a variety of activities such as skipping rope, hula hoop, painting, and hand folding. We hope that gaming disabled patients can find interesting and persevering projects in them, feel happy in the process, and realize that life is diverse, not just fun games. Overall, doctors will adopt appropriate treatment methods at different stages based on each patient's characteristics during treatment Introduction by Yang Qingyan.
"If hospitalization treatment is required, the duration is generally 6-8 weeks. If the intervention is effective, and the patient realizes that their past behavior patterns are not advisable and their emotions remain basically stable, and they are willing to return to a basic routine life, they can switch from hospitalization to outpatient follow-up, further recover in the family environment, and finally return to normal life," said Yang Qingyan.
"In terms of drug therapy, due to the coexistence of gaming disorders and other emotional problems, drug therapy is generally used for symptomatic treatment of certain emotional and behavioral disorders in patients. Currently, there are no drugs approved by the National Medical Products Administration for the treatment of gaming disorders, which means that there is no specific drug for gaming disorders. Parents should be wary of related marketing scams." Yang Kebing reminds that "physical therapy mainly involves non-invasive brain stimulation methods, such as transcranial direct current stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation, etc. These stimulation methods are non-invasive and painless treatments, and the basic principle is to improve the patient's synaptic plasticity through stimulation, in order to achieve the goal of improving gaming addiction symptoms."
"The number of issues related to gaming is increasing rapidly, but our professional support for gaming disorders is still too limited. This requires relevant academic institutions and groups to improve the recognition, evaluation, and diagnosis system of gaming disorders, conduct relevant training, and enhance the professional ability of gaming disorder diagnosis and treatment." Yang Kebing said.
Learning scientific games is important on the path of growth
"For gaming addiction, prevention is a more effective and less impactful approach than treatment. As parents, the first priority is to actively pay attention to the child's state and living conditions, and prevent gaming disorders as early as possible. Secondly, help children develop the ability to control impulses and delay gratification. From a young age, exercise their ability to obtain satisfaction through hard work to prevent excessive indulgence in children from leading to a decrease in delayed gratification ability. Finally, guide children to establish diverse hobbies, develop their strengths such as playing chess, ball, and piano based on their own interests, and increase the diversity of leisure activities." Yang Kebing suggests.
Almost all professionals have emphasized the importance of home environment in preventing gaming disorders.
"The lives of children and adolescents are mainly composed of five basic systems: a family system dominated by family affection, a school system dominated by education, a peer system dominated by belonging, a network system dominated by preferences, and a situation system dominated by community. Among them, family and school are the two most important systems. Maintaining good parent-child relationships, respecting children, and smooth communication can effectively prevent game barriers. When parent-child relationships encounter problems, priority should be given to repairing them. Only in a well communicated parent-child relationship, children are willing to step out of the game. As the real links gradually repair, their dependence on the network will not be as strong." Liu Yan said.
"Schools are also important places for preventing gaming disorders. They can help students and parents understand gaming disorders through organizing class meetings and expert lectures, and promote some mental health knowledge and coping skills. In addition, the friendly atmosphere provided by schools, good teacher-student relationships, and classmate relationships can reduce emotions such as loneliness and depression among teenagers, and have a positive effect on preventing gaming disorders," said Yang Kebing.
"Playing games is also a normal need for children and adolescents, and preventing game disorders does not mean completely rejecting games." In Liu Yan's view, "the ultimate goal of preventing and intervening in game disorders is to help teenagers learn scientific games, use the internet healthily, and enjoy the pleasure brought by games. As a generation growing up in the online information society, this is also an important issue in the growth of teenagers."
Enriching the ways to open up curiosity, only by putting one's heart into it can one follow it
During the summer vacation, teenagers have more leisure time for themselves, and the phenomenon of not leaving their phones and tablets is also a real challenge for parents. Why is this small electronic screen so tempting for teenagers? On the one hand, teenagers are experiencing rapid physical and mental changes, full of curiosity about new things, and always want to "try new things". Novel, diverse, and ever-changing online games naturally become the content they are interested in; On the other hand, the virtual world created by online games can make it easier and faster for teenagers to meet their psychological needs. Adolescence is a stage where independent consciousness gradually increases and various conflicting issues intertwine. When faced with setbacks or misunderstandings in real life, teenagers often rely on the internet to meet their needs, especially during the gaming process. They often create themselves as game characters with exceptional abilities and gain a sense of psychological achievement through completing each game task.
In fact, moderate online games are beneficial for the healthy growth of teenagers, but addiction to online games can seriously affect their learning, life, and physical and mental health. Many measures have been taken by various sectors of society to guide young people to use the internet in a healthy manner, such as the "game addiction prevention system", "youth mode", "parental mode", etc. These measures have a good helping effect on reducing the total time spent online, controlling the time spent online, selecting high-quality online audiovisual content, and treating online games correctly. However, simply staying at the level of controlling adolescent online gaming time cannot fundamentally solve this problem, and may even trigger adolescent rejection and rebellious psychology. How to guide the orderly development of online games and play their positive role is of great significance for the healthy growth of young people.
How can teenagers benefit from limited internet time? Based on the protection of young people, stakeholders in online games must prioritize social responsibility and create meaningful, positive, and psychological games that meet the needs of young people. The "good games" in the eyes of teenagers often have a strong stickiness. For teenagers in the stage of "jointing and sprouting" in their lives, game developers can only create high-quality content that deeply blends advanced culture and modern technology with more abundant imagination. For example, it is possible to develop more pro social games, as compared to violent games, these games that combine entertainment and education have a positive impact on teenagers and are beneficial for their social and psychological well-being.
Nowadays, games are no longer just a form of entertainment, but have also become a window for young people's social interaction, cultural experience, creative expression, and may even be a way to think about life and explore the world. Therefore, it is worth trying to create some classic Chinese IPs and vividly integrate Chinese cultural elements into online games, effectively meeting the needs of young people for a better spiritual and cultural life. At the same time, efforts can also be made to create a youth intelligent system that covers all cultural categories such as tourism, performing arts, reading, music, etc., so that teenagers can improve their subjective initiative and creative thinking.
As a "digital aborigine" growing up with the Internet wave, it also requires the concerted efforts of families, schools and society to help contemporary teenagers enjoy the convenience of the Internet and broaden their horizons while avoiding misleading and establishing a correct view of games.
Among them, the family is the primary responsible body for regulating online games for teenagers, and the family should play an important foundational role in the social regulation of online games. For teenagers, the companionship, encouragement, and support of parents are the essential needs for their growth process. The compensatory satisfaction obtained from mobile phones cannot replace the satisfaction brought by offline interaction. Parents should regularly pay attention to their children's trends in online games, strengthen their spiritual care for their children, understand their inner world, understand their needs and thoughts, and give their children more understanding and care, so as not to talk about "gaming" and not to let it go. If parents can guide their children correctly and use games as a starting point to achieve the transformation from interest to knowledge and then to skills, they can also open a door to a new field of knowledge for their children.
Schools can consider introducing elective courses on online games to guide young people to have a correct understanding of online games, understand their development and operation principles, and enable them to "understand why" online games exist. Ultimately, through active exploration, they can discover their own skills and potential, enabling young people to have a more comprehensive and objective understanding of them, and enhance their "observation recognition support" literacy. In addition, it is necessary to guide the online gaming industry to assume corresponding social responsibilities, establish warning mechanisms for the consumption of online games by young people, and provide more care and protection to young people, creating a safer and clearer online ecosystem for their healthy growth.
