Kids hooked on gaming turn to crime
TEENAGERS are so hooked on gaming they are using stolen credit card details, dropping out of school or assaulting parents trying to switch off their technology.
As game corporations reap billions in profits, psychiatrists are demanding a ban on algorithms that make gaming as addictive as drugs or gambling.
And taxpayers are now footing a soaring bill for digital detox sessions, psychiatric counselling and obesity, all caused by excessive gaming.
Today, we launch a campaign calling for restrictions to children’s access to in-game gambling across all platforms.
“Kids are vulnerable and they’re being exploited by big tech,’’ said Sydney child psychiatrist Dr Philip Tam, who specialises in digital addictions.
“We’re potentially talking about a lost generation who will not reach their social or economic potential.’’
Child psychiatrist Dr Huu Kim Le – himself a recovered gaming addict – said many games are designed to “reward’’ players who log in daily.
“The gaming companies have got the science of addiction down to a fine art and it’s packaged as child’s play,’’ he said. “We think it’s a harmless game with animated violence but there’s something more sinister embedded in the programming that the average person doesn’t know about.
“They’re all using the same tactics and feeding the same rewards to get a return on their investments through gaming.”
Leading game companies saw their profits skyrocket over the past year, with Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, reporting $US5.1bn ($A6.59bn) in revenue during 2020.
Roblox Corporation’s revenue soared by 81 per cent last year to $US924m ($A1.195bn), and Activision Blizzard’s revenue grew by 25 per cent to reach $US8.1bn ($A10.47bn).
Dr Le said gaming and social media could activate the same part of the brain as drug addiction.
“It used to be that children would steal money from their parents’ credit cards but now they can go on the Dark Web and find other people’s credit cards,’’ he said.
“They are showing no remorse – and they are obviously desperate enough to do something criminal.
“Police have raided kids’ homes for credit card fraud in Australia.’’
Dr Le said angry children were assaulting parents who tried to turn off or limit the technology.
“It’s smashing of keyboards, punching walls, domestic violence – parents are being held to ransom within their own homes,’’ he said.
Dr Le said more children were hooked on gaming after lockdowns in Victoria and NSW disrupted their usual routines of school and sport.
The problem has become so prevalent that Dr Le now offers telehealth
consultations specialising in video game addictions, with Medicare rebates as high as $402 for an initial consultation costing $552 for metropolitan patients, or a $150 rebate for ongoing sessions costing $313.
“It’s all having a big detrimental effect on education, social connectedness and sense of self,’’ he said. “I’m now prescribing antidepressants to kids in primary schools.’’
Dr Matthew Shaw, director of the young persons’ program at Ramsay Health Care’s Albert Road Clinic in Melbourne, has also seen an increasing number of teens needing help.
Medicare data shows that one in every eight teenagers aged 12 to 17, and one in 13 kids aged five to 11, attended subsidised counselling from a
psychiatrist, psychologist or GP for mental health problems in 2019/20.
Dr Le said China had banned gaming after 10pm.
“Australia has dropped the ball and not taken it seriously enough, and not offered enough intervention or regulation,’’ he said.
Dr Daniel Pellen, who chairs the youth mental health section of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, called for more research into online gaming.
He said 75 cent of mental illnesses begin before 25, when the brain is still developing.