A FORTNITE OFF SCHOOL
As the school holidays begin, Sarah Murray meets families struggling to cope with their children’s obsession with online gaming
Walk into the Carter family’s Mount Eden home and the first thing you’ll notice is the quiet. With three boys aged 9, 11 and 13, as well as a 12-year-old exchange student from China, you might expect to hear the roughand-tumble sounds of play, but all I can hear is the rhythmic hum of the clothes dryer. Leading me through the lounge, past a stack of board games lying derelict in the corner, mum Karen points out her youngest.
“That’s one zombie child,” she says. Son Luke sits slouched on the couch with a laptop on his knees and a pair of bulky headphones on his head.
It’s not an unusual sight — kids and teenagers glued to online games on their laptops, iPads, and home computers. The Carters, like many parents, are struggling not only with how to control their time spent playing, but the attitude of their kids.
We walk into the office where the family PC is set up. Cody, the middle son, is playing Fortnite, with older brother Ben watching over him.
“Uh-oh Cody!” warns Ben, who is standing behind his younger brother. “Pop him.”
“I know, I know,” replies Cody before using a pickaxe called rift edge to kill an unknown player.
If you haven’t already heard of it, Fortnite became a global phenomenon when it launched last year, hooking kids and adults alike. The multi-player game works by connecting friends and other gaming enthusiasts around the world in a fight-to-the-death battle. The most popular form of the game, Battle Royale, sees 100 players building defensive structures and scavenging for weapons while battling it out to be the last man or woman standing. The game has been talked about extensively in the media. In August a fight over Fortnite broke out at an East Auckland primary school and a Papamoa principal has recently spoken out about noticing more and more kids coming to school “tired, irritable and grumpy”. While there is no exact figure of how many children play the R12 game, the most recent numbers by developers Epic Games report more than 3.4 million concurrent players, with a staggering 125 million players worldwide. It’s the addictive qualities of the game that have some parents worried.
tantrum because he will lose the game. It’s also added an element of stress to my relationship with my husband, because I’m more drifty and he’s more black and white when it comes to gaming. But we didn’t grow up in this tech world so it’s really hard for us. My eldest, Ben, is constantly saying to me, ‘You don’t understand, Mum.’ And we don’t.”
So what makes the game so compelling? Well, it’s highly accessible, has fast and engaging play, a high skill cap meaning you can play endlessly and keep improving, and it uses known psychological mechanisms such as rewards, which motivate kids to keep playing.
“Over the 70 days you have there is between 80 and 120 gaming hours on the game to get to the next level,” says oldest son Ben excitedly. “There is a battle pass you have to purchase, which is about $16, which gives you a set of challenges to complete each week, and tiers which you level up from. Every time you get 10 battle stars you level up to the next tier. Every tier has a reward — like a new pick axe, glider or skins.” [The latter being a way to change the cosmetic appearance of your character.]
FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD Luke von Collas isn’t into Fortnite. But online gaming is still his thing. Dressed in a black jumper and jeans he looks like a typical teenager with shoulder-length wavy blond hair and the wispy beginnings of a moustache. He’s not too keen to engage and would rather be at his computer but he politely sits and talks about the games he spends his spare time playing. “I play a game called Warframe … probably a bit too much. And I’ve just got a new game called Monster
Hunter World. In these games you play non-player characters — AI [artificial intelligence].”
Luke plays every night until his agreed shutdown time of 8pm — a time put in place last year by his parents after he was falling behind with his homework. At the time they investigated monitoring software, which they decided against because it seemed a bit “Orwellian” and in desperation threatened to throw the computer out the window.
“That’s when we started seriously thinking about moving his computer out of his room and into the lounge so it is in the public eye,” says his father, Mike. “But we didn’t because my wife doesn’t want a computer in the living room … so that’s an ongoing argument.”
As parents, their biggest concern with gaming is their son’s lack of interest and departure from the real world. “I know when he spends a long period of time with his head in the computer, he just doesn’t function that well in normal human interactions,” says Ellen. “He becomes grumpy.”
“And clumsy,” interrupts Mike. “I’ve noticed that. He does something in the kitchen and spills stuff because nothing behaves how he’s used to.”
“I think it’s a lack of mindfulness,” says Ellen. “His mind is elsewhere. I’ll call him from work and ask him to do something for me and he’ll say, ‘Yes, Mum.’ I’ll get home and it’s not done. It’s because he’s not actually paying attention, his head is not there. And that makes him really unreliable and really untrustworthy,” she says.
The family, from Auckland’s Torbay, have noticed a change in their son although they’re unsure if it also has to do with his age. When he was younger he was happy to join in a family game, outing or activity. But now he’s not. “We worry that he’s not interested in the world around him and not developing passionate interests that might inspire his future career or life choices. A lifetime of gaming seems a narrow choice. I guess the worst fear is he’ll limit his life choices to an extent that he will not be able to support himself financially.”
“I think he’s removed from the real world,” says Mike. “He doesn’t know what’s going on. He doesn’t smell the air or feel the sunshine. He doesn’t get any of those things. And he’s not interested either, because the online world is far more interesting. It’s far crisper. You don’t get tired. You don’t get sweaty. You can leap and fly and do all sorts of things you can’t do in the real world. It’s a total fantasy.”
Weekends are worse, with only child Luke playing every chance he can.
“He’ll wake up and turn on the computer — it’s the first thing he does,” says Ellen.
“No,” interjects Luke. “I wake up and check my phone for the time … and it descends from there. I’m down the rabbit hole.”
Socially, Luke has a small group of friends, made smaller when his best friend moved to Melbourne. Aside from playing online, he rarely meets up with friends in person. “Before his best friend moved overseas they’d catch the bus to the city and go to the model shops, the clothes shops and chat the whole way. That was really nice. We miss him having that kind of friendship. I often say to Luke, ‘Why don’t you invite so-and-so over?’ and he says, ‘What would we do? There is only one computer. They’d be bored,” says Ellen.
Ultimately, the couple feel incredibly frustrated with their son’s gaming obsession and regret not laying down more rules when Luke got his first computer for school use.
“In primary school he used our family laptop, in our study, but once he got to Intermediate he needed his own laptop. I guess things went downhill from there. Then he built himself a gaming PC, which seemed like a good project at the time, but now it dominates not only his room, but, at times, his life. At times it can seem hopeless as he leaves one game and turns to other forms of online entertainment or communication,” says Ellen.
If you’re watching a movie, you press pause. You’re the boss of it. But if you’re in the game they won’t let you stop — it’s the boss of you.
They’re not alone. A joint study by Queensland’s Bond University and Interactive Games & Entertainment Association called Digital New Zealand 2018, revealed 98 per cent of Kiwi families have video game devices, with eight out of 10 owning multiple devices. The real clincher, the issue that comes up time and time again, is how the majority of these online games have been designed so they can’t be paused. Kids are late to the dinner table — or don’t make it at all. And they’re upset, annoyed, and grumpy when they’re ripped away from their screen before the game is over. In the virtual world, it seems, there is no time. “It really gets my goat when he’s playing and I say, ‘Okay, stop now,’ and he says, ‘I can’t.’ I don’t get that,” says Mike. “If you’re watching a movie, you press pause. You’re the boss of it. But if you’re in the game they won’t let you stop — it’s the boss of you.”
Some countries have already identified gaming as a major public health issue and are attempting to curb gaming addiction. In 2011 South Korea introduced what was known as their “Cinderella law” — a government policy forbidding children under the age of 16 to play computer games from midnight to 6am. Japanese players are now alerted if they spend more than a certain time each month playing games and just this year the United Kingdom opened the first ever NHS-funded internet addiction centre for both young people and adults — initially focusing on online gaming disorders and offering a place of treatment, research and advice to families. Concerns raised by parents in the UK have prompted Britain’s Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield, to issue a warning that Fortnite is “irresponsibly addictive”, while the UK’s National Crime Agency has warned paedophiles could be targeting young players through the game. The most telling move was in January, when the World Health Organisation listed gaming addiction as a mental health condition for the first time.
Although Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMRPGs) such as Fortnite are considered the most addictive online games, resulting in the highest number of addicted players with psychological and emotional problems, it’s important to note not all children will become addicted. In fact, research by the International Gaming Research Unit says only around 4 to 5 per cent of young people use games in a way that could be considered addictive. So while UK tabloids are quick to jump on sensational headlines like “Fortnite made me a suicidal drug addict”, in reality the majority of parents aren’t dealing with children addicted to gaming, rather with kids who are excessively gaming. Child psychologist and owner of Kidz Therapy Marie Kelly says there is a clear distinction.
“Excessive gaming is when kids are gaming to excessive hours but they’re not having the fall-out that addicted kids do. Kids that are addicted would be showing similar symptoms to people addicted to gambling, alcohol and drugs. They’re so preoccupied they can’t do anything else. And it’s quite scary.”
Kelly, who treats children with a range of issues, has seen the worst of it and notes that one overriding aspect is the change in the child. However, she says this can also be intertwined with becoming an adolescent. She’s heard of kids as young as 10 secretly getting up in the middle of the night to game, another deliberately failing academically to stay up all night gaming. There are kids with “friends” online but none in real life, a boy who locked himself in the bathroom with his iPad when his mum tried to take it off him and an 8-year-old girl who peed on the couch rather than
leave her game unattended. Most alarming, she’s been told of violent episodes where a boy pushed his mother over when she tried to take his iPad off him to stop him gaming.
ASK 16-YEAR-OLD Genesis Siataga-Haugh if she was addicted to gaming and her answer is simply: “Yes.” Only a few months ago the Year 12 Wellington East Girls’ College student was clocking up to 25-plus hours a week and sometimes staying up until 5am at weekends to play Fortnite.
“I think I was addicted. And so did my family. It wasn’t bad, like I wasn’t talking to my family or anything. But as soon as I got home from school, I was on it. I’d wake up for school — I was on it. And the same with the weekends. If I had any spare time at all — I was on it. I think you can get carried away as there are no clocks.”
The eldest of five, it was Siataga-Haugh who introduced her younger brothers and sisters to the game. Having heard about it on social media, she downloaded the game and ever since the siblings have shared the PlayStation between them, all eager to get their game-time in. At its height there were arguments and times when their mum would get fed up and unplug the machine.
Lately though, the teen has curbed her gaming ways because life got in the way. Towards the middle of the year the student’s school workload increased with mock exams and she also got a job on Sundays.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t her mum who set any strict guidelines to wean her off the game, but Siataga-Haugh herself. “I never play as much as I used to. Sometimes it’s just for a couple of hours on weeknights or weekends. I think it’s about being self-disciplined. I know school is my first priority so it’s not really a problem. I always try and make sure I have my homework finished before I go on at night so that I don’t have to worry about it.” SO IS Fortnite and online gaming a worrying electronic addiction? And should parents be concerned? American political scientist and author Nicholas Tampio says yes. “There is evidence that increased screen time can lead to a failure to recognise emotions, obesity, poor sleep patterns and social and behavioural problems,” Tampio says. “Online gaming takes time away from other worthwhile activities that children should be doing. They can be reading books, exercising their bodies, playing soccer, riding bikes, and so forth. Dr Nicholas Kardaras wrote a book called Glow Kids in which he calls screens ‘electronic cocaine’ and ‘digital heroin’. He argues — and I agree — that it is easier to prevent than cure electronic addiction.”
Tampio also worries about how online gaming will affect kids in the future. “Children are losing a personal connection with their peers and the broader community,” he says.
“Some people point out that Fortnite enables you to be part of a team, talk over headsets with other people, be part of a gaming community and socialise with your peers. I think that it is a sign of how poor a notion of community we have that these kinds of arguments have traction. Friendship happens when you breathe the same air, put your arms around each other, and go through life experiences together. Whenever a screen or a speaker is involved, the intensity of the emotional bonding decreases. We are raising a generation of lonely children.”
One thing that’s certain — there is no “one size fits all” solution and many parents are struggling to draw the battle lines.
“Kids today are growing up in a time of huge technological advancement in a way we haven’t seen since the Industrial Revolution,” says child psychologist Marie Kelly. “And parents are the first generation facing this issue. Gaming and technology is a lifeline for these kids, and their parents are the guinea pigs who are trying to keep up with this massive technological change. I’ve seen the impact this is having on parents — some of them feel very powerless about it all. We are a way off from a solution, it is all just so new … and the kids may be the only ones keeping on top of it.”