Gaming Addiction In Australia

Introduction

Video game addiction refers to “compulsive or uncontrolled use of video games, in a way that causes problems in other areas of the person’s life” (Hartney, 2020).

Video games are always attractive to young people. It helps them find pleasure in the games and enjoy a great time. However, many of the young generations are facing gaming addiction problems and there are more negative impacts on young people. This essay will outline three major problems that gaming addiction causes around teenagers which include physical health, psychological and family problems. It will then present three possible solutions to tackle the problems which are family support, rehabilitation centre and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy treatment. Finally, it will evaluate these three solutions and select the best solution which is the cognitive behavioral therapy treatment.

Situation

Video games are very popular in Australia. It is because Australia plays a significant role in gaming companies. Thus, there is fertile ground for video game addiction. Therefore, a lot of teenagers are suffering.

According to the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association’s report in 2018, Australians have spent $4 billion on games and gaming hardware (Braue, 2019). Furthermore, the Australian video game development industry continues to grow in size which causes 67% of Australians to play video games (Interactive Games & Entertainment Association, 2019). Among them, approximately 97% of households with children play video games (SBS news, 2018). Also, 77% of gamers are around 18 years old and spend an average of 98 minutes on games each day (Braue, 2019).

One of the main causes of this is that the Australian video games industry contributes a lot to the economy. The Interactive Games & Entertainment Association (2019) states that the Australians video games development made a profit of $143.5 million between 2018 to 2019 which increases 21% compared to 2017. Another cause is that gaming helps manage the unpleasant feelings. For example, video games provide opportunities for people, especially teenagers to escape from the demands and difficulties of everyday life (Mindbox Psychology, 2019). Also, teenagers will have anxiety and stress under the study pressure, games allow them to avoid these feelings and they will get addicted (Mindbox Psychology, 2019). Moreover, Video games help build new relationships online without social pressure. Duggan (2016) states that social anxiety is getting more common in the 12 to 17-year-old age. For example, video games increase confidence in building relationships by presenting what they want and controlling their images. However, the effects of these causes will lead to many problems for Australian teenagers.

Problem

First of all, gaming addiction will cause physical health problems. People who are addicted to games often have poor and bad sleep habits because of the night game sessions, they will also get less physical activities and make bad choices on eating. For example, they keep eating snacks to ensure that they can continue to play. Therefore, excessive gameplay will cause obesity (Conrad, 2018).

Furthermore, gaming addiction will cause psychological problems. Some people that deal with gaming addiction struggle and face problems such as depression, low self-respect, high-stress levels, and shyness or social anxiety problems. Once they realize that excessive gameplay is appearing but they are unable to stop it, they will feel shameful, guilty or a sense of powerlessness (Techaddiction, 2016).

Moreover, gaming addiction will cause school and other study problems. Children, teenagers and other students who spend a lot of time on games will certainly see their results getting worse, they will ignore the coming assessments and rush through the assignments to keep playing their games (Techaddiction, 2016).

In addition, family problems are also caused by gaming addiction. For example, parents will ignore and tolerate the excessive gameplay for a while and think it is a not big thing, but they will change if the child continues to play and unable to control it, the teens will become angry at parents for the over-control and more family with teens are having daily arguments about games (Techaddiction, 2016).

All of these problems definitely bring negative impacts and harm teenagers. To tackle these problems, there are some possible solutions to deal with it.

Solution

There are many solutions to solve the problems that gaming addiction caused. The first solution is family support and intervention.

Parents can set specific rules on play games and be firm about it (RaiseSmartKids, 2018). For example, parents have to make it clear to their children specifically and seriously how much time they are allowed to play and make sure that they strictly complete it, creating consequences for not following the rules and parents can ban their children for gaming for a week if they exceed your time limit (RaiseSmartKids, 2018). This shows that parents have responsibilities to tell their children to do the right things and play a significant role in gaming addiction by teaching teenagers properly (Coyne, 2019).

The second solution is video game addiction treatment centers which offer great and useful in-patient rehabilitation programs enforced by a group of experienced mental health professionals. Other methods which include exercises to help change physical feelings and manage necessarily behaviours. For example, it is something that could be as simple as a focused, structured breathing exercise, or put into the hands into cold water and processes to help people with confrontation and communication (Reynolds, 2018).

Moreover, another solution is to seek help for another program treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy appeared to be an effective treatment for patients with gaming addiction and disorders (Hlavinka, 2019). In a group of 143 young men, 69.4% of them who completed a 15-week cognitive behavioral therapy program that specifically made for internet and computer game addiction achieved remission (Hlavinka, 2019). This is very helpful and useful for people who have game addiction to completely solve it.

Evaluation

Family support and intervention such as setting rules on gameplay are not quite optimal as that over-worrying and pressure will make teenagers rebel (Eagle Ranch Academic, 2018). This environment makes children rebel which is the opposite way of what parents try to instill in their children. Parents have to ensure that they are giving their teens enough space so they don’t feel constrained when they come home. Home is a safe place where they want to be, not an unpleasant place they try to avoid (Eagle Ranch Academic, 2018). This also states that over-controlling harms the relationship between parents and their children (Harold, 2018). This means that parents worry too much will just become the opposite of what they wish.video game addiction treatment centers also have some limitations.

To evaluate the second solution, the major one is these programs are very expensive which often costs around tens of thousands of dollars (Techaddiction, 2016). This means that some of the patients cannot afford this price. Therefore, the second solution is not the most efficient one.

At the same time, cognitive behavioral therapy is more efficient and has directly positive effects. Although it has some limitations such as patients needing to cooperate (YourMD, 2020). But it is still the best solution. cognitive behavioral therapy is very effective in treating mental health disorders and those programs are strongly re-training thought and behaviors (CBT clinic, 2020). It will also solve problems from different formats depending on issues (Chief, 2018). In addition, the cost of cognitive behavioral therapy is generally acceptable.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper outlined the gaming addiction situation in Australia, along with problems that the situation caused. It then suggested three solutions and on evaluation, it has found cognitive behavioral therapy programs, as this is the most feasible solution out of the three to tackle the gaming addiction problems in Australia. The solution was chosen as the optimal solution because of its effectiveness. Those people who have gaming addiction problems should apply for these programs, thus, fewer people will have gaming addiction problems.

Reference List:

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