CNN Takes On The Child Gaming Addiction Study

9 responses to “CNN Takes On The Child Gaming Addiction Study”

1. 

   Adam Ruch

   January 18, 2011 at 8:45 am

   The biggest slip up is the same slip up the are all always making, and that’s causality. There are no quotes being presented (I haven’t read the study yet but neither have any of their viewers) to suggest that the games in any way CAUSE the depression or low grades. They can never pinpoint that kind of stuff. Anderson, Gentile et al. never even try to, experimentally, because its incredibly difficult if not impossible to account for all the other factors in a child’s development.

   If a kid has horrible acne and is socially awkward because of it, he is likely to be depressed and have fewer friends than his average peer. Therefore he is less likely to be socialising in the traditional way: hanging out at the shops, having friends over at home, etc. So what does he do? He might read, draw, build model airplanes or play videogames. Whatever he is doing with his time is not causing his depression. It’s the other way around. If all I do in a study is look to see if people play games and are depressed, I simply cannot account for his acne, for example, which is actually the cause of all the problems.

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   1. 

      Thom McLovinday

      January 18, 2011 at 11:20 am

      Actually Adam, what’s unique about this study is that they were able to predict depression controlling for other factors. Basically, they found that those children who were found to play games at a level described as pathological were more likely to later develop bouts of depression. Similarly, if those children stopped playing games, they tended to recover. Keep in mind, this is not a neat, laboratory controlled study, but the methodology is the same that produced a causal link between smoking and lung cancer. Also, this is an initial result. It certainly requires replication in other countries.

      It’s not as bad as it sounds, it just provides preliminary evidence that pathological gaming, like any addiction, can result in depression. I think the estimate that 10% of child gamers are ‘addicted’ is far more controversial than the ‘causal’ finding, that addictive behavior can produce depression.

      Reply
2. 

   Wayno@War

   January 18, 2011 at 9:15 am

   Well put.

   Too many contributing factors to determine whether videogames can be directly attributed to depression and/ or other serious mental health issues.

   Just another pointless spurt from the idiots looking for a scapegoat for thier children’s developmental issues.

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3. 

   Joe

   January 18, 2011 at 9:28 am

   Online experiences can’t be rated so perhaps when they played world of warcraft they had a violent experience, even dungeons nowadays quite a lot of abuse going around due to how the dungeons aren’t cake walks. Don’t know the dungeon GTFO.

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4. 

   Boo Goose

   January 18, 2011 at 11:13 am

   Thinking back to my teen years, if my parents had asked me to stop playing games for a month it would have been no problem. IT would have left more time for porn and dope smoking with my peers.

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5. 

   LinkageAX

   January 18, 2011 at 2:23 pm

   I only really agree with the point of more than 30 hours of gaming per week is unhealthy. I mean, don’t parents make their kids go outside and play? When I was a kid that’s what I had to do. I still gamed but that was usually on a gameboy (outside) or a little before or after dinner. The only exception was when we had friends come over, we were allowed to play games earlier 😀 What’s wrong with parents nowadays?

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6. 

   Robert M

   January 18, 2011 at 7:02 pm

   Sheer and utter utter nonsense.

   There is ZERO scientific evidence to show a difference between a healty and a unhealthy brain.

   This is all based on opinion.

   The real dangerous products are the drugs the psychiatrists push onto the people to convince them they are sick.

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   1. 

      Sagarat

      January 18, 2011 at 9:47 pm

      Saying that psychological drugs are a gimmick is flippant, and your off-hand dismissal of psychological diseases (unhealthy brain) as a sales ploy is both ill-founded, and possibly offensive to many people.

      On a side note, check out:
      http://www.bryancharnley.info/1portriat.asp
      Self portraits of a schizophrenic artist examining his mental illness under different medicines. Tragically, he ends up committing suicide.

      Reply
7. 

   Gorzilla

   January 18, 2011 at 10:45 pm

   “Thirty hours a week of pretty much anything can’t be good.”

   Sounds like I should quit my job. Anyone else work 30 hours or more a week? (OK, so that’s a different context, but it still sounds like a good excuse to change to part-time.)

   Reply