The devastating effects of video game addiction on kids | 60 Minutes Australia

Oct 27 2022

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While you're watching this, chances are children all over the country will be glued to different screens, playing video games. The amount of time they spend on their gaming consoles is an increasing worry for parents, but on the upside, at least it keeps them quiet, right? The game that currently stands out in the popularity stakes, especially with boys, is Fortnite. For the creators, it's an enormous business success, boasting hundreds of millions of players around the world. But as Tara Brown reports, therein lies the problem. It, and games like it, are so good and provide such a sensory smorgasbord of action and colour that children are becoming dangerously addicted. They're playing for days on end, to the exclusion of everything else in their lives, including school, friends and family. The World Health Organisation is now so concerned about the serious health implications of excessive gaming by young people that it classifies video gaming disorder as a disease.