Problematic Use and Addiction
On average, 5-16 year olds play 1.5 hours of video games a
day, but many gamers acknowledge that it is possible to
devote too much time to games and many parents also
worry about this. One concern is that games such as
MMORPGs (see Box 3), that have no defined endpoint may
lead to problematic use or addiction. A recent review of the
literature reports that 8-12% of young people (mean age 21)
engaged in “excessive gaming”, whereas “problematic
gaming” was present in 2-5%.8