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

while you're watching 60 Minutes chances are children all over the country are glued to different screens playing video games at least it keeps them quiet right and there's one game that's currently All the Rage especially with boys it's called fortnite and it has 125 million players Around the World Hooked and therein lies the problem it and games like it are so good they're such a sensory Smorgasbord of action and color our children are becoming addicted they're playing for days on end to the exclusion of everything else even school friends and family try to stop them

and you're guaranteed a meltdown no wonder then the World Health Organization now classifies video gaming disorder as a disease it's late on a Tuesday night but it could be any night of the week long after everyone else is asleep fourteen-year-old Logan is awake and will be for hours yet fighting for Supremacy in the online Battlegrounds of fortnite all right [Music] by day Logan can be found in the same spot playing the same game over and over again if it was my choice I'd probably be playing about 14 hours if it was my choice like 125

million other Gamers around the world right now his game of choice is most often fortnite's Battle Royale this extraordinary phenomenon is a contest for survival 100 players up against each other until there is just one standing there's no blood but plenty of weapons to collect and much strategy required for ultimate success yep Logan yeah I hope this is not a girl-free zone is it to understand Logan you have to step into his world a world where you never get his full attention well how good are you at talking and playing at the same time not

very good fortnite and similar video games have been Logan's sole Obsession for the past two years at the expense of almost everything else do you feel like you're addicted to gaming oh not all I know I don't feel like I'm addicted at all do you know what the definition of addiction is uh no not really well I guess what I'm asking you is do you I mean do you really think you have control over these games and how much you play oh I do have control I just choose to stay on it this long when

did you last read a book a long time ago when did you last play sport a while ago did you last hang out with you oh okay like Logan's desperate mum Britta Hodge believes her son is a video game addict for which he wears a terrible cost withdrawn angry depressed anxious completely different I keep on saying to him I miss my boy I miss the boy that I used to have it's not the boy I know I mean he'd be the one that would be the first to hook up his fishing rod and and you

know go camping or soccer no no can't get him outside do you mean that quite literally yeah very much so ah you move fast like Logan 13 year old Sam is trapped in a Fantasy Realm of high octane and violent games that's a lot of blood yeah you can shoot her in her head as many times as you want and she can still not die it's an alien world that terrifies Sam's parents Joanne and Brendan why do you think this world is so appealing to Sam I guess because you don't have to deal with the

real world you don't have to deal with chores you don't have to deal with you know Sports and you can sit there for hours and hours and hours and talk to people and they're not going to judge you um I mean some of the things that I've heard him say on online it's so aggressive like they talk about slitting each other's throats gaming addiction is real and is so widespread three months ago the World Health Organization declared it a disease [Music] and more and more overwhelmed parents are turning to psychiatrists like Dr Tan V Ahmed

to help their kids kick the gaming habit well economists having like friends to go out with and all that but I got friends online look it's a modern tragedy because now it's stimulus people are able to get in the modern video game including the social stimulus um they can have so many needs met and the sensory hold the modern video game can have on the developing brain who can't make those reasonable judgments that that as an adult most of us can that's the real Challenge and that's the parenting challenge that is I think different to

other Novelties uh in the past be it television or fatty food or what those sort of things getting annoying Logan is considered more susceptible than many he first turned to this parallel universe to cope with the breakdown of his parents marriage and as someone who suffers severe anxiety he finds it a safer more soothing place that's why I probably started gaming because when I was uh depressed and all that I started playing games and it just made me feel happy again and what makes them unhappy um everything really like I'm just not happy in general

and do you think that's a part of it too that when you're playing games you don't have to think probably we're gonna play games I don't really have to think about anything hello I'm just playing my game if he's feeling anxious and stressed in the bigger world what does the gaming world give him in your opinion in Logan's eyes it gives him space to be him it's nobody can see him nobody knows who he is and he can be a character but Logan's Escape has turned into an isolating and enduring Obsession which is tearing his

family apart the obvious solution Banning video games is not as easy as it sounds according to Brita and her new partner Liz hello what what happens if you say no you can't do this it's not as simple as taking the court away and going oh well bad luck you haven't got the internet because the repercussions from that um Angry aggressive we've had to call the police before I have been headbutted I've had concussion I've been bitten black and Brew all up and down my arms um I can't hold him back now he's he's my height

so I can't physically restain him sounds like you're frightened of him I can be if he is in that moment then I can be yes it's Unthinkable but his fixation is so complete Logan has refused to go to school for the last two years you're already dressed good boy while his two younger brothers are up and ready each morning Logan stays locked inside his room often ignoring all attempts at communication I'm about to go and take the boys to school I thought he was feeling sick because he was saying mum I've got a headache I

feel sick I want to vomit it runs to the toilet and I was thinking he had the flu so then he'd in one week would be off from school and it was gradual and then it just built up can't get him out of the house I thought he had the flu but it was that he was up gaming there's no reasoning with these kids um sadly you'd like the debate um they just don't respond to what other kids do who perhaps don't have these challenges in this world so you're saying that taking away the gaming

opportunity is not an option for your son I'd like to see it but I don't want him to come off it completely I still don't mind him playing a game online I just want him to have it balanced but if he's an addict maybe that's not an option for him true maybe I just need to make him go cold turkey scary we've heard about what happens when you try to go to school in your shelving push and so forth but here when you're told stop behave your life I just say don't get off sometimes and

just refuse to and that makes mum angry yes yes and how does that upset yeah and upset and how does that make you feel I feel upset as well because I'm not trying to make her upset I just didn't see the need for me to get off and we thought maybe Joanne and Brendan are also struggling with their son Sam's video gaming when Joanne was diagnosed with breast cancer last year 13 year old Sam retreated to video games and is now two missing vital school time this year he's had four four full School weeks did

she he's had 50 days off so he's had he's gone to school for four weeks this year for four weeks four four weeks but not in a row no not in a row no he does that I'm sick I can't be bothered Sam's bad behavior has escalated he's been suspended from school and has been caught stealing from his family to pay for gaming credits in the space of six or eight weeks I think he'd manage to clock up over 350 so what sort of consequences did he suffer for stealing your card and spending that much

money well uh it caused a lot of problems between Brandon and I because I kind of tried to protect him and I probably shouldn't have as much often protects him from me I understand yeah kind of yeah because I knew that the console would have gone across the road and into the end of the creek and um but shouldn't it I mean probably you know yes anything that gives us pleasure um and uh that we're attracted to gives us a sensory stimuli that's positive is potentially addictive and if that starts taking over our life causing

a negative impact on these fundamental things like having friendships and relationships if it's impacting that and we're still going to the video game I think we can call it an addiction much like poker machines for adults video games are designed to get us in this enthralling rapid fire world is challenging rewarding and a lot of fun it's all in a nice one quickly and I just got killed again well is that because you're talking to me yeah but for kids like 13 year old Sam and 14 year old Logan both smart and sensitive there is

no easy way out even when they want to escape it I don't want to be that one of them kids that draw Power and play your game and stuff like that I want to actually get somewhere in the left foreign why does it upset you I don't know Sam has missed most of this school year and Logan hasn't been to school for two years what do you need to get through Gates I don't know I've been trying to work that out for a while now I can't really ever figure out why I can't go like

I would go but I don't know why I can't though I just can't um in psychological term this is an emergency and School reviews or people who can't go to school that's an emergency uh in in our society because that's where we learn about the social world the populations of these themselves it's easy to judge Logan and his family but Dr Tan via Ahmed says for whatever reason going to school is literally terrifying for this boy on a school bus the race I think for us the equivalent might be that if we're going into a

room where there is something life-threatening uh your heart might race you might start hyperventilating you'd get all this adrenaline telling you that there is something really scary out there and do not go there these are the signals we'd get you know they're very biological that's what he's getting just about attending school for Logan and kids like him it's much more comfortable to exist in video games and at this Sydney gaming parlor you can see how many are drawn to them those playing are plugged in and tuned out to everything and everyone else so how many

hours are you playing these sorts of games on whatever device um probably around six hours a day six hours a day yeah how old were you when you started gaming about three years old you're about three years old yes my dad was a very big gamer and I just kind of got me into it at a young age and I've been addicted ever since education Coach Jill Sweetman warns the impact of excessive gaming is dire and long term it's not just a game this game is a platform it's a tool it's a it's an element

that has been so magnificently and exquisitely crafted to engage these children and adults more and more and more and that's where it's Insidious and Neuroscience provides the proof as gaming becomes their sole Focus children's brains are irrevocably shaped and changed I think the best way to describe it is to talk about what's called apoptosis which is really planned brain death and that occurs from the time the child is almost born it's already getting rid of brain cells that are not being used and what worries me most is that if so much time is devoted to

just entertainment under the auspices the control of game designers over a long period of time what are we really losing and those brain cells can't be gotten back in later life back in his den it's no surprise really but killing off brain cells is not something that scares Logan do you worry uh what effect all these hours in these games might be doing to you not really I'm not really worried at all because I don't really see that there's a problem with it like sure there's I mean that I've spent all my time and don't

go to school and I could get my parents in trouble but doesn't really yeah I just really makes me feel like oh I should stop you know I just keep playing she can't think about it how much do you worry about not being able to get off them ever um or worry about myself and my health and my I worry at the fact that I might never see my family again like I've just been drawn into the Video Game World and I can't get out of it must be very frightening so you just don't feel

like you've got the strength just to turn it off and walk away from it knock you can't you really feel you've tried to do that yeah it was very hard to ask a young child in their primary school years to be the police to be the monitor of Their Own fun and in the home environment if there are guidelines if there are rules but there are no real life consequences the child works out very quickly what they can get away with in this device driven age where being tech savvy is considered not just an expectation

but a necessity Banning screens and the gaming they allow must seem impossible for some even setting boundaries is too hard to try and that is the really obvious question here isn't it I mean you've identified the problem yes why not take it away take all the devices away stop the gaming why not it's not worth the abuse to ask um it turns into an absolute screaming match and I don't want the neighbors subjected to it it's not only us that coppet it's not the siblings um I'll cop it I see the logic in taking it

off and don't get me wrong we have thought about it we have Brennan is very much to take it off him and as soon as Brenda goes to work I give back because I just I don't honestly have the strength to be able to listen and hear the name calling and the just that yeah the nagging yeah Joanne Brendan and Sam are not alone parents are turning to boot camps and treatment clinics for problem Gamers especially overseas where more options are available while internationally excessive gaming is considered a disease in Australia it's not yet recognized

as an addiction making it harder to find help so layers and Brita have set up a Facebook page to connect with other families going through the same pain there's a lot of children in the same situation or worse than Logan how can they be worse older and also younger one mother has to live the plate of food for the child at the door she's not allowed into his room at all others talk about violence I mean Logan's had some challenges but pales into comparison compared to what some parents are sharing with us in this Facebook

group it is quite scary that one there is times we've agreed to from 4 P.M to 9 30. okay all right okay and then outside of other times it's not available at home Les and Brita are trying but it's also to give you a reward as well so they're negotiating new limits with Logan come and have a look boys down here and still insisting he get out of the house at least once a week as resistant as he is to sunlight and the outdoors Logan come back I didn't really find it enjoyable why not because

I was just bored doing nothing just sitting around yeah I just wanted to go ahead applying this but a glimmer of hope came last week when Logan was accepted into a bridging School for Children like him it's designed to get him back into mainstream education but will only work if he shows up Logan child you've lost as you've described do you believe you'll find him again hope I hope I find him he's in there I'll never give up Chad have a good morning darling see you soon bye parenting has never been more challenging or more

critical than ever before has so much been at stake you'd go crazy when new if mum and dad said no to all your devices for a little while yeah but deep down is that what you want them to do yeah you know they'll see this they might actually do it yeah then do you truly welcome that I feel like I miss the old me you miss the old you yeah so how much would you like some help I would like help in trying to stop my gaming addiction and try and get away from gaming but

us it's not as easy as what it sounds hello I'm Tara Brown thanks for watching 60 Minutes Australia subscribe to our Channel now for brand new stories and exclusive Clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minutes segments and full episodes of 60 Minutes on 9now.com and the nine Now app