QUITTERIE DE PASCAL-RUFENACHT ET CHARLOTTE GUILLEMOT
Valleur, M. (2015). Un jeune sur huit addict aux jeux vidéo ? In Cerveau et psycho 68, 16-17.
Is One Teenager out of Eight Addicted to Video Games?
According to a report from the French observatory of drugs and substance addiction (Observatoire français des drogues et des toxicomanies, OFDT), one teenager out of eight is addict to video games.
The survey was carried out among two thousands students aged between thirteen and seventeen years old concerning their use of screens.
The main results showed that eighty-four percent of the teenagers have a game console and seventy four percent have a tablet. They are using their screens for five to six hours per day and they are mostly playing with their video games instead of watching television.
The main problem is the difficulty to assess addiction.
The question “Have you already tried and failed to reduce your use of video games?” was missing in the game addiction scale used by the OFDT. Thus fourteen percent of teenagers are considered as addicted while the majority of the studies talk about only one percent or less.
The definition of addiction is the impossibility for the person to reduce or to stop his behavior which is a source of inconvenience or pain more than a pleasure. Moreover, there is a feeling of alienation and a loss of freedom because the addicted people can not spend too much time without playing.
There is no biological marker of addiction. The addiction cannot be defined by its own object. For example, the intoxication of the body by an abusive use of alcohol is a consequence of the addiction but it does not define it. Addiction is the final step of the relationship between the person and the object or the behavior. Indeed, it is a process which begins by the pleasure, then continue by an invasive habit before the loss of freedom. In fact, everything can be addictive (food, love, video games, alcohol…). Many people do not want to admit that they are addicted to something because it’s badly perceived by society and people would like to have a better understanding of what can be considered as a drug and what cannot.
The danger of addiction is the same whether the substance is legal or not. Alcohol and tobacco are legal drugs nevertheless they are very dangerous for the health. The challenge is to develop prevention plans and especially when there has been an early use. Indeed, when there has been an early use, the risk of addiction is higher.
During adolescence, impulsiveness and misuse are very common, but usually temporarily. Thus the addiction of the fourteen percent of addicted people as described in the OFDT’s report do not match with the addiction as defined by the clinicians. Indeed, among the fourteen percent of addicted people not all of them would be described as addicted.
Parents fear that the important use of video games by their children during the teenagehood can lead to an addiction. Whereas the studies show that very few teenagers (one percent or less) are really diagnosed as addicted. Actually, in most of the case people are not addicted but they need to hear it from professionals.
