 IANS Photo Kochi, (IANS) The online skill gaming industry is being seen as a potential high-growth sector by tech talent in Kerala, according to a study. The study, titled 'Unveiling the Potential and Scope of the Online Skill Gaming Industry: A Study with Technology Students and Professionals” by the E-Gaming Federation (EGF) and the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata (ISIK), provides unique insights into the growing interest in the online gaming sector within the technology community. The study sampled 4,644 individuals from the tech community across Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, demonstrating a very strong interest among both students and professionals in the online skill gaming sector. It found out that 72.5 per cent of respondents across India have expressed a strong inclination towards pursuing a career within this dynamic domain, while 60 per cent believed that "providing an opportunity to create in India for the world" could stem the brain drain to overseas tech jobs. Another finding was 100 per cent of participants in Kerala showed a willingness to pursue professional education in the gaming sector, indicating a strong desire to upskill and contribute to the industry's expansion. Dr Diganta Mukherjee, Professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, said as the industry rapidly evolves, there is a unique opportunity to harness the creative potential of our youth and build a robust ecosystem that nurtures both technological innovation and economic growth. Kerala is home to more than 4100 start-ups operating in a variety of industries including hardware, healthcare, fintech, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence. The study's analysis underscores the vital role the sector could play in India's economic and technological trajectory. To unlock this potential, it is imperative that policymakers, industry stakeholders, and academia work hand in hand to create an environment that fosters innovation, skill development, and entrepreneurship. skill gaming industry Technology practitioners eye online skill gaming industry for career growth : Study | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
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Children live online more than ever – we need better definitions .... (2025-12-05T12:44:00+05:30)
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Children live online more than ever – we need better definitions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ screen time, Kathryn MacCallum, University of Canterbury and Cheryl Brown, University of Canterbury, The pandemic has fundamentally altered every part of our lives, not least the time we spend on digital devices. For young people in particular, the blurred line between recreational and educational screen time presents new challenges we are only beginning to appreciate. Even before COVID, there were concerns about screen time for children. A 2019-20 survey found four in five children were exceeding the current Ministry of Health recommendation of two hours’ recreational screen time a day. This was on top of screen time linked to learning. With lockdowns and social restrictions now a new normal, it is increasingly difficult to disengage from screens. Children are growing up in a digital society, surrounded by a multitude of devices used for everything from social connection to learning and entertainment. The boundaries between recreation, communication and learning are becoming less distinct. Screen time that may seem on the surface to be purely recreational can in reality be important for learning, supporting mental health and driving awareness of important issues. YouTube, for example, can be both entertaining and educational. It is increasingly used in classes to supplement teaching. But it is also used in other ways, including to drive social change, as German star Rezo demonstrated with a viral climate change video that prompted sweeping public reforms. Likewise the popular online game Minecraft has been shown to provide rich educational and social benefits. Even games like Roblox or Fortnite, where those benefits may be less apparent, still provide opportunities for rich social engagement and spaces for problem solving and experiential learning. Are official guidelines outdated?This all presents an interesting dilemma: can we really fit screen time into discrete categories, and should we apply limits to some but not others? This blurring of boundaries has led researchers from the University of Auckland’s Centre for Informed Futures – Koi Tū – to call for clearer and more detailed official screen time recommendations. Specifically, they felt the current recommended limits failed to represent the variety of screen time students experience. This was supported by a review of the academic literature covering the impacts of screen time. While research indicates a broad association between excessive screen time and a range of behavioural, learning and other problems, the results are far from conclusive and can generally be attributed to other factors. The review also found the type of screen time is important: in many cases, negative effects were driven by passive screen use, whereas interactive use didn’t have the same impacts. In fact, the latter can have positive influences, such as better learning achievement and enhanced cognitive skills. Getting the balance rightThis suggests we need to reorient our views of screen time away from a blunt measure of time spent on screens and towards better understanding what children are really doing on those screens. While balancing passive and interactive screen time is clearly important, so is finding ways to encourage and prioritise more socially and educationally productive online behaviour. This should also guide the adoption of technology in schools. Rather than wholesale integration within every aspect of learning, devices should clearly add value or improve teaching and learning, not simply replace traditional practices. The role of screen devices in classrooms is particularly relevant in light of New Zealand’s 2018 PISA results, which indicated children using devices in subjects like mathematics and science achieved lower scores than those who didn’t. In August this year, the Ministry of Education responded by saying:
Active versus passive timeIt’s true there is considerable scepticism about the validity of the PISA tests, and wider research into the influence of screens in classrooms has shown mixed results. Generally, however, we cannot claim a causal, linear relationship between use of devices and academic outcomes. Rather than assuming the PISA results indicate screen time is detrimental to learning, we need to consider how screens are actually being used in classes. We need to focus on integrating technology that makes a difference and enhances learning. Students learn best when they are actively engaged and create and drive their own learning. The same principles can apply to the use of digital devices – limiting passive consumption in favour of students being actively creative. This will open up new learning opportunities and provide students with authentic experiences. For example, rather than students simply watching a YouTube clip to learn about the solar system, they might create their own augmented reality simulation, requiring them to apply their knowledge to correctly place, size and animate digital objects. Rebalancing screen time in this way will help avoid the more negative consequences of these ubiquitous devices and highlight some of their unique advantages. But this will require deeper and more critical thinking about what might be gained or lost in a world where engaging with digital technology is increasingly unavoidable. Kathryn MacCallum, Associate Professor of Digital Education Futures, University of Canterbury and Cheryl Brown, Associate Professor of e-Learning, University of Canterbury This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
Virtual reality grooming is an increasing danger..... (2025-12-04T11:25:00+05:30)
Virtual reality grooming is an increasing danger. How can parents keep children safe? Marika Guggisberg, CQUniversity Australia: Virtual reality (VR) headsets are increasingly popular among adults and children. They are part of extended reality environments, which “enable ever more realistic and immersive experiences”.VR provides entry into computer-generated 3D worlds and games with different environments and interactions. Sometimes this is loosely referred to as the “metaverse”. The majority of VR headsets have a lower age limit of 10–13 years due to safety concerns of extended reality technologies in general and VR headsets in particular. But VR is increasingly used by young children, even of preschool age. These immersive technologies make it difficult to monitor children’s physical and emotional experiences and with whom they interact. So what are the dangers, and what can we do to keep the kids safe? The good and the badVR allows children to dive into a digital world where they can immerse themselves into different characters (avatars). Thanks to the richness of the stimuli, VR can give the illusion of actually being in the virtual location – this is called “virtual presence”. If children then interact with other people in the virtual world, the psychological realism is enhanced. These experiences can be fun and rewarding. However, they can also have negative impacts. Children tend to have difficulty distinguishing between what occurs within VR and in the real world. As children identify with their avatars, the boundary between them and the VR device is blurred when playing in the metaverse. Children can even develop traumatic memories when playing in virtual worlds. Due to the immersive nature of VR, the sense of presence makes it feel as if the child’s avatar is actually “real”. Research is still emerging, but it is known children can form memories from virtual experiences, which means sexual abuse that occurs virtually could turn into a real-world traumatic memory. The rise of ‘cyber grooming’Research has found that online predators use different grooming strategies to manipulate children into sexual interactions. This sometimes leads to offline encounters without the knowledge of parents. Non-threatening grooming strategies that build relationships are common. Perpetrators may use friendship strategies to develop a relationship with children and to build trust. The child then views the person as a trusted friend rather than a stranger. As a result, the prevention messages about strangers learned through education programs are ineffective in protecting children. A recent meta-analysis found that online sex offenders are usually acquaintances. Unsurprisingly, a proportion of adult predators pretend to be peers (that is, other children or teens). Sexual approaches by adults occur more commonly on platforms that are widely used by children. “Sexual communication with a child” offences, according to police statistics from the United Kingdom, increased by 84% between 2017–18 and 2021–22. Due to the hidden nature of cyber grooming, it is difficult to know the true prevalence of this issue. Some police reports in Europe indicate that approximately 20% of children have experienced online sexual solicitation, and up to 25% of children reported sexual interaction with an adult online. Concerning reports by Europol indicate that children have been drawn into erotic role play online. In interviews with researchers, some parents have also shared anecdotal experiences of their children being exposed to explicit sex acts on social online gaming platforms such as Roblox. Such encounters have the potential to create memories as if the virtual experience had happened in real life. For parents it is important to know that cyber groomers are well versed in the use of extremely popular virtual worlds. These provide predators with anonymity and easy access to children, where they can lure them into sexual engagement. A recent report from the Internet Watch Foundation charity reports that a record number of young children have been manipulated into performing sexual acts online. Through the metaverse, a sexual offender can be virtually brought into a child’s bedroom and engage in sexual behaviours through the child’s VR device. As VR worlds become more immersive, the danger for children only increases. Grooming occurs where parents least expect it to happen. To mitigate this danger, parents need to be aware of online grooming patterns – such as isolating the child, developing their trust and asking them to hide a relationship. Recognising the signs early can prevent the abuse from happening. But this can be difficult if parents aren’t familiar with the technology their child is using. To help them understand what their children experience in extended reality environments, parents must familiarise themselves with VR and the metaverse. If parents experience and experiment with the VR technology themselves, they can have conversations with their children about their experiences and understand with whom the child might interact with. This will allow parents to make informed decisions and put tailored safeguarding measures in place. These safeguards include reviewing the parental controls and safety features on each platform, and actively learning what their children are playing and whom they are interacting with. With such safeguards in place, parents can allow their children to have fun with VR headsets while keeping them protected. If you believe your child is targeted by grooming or exploitation, or you come across exploitation material, you can report it via ThinkuKnow or contact your local police. If you are a child, teen or young adult who needs help and support, call the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800. If you are an adult who experienced abuse as a child, call the Blue Knot Helpline on 1300 657 380 or visit their website. Marika Guggisberg, Senior Lecturer, Domestic and Family Violence, CQUniversity Australia This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
Can a video game save a life? African refugee puts players in his race for survival (2025-11-18T11:33:00+05:30)
 Can a video game save a life? African refugee puts players in his race for survival: Video game developer Lual Mayen, 25, who learned to code in a refugee camp after fleeing South Sudan, plays his new game at his home in Washington, D.C., US on January 7, 2020. (REUTERS File Photo) WASHINGTON, (Reuters): The goal of Lual Mayen's video game is to survive the horrific ordeal of a refugee, an experience that his family knows well, but the 25-year-old developer's ambition is to change the world. Mayen, who was born as his family traveled 250 miles (400 km) to escape South Sudan's second civil war, hopes his game, Salaam, will give players a better understanding of what it means to be homeless, hungry and on the run. "A lot of people don't understand the journey of a refugee," said Mayen, 25, who and spent his first 22 years in a refugee camp in northern Uganda before moving to the United States. "It was a journey of life and death," he said, recalling family stories about bomb attacks, wild animals and how babies were abandoned by parents who could no longer care for them. Now head of his own video game company in Washington, Mayen believes that "gamification," where participants make decisions unlike the passive experience of watching a movie, puts ordinary people in the shoes of a refugee. Salaam, an Arabic greeting meaning peace, enables users who have never had to flee a war-torn country to take a virtual trek to a "peaceful environment" -- if they can dodge hostile troops and find enough food and water. BRIDGING THE VIRTUAL AND REAL WORLDS While the game is free to play, when participants need to buy food, water or medicine for their virtual characters, they can make in-app purchases that will go to real-life refugees, he said. "Salaam is going to be the first-ever game that is going to bridge the virtual world and the reality on the ground," he said. "When someone buys food in the game, you're actually buying someone in a refugee camp food." But Mayen also has a long game in mind, hoping that Salaam will enlighten today's teens when they become the next generation of policymakers. "When they're making policy, they'll already understand what refugees face, just through playing my game," he said. "That's actually how we change the world and how we can be able to use the industry for good." Growing up in a refugee camp, Mayen had never even seen a computer until one day, at age 12, he reported to the camp's registration center. "It was a moment that actually helped me to understand, wow, I want to use this one day," he said. For the next three years, his mother, whom he made the main character in Salaam, worked tirelessly to stash away $300 to buy him a laptop, which he now keeps in a glass display case in his apartment. His game went viral after he uploaded it to Facebook and caught the attention of the gaming industry. In 2018, he was named a Global Gaming Citizen at the Game Awards in Los Angeles. "To be able to ... represent the continent and represent the game for social impact, it gives me so much hope," he said. "It gives more refugees hope." Can a video game save a life? African refugee puts players in his race for survival | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
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Online games should not be included in Australia’s social media ban .... (2025-10-27T13:43:00+05:30)
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Online games should not be included in Australia’s social media ban – they are crucial for kids’ social lives: Marcus Carter, University of Sydney and Taylor Hardwick, University of Sydney, The Australian government has announced a plan to ban children under the age of 16 from social media. With bipartisan support, it’s likely to be passed by the end of the year.
While some experts and school principals support the ban, the move has also been widely challenged by social media experts and children’s mental health groups. In a press conference on Friday, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland suggested the ban would include platforms such as TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. An exemption would be considered for some services, such as YouTube Kids. Some media reports raised concerns about online games like Minecraft, Fortnite and Roblox falling under the ban, because people can communicate with others on these platforms. Platforms like Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network would potentially be in scope, too. A government spokesperson told Australian Community Media that a new, robust definition of “social media” would be forthcoming in the legislation. Games and messaging platforms are likely to be exempt, but we don’t know for sure at this stage. As experts in children’s online play, we argue it would be a mistake to ban children from social games. Games are crucial to children’s social lives and learning, and for their personal growth and identity development. What do young people gain from games?Games are widely popular, and 93% of Australian children aged 5–14 play videogames regularly. Two-thirds of children in Australia aged 9–12 play Minecraft at least once a month. Children and young people feel overwhelmingly positive about their online gameplay. In a recent study by the eSafety Commissioner, over three-quarters of young gamers indicated that “gaming had helped them with skill development, such as learning something new, using digital technologies, solving problems and thinking faster”. Minecraft has received particular attention for fostering creativity, collaboration and socially connecting young people. In 2021, the Minecraft: Education Edition was being used in schools in 115 countries, including Australia. This version of the game contains free lessons on various subjects. In a study across six schools in Queensland, researchers found children who learned with Minecraft: Education Edition “overwhelmingly identified themselves as better mathematics students”. Two decades of research have also shown us that children derive enormous social benefits from playing digital games with other people. In a 2015 report by the Pew Research Center, 78% of teenagers said online games help them feel more connected to their friends. A UNICEF review of research literature from earlier this year concluded that videogames can boost children’s wellbeing by making them feel competent, empowered and socially connected to others. This is particularly important for vulnerable children. For instance, Autcraft, a parent-created Minecraft server for neurodivergent children, has been enormously successful in providing children with a comfortable and safe digital space to socially connect with their peers. What about the risks?However, games are not always safe spaces for young people. Gaming culture is pervasively misogynistic, and games have played a role in mainstreaming far-right ideology by promoting meritocratic, racist and discriminatory ideologies. Gaming platforms like Roblox – where over half of players are under the age of 13 – have also come under fire for not doing enough to protect their users from online grooming and child abuse material. Increasingly, we’re also seeing the gamblification of games. In recent years, predatory monetisation models such as gambling-like lootboxes have become normalised. In Australia, the Classification Board recently banned “in-game purchases with an element of chance” for children under 15. According to the definition, these are “mystery items players can use real money to buy, without knowing what item they will get”. Incidentally, this decision demonstrates the ineffectiveness of blanket ban approaches. According to our yet-to-be-published research, numerous games with paid chance-based features such as lootboxes remain available on storefronts like Apple’s App Store, despite not complying with the new regulations. A ban can’t make children’s online lives betterJust as all internet use isn’t bad, all games aren’t bad either. Parents may feel overwhelmed and under-informed about the videogames their children play, but bans can be easily circumvented. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has expressed concerns that “some young people will access social media in secrecy”. The risk is that a ban will take away the onus on these platforms to make them safer for children. Why design for users who aren’t legally allowed to be on the platform? The government should be working in partnership with social media and online gaming platforms to ensure they are designed in children’s best interests, while allowing children the freedom to play and to access safer and richer digital lives. Marcus Carter, Professor in Human-Computer Interaction, ARC Future Fellow, University of Sydney and Taylor Hardwick, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
Demands for game ownership must also include workers’ rights (2025-10-15T13:44:00+05:30)
 With live service games, players are learning that what they’ve really bought is not a game but access to it. And, evidently, that access is something that can be revoked. (Unsplash/Samsung Memory) ‘ Stop Killing Games’: Demands for game ownership must also include workers’ rights, Louis-Etienne Dubois, Toronto Metropolitan University and Miikka J. Lehtonen, Rikkyo UniversityWhen French video-game publisher Ubisoft announced it was shutting down servers for The Crew, a popular online racing game released in 2014, it wasn’t just the end of a title. It marked the beginning of a broader reckoning about the nature of digital ownership, led by players angry at the company’s decision to deny them something they had paid for. The Stop Killing Games (SKG) movement was born from that moment. As of July 2025, it has gathered more than 1.4 million signatures through the European Citizens’ Initiative. The European Commission is now obliged to respond. At the heart of the issue is a deceptively simple question: when we buy a video game, what are we actually purchasing? For many gamers, the answer used to be obvious. A game was a product, something you owned, kept and could return to at will. However, live service games have changed that dynamic. These are games usually played online with others and that typically require subscriptions or in-game payments to access features or content. They include popular titles such as Fortnite, League of Legends and World of Warcraft. With live service games, players are learning that what they’ve really bought is something more tenuous: access. And, evidently, access is something that can be revoked. Erasing gaming communitiesThe issue goes well beyond The Crew. In the last couple of years alone, several games have been shut down, including Anthem, Concord, Knockout City, Overwatch 1, RedFall and Rumbleverse. There are valid reasons why companies might choose to end support for a title. The game industry is saturated and brutally competitive. Margins are tight, player expectations are high and teams often face impossible deadlines. When an online game underperforms, a publisher will likely be inclined to cut their losses and shut it down. Games tend to accumulate bugs in their code that are complex to clean and create player dissatisfaction. In our research, we have shown that when a game underperforms or becomes too costly to maintain, shutting it down can be a rational, even reparative, decision on many levels. Yet, when companies decide to shut down a live service game’s servers, it’s not just content that vanishes. So do the communities built around it, the digital assets (costumes, weapons and so on) players have earned or paid for and the sometimes hundreds of hours invested in mastering it. In the blink of an eye, the game is gone, often without recourse or compensation. That’s not just a customer service issue; it’s a cultural one. Games are not just another type of software. They are creative works that can foster shared experiences and vibrant communities. Players don’t just consume games, they inhabit them. They trade stories, build friendships and express themselves through digital spaces. Turning those spaces off can feel, to many, like erasing a part of their lives. This profound disconnect between business logic and player experience, which we theorized in the past, is what gave rise to the SKG movement. Video game publishers failed to anticipate the cultural backlash triggered by these shutdowns. What regulators can do The European Commission’s response to the Stop Killing Games petition could help define the future of digital ownership, cultural preservation and ethical labour in gaming. (Unsplash/Guillaume Périgois) Players of shut-down games may believe they were misled and should be compensated. Unfortunately, the current system offers little transparency and even less protection for them. That’s where regulation can help. The European Commission now has a chance to provide much-needed clarity on what consumers in the European Union are actually buying when they purchase live service games. A good starting point would be requiring companies to disclose whether a purchase grants the buyer ownership or limited access, akin to recent legislation passed in California. Minimum support periods, clearer content road maps (the projected updates) and making companies create mandatory offline versions for discontinued online games might also help prevent misunderstandings. There’s room for creativity here, too. Rather than killing a game outright, companies could allow player communities to take over its maintenance and allow for the continued creation of new content, especially for titles with active fan bases. This is known as “modding,” and in some cases, community-led revivals have even inspired publishers to re-release enhanced editions years later. Developers need protections too Instead of periodically ‘crunching,’ live service game developers are now constantly ‘grinding.’ (Unsplash/Sigmund)There’s another part of this story that’s unfortunately overlooked: the people who make these games. Video game developers are regularly subjected to long hours, poor conditions and toxic workplace cultures in order to meet the demands of continuous live service updates. In our research, we’ve found that this new model of endless content creation and perpetual support is unsustainable, not just financially or technologically, but humanly. Instead of periodically “crunching,” live service game developers are now constantly “grinding.” Somehow, in an industry notoriously demanding for workers, this model has managed to make things even worse. Policymakers need to protect both players and the workers creating games. That means, among other things, rethinking release schedules, enforcing rest periods for development teams and holding companies accountable for the well-being of their staff. The overall health of the industry depends on it. Whether you support the SKG movement or not, the issues it raises are urgent. While the ownership question is a very legitimate one, video game developers deserve more care and protection. The European Commission’s response could help define the future of digital ownership, cultural preservation and ethical labour in gaming. Louis-Etienne Dubois, Associate Professor, School of Creative Industries, The Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University and Miikka J. Lehtonen, Specially Appointed Associate Professor, College of Business, Rikkyo University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
China cuts children's online gaming to one hour (2025-10-05T11:19:00+05:30)
.jpg) Online gamers under the age of 18 will only be allowed to play for an hour on Fridays, weekends and holidays, China's video game regulator has said. The National Press and Publication Administration told state-run news agency Xinhua that game-playing would be only allowed between 8pm to 9pm, according to BBC News. It also instructed gaming companies to prevent children playing outside these times. Earlier this month a state media outlet branded online games "spiritual opium". Inspections of online gaming companies will also increase, to check that the time limits are being enforced the regulator said. Earlier rules had limited children's online game-playing to 90 minutes per day, rising to three hours on holidays. The move reflects a long running concern about the impact of excessive gaming on the young. A month prior to the latest restrictions, an article published by the state-run Economic Information Daily claimed many teenagers had become addicted to online gaming and it was having a negative impact on them. The article prompted significant falls in the value of shares in some of China's biggest online gaming firms. In July, Chinese gaming giant Tencent announced it was rolling out facial recognition to stop children playing between 22:00 and 08:00.The move followed fears that children were using adult ID's to circumvent rules.custom title
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How the video gaming industry is evolving to be like the casino industry (2025-09-30T12:19:00+05:30)
 The video game Assassins Creed has had many successful sequels. Barbara Williams2010/Flickr, CC BY Joshua Krook, University of AdelaideThe The business of addiction: how the video gaming industry is evolving to be like the casino industry: The video gaming industry has transitioned from a group of backyard innovators to an industry of multi-billion dollar companies, hiring psychologists, neuroscientists and marketing experts to turn customers into addicts. The latest trend is the creation of “whales,” people so addicted to games that they spend their entire life savings to keep playing. But the video gaming industry, today one of the fastest growing industries in the US, has more humble origins. In the 1980s and 1990s, the early video gaming industry was dominated by backyard hobbyists. Sierra Entertainment - creators of the famous King’s Quest series - was founded by a husband and wife team. Gabe Newell, founder of Valve Software, was already rich from his days at Microsoft when he launched his hobby project Half-Life. Collectively, the hobbyist companies of the early industry produced some of the most innovative genres of video game history – the adventure game, the real-time strategy, the city-builder, the role-playing game – all through experimentation and garage-style company development. But in the last ten years something changed. The rise of mobile gaming and sequelsThe rise of casual gaming on mobile platforms has allowed a massive expansion of the industry, creating giant companies like King, Halfbrick, Zynga and Kabam. Much larger than their predecessors, modern video gaming companies have adopted a more traditional company structure, hiring public relations and marketing departments and even neuroscientists to sell as many games as possible. Today, big companies monopolise the industry with long-running sequels of old, successful titles: Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty and Halo, to name a few. Of the ten highest selling video games in 2017 so far, eight are sequels. With high development budgets in top companies (some games costing upward of US$250 million to produce), sequels are seen as a go to formula for success, based on name recognition alone. Video games in the 1990s were generally “premium,” meaning that you paid once to gain access to the game for life, in the same way you would buy a pair of shoes and own them forever. Today, video game companies have moved to a more profitable model known as “Free to Play”. Research shows these Free to Play (FTP) games rely on the fact that a majority of players will play for free, while a few key players will become addicted to the game and spend a vast fortune for bonus content. The goal of an FTP game is to get as many players as possible addicted, so that they keep buying in-game content. In-game content can include things like “visual enhancements,” digital trophies and “virtual goods”. The use of casino techniques by games companiesVideo game companies today use the same techniques as casinos to ensure customers become addicted to their games. Commonly, they use fake currency. By using poker chips, cards or “gems,” companies can create a disassociation effect in the buyer, who does not realise how much real money they are spending. In a recent study, it was shown that people tend to spend more money when using debit cards than with cash due to this same “disassociation” effect. FTP games have adapted another technique from casinos called “progress gates”. The typical slot machine charges you to keep playing as soon as you lose – this is known as a “hard progress gate”. In contrast to this, a “soft progress gate” prevents a player from playing for a period of time (say an hour), which can be bypassed by paying to keep playing immediately. Modern games use both hard and soft gates to charge the gamer for a product that they ostensibly already own. Modern video game companies also use shops and in-game ATMs to entice players to keep spending without having time to cool off outside of the game. Casinos use the same technique by placing ATMs and shops in-house. Gambling researcher Mark Griffiths suggests that this technique is used “to entice those who are gambling not to stop or go home”. By using the same techniques as casinos, the modern video gaming industry has gone down a dark and morally dubious path. New ethical questions exist about the effect of addictive gaming and whether or not it is fair or ethical to keep charging addicts for a product they already own. Joshua Krook, Doctoral Candidate in Law, University of Adelaide This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
If your kid is home sick from school, is unlimited screen time OK? (2025-09-22T13:53:00+05:30)
Jordy Kaufman, Swinburne University of Technology and Jennifer M. Zosh, Penn StateNot so long ago, if a child was home sick from school, the main screen-based entertainment was daytime television. The options were limited to The Price is Right or reruns of Home and Away. Fast forward to the present day and we have multiple streaming services, tablets, smartphones, and an endless reservoir of content made specifically to captivate children’s attention. Managing a child’s screen time when they’re home sick from school has taken on a whole new dimension. For many parents, the challenge of juggling work and caring for a sick child at home inevitably leads to more TV or iPad. The digital world offers a convenient solution to keep children occupied and, to an extent, comforted. But should being unwell automatically equate to increased or even unlimited screen time? Illness should not automatically equal unlimited screensWe are child development researchers specialising in child-technology interaction and have spent a lot of time thinking about this question. The answer depends on several factors and understanding these elements can help parents manage their child’s screen time effectively and healthily. The comfort and distraction derived from favourite digital activities – whether it be episodes of Bluey, video games, YouTube videos, or even chatting to friends on social media – might alleviate the discomfort of being unwell. Screen use has been linked to reducing children’s anxiety and pain levels during painful procedures in the hospital. Still, we should also try to avoid a pattern where every minor illness is seen as a gateway to endless screen time. Over time, this could lead to a situation where children might exaggerate or even feign symptoms of illness to gain extra screen time. This may also inadvertently teach children that digital consumption is the go-to method for coping with illness-related discomfort or boredom, which could limit their ability to develop healthier coping skills. Recent research also suggests using technology to calm young children too frequently might be linked to higher levels of emotional dysregulation (such as angry outbursts). How old is your child?But a child’s age should also be considered. The Australian screen time guidelines for young children and toddlers are less than those for older children. This means more guidance and support is needed to manage younger children’s use of screens. But older children also need to have boundaries. Recent research suggests screen use triggers the release of dopamine – which makes you seek out or want to keep doing something – which helps explain why it can be so hard to disengage. There are also continued concerns about the mental health impacts of young people’s social media use. How sick is your child?The type of illness also plays a crucial role. Some illnesses, such as high fever or flu, necessitate ample rest to aid recovery. Good quality sleep boosts the immune system helping fight off the infection more efficiently. But illnesses like mild colds or conjunctivitis may not require as much additional rest, although a reasonable amount of downtime is generally beneficial. In both scenarios, it’s important to monitor screen time, especially before bedtime. The stimulating effects of screen light can disrupt a child’s sleep, hindering the rest and recovery process. What are the pre-existing rules in your house?If your house already has screen time rules for non-school days (such as extra time on weekends or holidays), these can be applied or slightly relaxed when a child is home sick. Having a baseline – even if it is more generous – makes some screen time limits during a sick day an expected norm. Maintaining these rules can help prevent a free-for-all scenario, which could complicate matters once the child recovers and needs to readjust to their regular schedule. On the other hand, if there are no pre-existing rules for non-school days, introducing snap strict screen time regulations when a child is unwell may not be the best approach. Doing so could add an additional layer of stress for the child, who is already not feeling sick. Instead, during these short-term illness periods, parents may choose to be more lenient with screen time, focusing on helping their child recover. Consider sitting down with your child and creating a list of other activities or possibilities that centre on rest and recuperation. Reading, playing with their pet, puzzles, art can all features on these lists. Keep an eye on thingsAlso, be sure to monitor what children are doing on their screens. Consider supporting decisions that help them rest and then switch off after an agreed period. For example, it might be easier to relax while watching a favourite movie rather than continuously watching new YouTube videos that change every five minutes. It’s also of course essential to distinguish between entertainment screen use and schoolwork that must be completed on a computer or tablet. Lastly, in full disclosure, one of the authors was sick with a stomach virus while working on this piece. So they also watched a lot of comfort television and scrolled through Twitter. We shouldn’t expect children to be better patients than adults. Jordy Kaufman, Associate Professor, Swinburne University of Technology and Jennifer M. Zosh, Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Penn State This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
Videogame addiction – fact or fantasy? (2025-09-10T13:25:00+05:30)
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10/09/2025, Gemma Lucy Smart, University of Sydney
I am a Warcraft widow, an affectionate term given to those who have “lost” a partner to World of Warcraft (WoW) as a result of excessive game-playing. I have first-hand experience of the way games such as WoW can be so engaging that entertainment becomes a way of life. Which leads me to the question: was my partner an addict? If so, was he any different to the thousands, if not millions, of gamers across the world spending what some would deem “excessive” amounts of time online managing virtual farms or defeating dragon gods intent on destroying the world? Were all these people addicts, too? It seems currently that anything pleasurable we do to excess is described as an addiction – from the traditional drug addictions to behavioural addictions such as shopping, gambling, sex, eating and even reading. The addiction narrative regularly features in popular culture. One gamer even made a documentary about his “bittersweet” journey through WoW. In Real Life (see below) is Anthony Rosner’s personal look at the effect of what he saw as addiction to the game. But there are dangers in this kind of self-diagnosis. Identifying oneself as an addict may mask the alternative causes of problem-gaming including, but not limited to, social anxiety and depression. Some gamers are even at risk of addiction becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Problem videogaming does not fit neatly into our existing understanding of addiction – indeed, our understanding of the neuroscience of behavioural addiction is very limited and mostly focused on gambling. Unlike videogaming, gambling has been described by Professor Don Ross at MIT as a basic form of addiction. The combination of reward and failure in gambling tasks disrupts the balance between the mid-brain dopamine system (which encourages reward-seeking behaviour) and our ability to control this behaviour through the pre-frontal and frontal serotonergic system. A recent survey of the academic literature on internet gaming addiction makes the following point: while a minority of game players do experience symptoms normally associated with addiction including mood modification, tolerance and salience, it’s unclear in most cases whether an individual’s apparent addiction is the cause of these symptoms rather than a symptom itself of another (co-morbid) disorder they may have, the most common being depression. The scope of games and gamers is partially the limiting factor to our understanding of computer game addiction. It could be said there are as many types of games as there are types of gamers, and the research is yet to reflect this adequately. The supposed “average” gamer is not who he or she used to be, and the tasks games present players with are growing increasingly complex and varied. To view games as either helpful or harmful is far too simple. Though there might be links between violent media content and aggression this hasn’t been proven, and there are reasons to argue that games could provide a great array of psychological and physiological benefits. Violent videogames such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto are considered most problematic because of their violent content. But it’s actually the “simple” games, such as Angry Birds and Bejeweled that are most similar to gambling. Other games are more complex. The epic fantasy role-playing game (RPG) Skyrim provides a sandbox (open) world in which players can do almost anything, from saving the world to catching butterflies to clearing out dungeons for loot. Gamers are given control over their in-game character, the goals they achieve and how they achieve them. This is somewhat different to a traditional addictive substance or behaviour that does not necessarily offer the range of new skills and tasks associated with cognitive development and collective action. We’re all in this togetherMassive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) such as WoW employ a large social component. Gamers come together and engage in complex teamwork and collaborative behaviour to achieve goals, developing wide networks and strong relationships. Players often know each other in “real life” and even when they only know one another via the computer screen, their relationships can be committed and meaningful. This is not to deny there are potential problems that can result from excessive gaming – such as antisocial behaviour or, in extreme and rare cases, death. This was seen in the tragic case of a child in Korea dying while her parents played Second Life. So did my partner play WoW to excess? In my opinion, yes: he played the game to the detriment of other parts of his life. But that doesn’t mean addiction is the only, or best, way to think about his behaviour. The playground of videogame worlds is decidedly different to the playgrounds of the past, for better or for worse. The bottom line is that more informed and substantial research needs to be done into problem gaming. In the meantime, describing “excessive” gamers as addicts may simply do more harm than good. Gemma Lucy Smart, MSc Candidate in History and Philosophy of Science, University of Sydney This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
