**Clickbait Text:** Are our kids losing touch with reality? Experts warn that gaming addiction is reshaping young minds, leading to emotional instability and social isolation. Discover ...
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Young gamblers are increasingly immersing themselves in the virtual world of online games, losing touch with reality and jeopardizing their mental and social development.
Recently, psychologists, medical professionals, and educators convened to discuss this issue and explore solutions to bring children back to reality.
- Gaming addiction is not merely a behavioral problem; it is a complex condition associated with an imbalance in brain function. Recovery requires psychotherapy and, if necessary, medication to correct neuropsychological disorders, - emphasizes Fatima Bagiayeva, a participant in the meeting and professor of communicative skills at the Kazakh National Medical University named after S.D. Asfendiyarov.
According to doctors, the brain of an adolescent with gaming addiction undergoes significant changes. There is a reduction in the volume of gray matter in the prefrontal and insular cortex. This, in turn, leads to impairments in self-control, planning, and awareness of one’s actions.
- At the same time, there is hyperactivity in the pleasure center, making games the primary source of joy and diminishing interest in other types of activities. The child cannot stop playing. It is often observed that mothers hand their young children mobile phones to attend to their personal matters. As a result, children lose the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds from an early age, - the medical professional continues. - The hyperactivity of the dopamine system enhances the attachment to games, suppressing sensitivity to real joys.
Survey data shows that at least a third of children start using gadgets from infancy (!). One reason is parents who perceive gadgets as tools to occupy their children. Children aged 2-3 months to 6-8 years are replacing communication and play with relatives with doses of phone stimulation. This leads to preschool children having speech development issues.
As for adolescents, prolonged immersion in the internet increases anxiety, depression, and emotional instability. According to statistics, this type of addiction primarily affects teenagers and young adults.
- Sometimes it seems that parents are too busy with work, careers, and solving material issues, leaving little time for genuine communication with their children. Their care is expressed in the desire to ensure safety and comfort, but there may be a lack of warmth, support, and involvement in the child’s emotional life, - says Elmira Alieva, head of the Family Institute of Kazakhstan and Central Asia. - It is important not only to provide children with resources for the future but also to help them develop empathy, kindness, and humanity, which are formed through attention and shared experiences. When children do not feel emotional closeness with their parents, they may withdraw into themselves or seek validation elsewhere, which is not always beneficial. Balancing work and family values is a challenging task, but it is precisely this balance that determines what kind of person the child will grow into and what values they will carry forward.
A psychologist, Alexander Rushchuk, who leads the gaming addiction program in Kazakhstan, believes that the solution to the problem starts with parents, specifically their emotional state.
- The main cause of any addiction is the lack of contact between children and parents. Such contact is only possible when parents are mature and happy individuals. If parents have a diminished quality of life and are preoccupied with their own experiences and problems, their energy is insufficient for themselves, let alone for their children. There is no interest in the children because there is no interest in themselves. In such cases, the key to a healthy child is timely psychotherapy for the parents. To begin with, parents must learn to be happy.
The second reason for gaming addiction, according to Rushchuk, is the lack of communication skills and critical thinking. Parents often underestimate the consequences of internet addiction and, consequently, cannot shield their children from the excessive influence of the World Wide Web.
- To eradicate gaming addiction, it is necessary to completely restructure the prevention system and create a government-level body overseeing this issue, - concludes Rushchuk.
Irina Terentyeva, a psychologist-educator at KGU Secondary School No. 4 in Kokshetau and a master of pedagogical sciences, is convinced that modern schools have accumulated contradictions. On one hand, against the backdrop of digitalization of the educational process and the introduction of information technologies (boards, panels, platforms, electronic diaries, etc.), there is a complete legalization and recognition of all technical devices, except for phones. Currently, a phone in a child's hands is perceived solely as a means of entertainment by both parents at home and teachers at school.
- Today, in the common understanding, a phone is a working tool for adults, but for children, it is stereotypically seen only as a source of entertainment. At the same time, adults do not let it out of their hands, transmitting their dependency on it to the children. Children first imitate, and only then listen to instructions. In my opinion, phones should be "legalized" as educational tools and allowed to be used for these purposes, rather than for entertainment.
The second contradiction, according to the educator, is the recommendations regarding the duration of phone usage, which are not adhered to.
- Distance learning is actively used during school days when there is bad weather and other reasons. During this time, each student spends more than 5-6 hours on their phone. Meanwhile, specialists say that phone use should not exceed 1.5 hours a day.
Another contradiction, in the educator's view, is that while parents restrict children from gadgets, they themselves do not leave the children in peace.
- Anxious parents constantly write and call their children, maintaining continuous contact and not allowing them to fully immerse themselves in the educational and social environment. Everyone is in contact around the clock, which creates tension and requires release in the form of games and other entertainment. The greater the tension, the stronger the need for release, - believes Irina Terentyeva.
As a solution to the problem, the educator suggests creating and implementing broad educational programs for adults on psychological health (in workplaces, institutions, organizations, etc.). She also proposes involving students in the process of studying the issue - engaging them in focus groups, interviewing, conducting surveys among them, etc. Additionally, she suggests developing diagnostic express-methodologies to quickly understand how deeply a child is entangled in the internet.
Participants of the meeting unanimously agreed that mandatory digital literacy courses for parents should be conducted to inform and reduce the risks of the digital environment and cybercrime. Parents are strongly encouraged to allocate time for family activities, discussions, and interactions.
- It is essential to start talking about the risks of the virtual and informational space in lessons for younger students, about the rules of behavior in social networks, and the consequences of unethical behavior on the internet, - concludes Elmira Alieva. - At the state level, it is vital to tighten rules by restricting the registration of children on platforms without age verification or other measures. It is crucial to limit access to harmful content by creating government filters to block games and websites containing scenes of violence, cruelty, or addictive provocations.
The situation is so serious that meeting participants propose conducting diagnostics in children's clinics to identify signs of mental deviations from the norm and symptoms of mental disorders, introducing criminal, financial, and administrative responsibility for parents of children who commit acts of cyberbullying. They also advocate for legally restricting access to online games for children under 18. Parents are advised to spend more time with their children, encourage sports, creativity, and outdoor walks.
Meanwhile
According to data from "Kaspersky Lab," in 2024, nearly a third (28%) of children spend all their free time with gadgets, 62% of adults do not set parental controls on smartphones, 20% of parents do not see the need to discuss online safety, 22% do not discuss the ethics of online communication, and 67% do not track their child's geolocation.