Expert wants violent online games banned

Tribune News Service 

Chandigarh, August 20 

Psychiatrists, who assembled in the city for the 13th Annual National Conference of the Indian Association of Biological Psychiatry, voiced their concern over children’s addiction to violent online games such as “Blue Whale”. 

The online game has certain tasks with the final leading to committing suicide.

“There is a need for the government to be vigilant on video games that are extremely violent and may have tasks that compel children to attempt suicide and indulge in self-injurious behaviour. Games such as “Blue Whale” need to be banned. There is a need for parents and lawmakers to supervise what children are doing online,” said Dr Avinash Desouza, an expert on neurobiological effects of gadgets’ addiction. 

He said, “Most of these violent games involve competition and children like competition. Further they are attracted by display. Through “Blue Whale”, children may be expressing anger. They could be emotional, aggressive; that is why they are being attracted to this game.”  

Dr Desouza, who is based in Mumbai, said, “The use of gadgets may affect brain development in young children and may affect social interactions and aggressive behaviour when exposed to violent video game play. The use of gadgets causes changes in brain circuits that lead to the development of permanent changes affecting emotion and cognition.” 

He said, “It is important that the parents are aware of what their children are doing online and the type of video games their children are playing. Repeated gadget use can lead to a reduced need for human contact and the need to stay alone increases. Once children are addicted to gadgets, they need a combination of medical help and psychotherapy as well as counselling to help them recover from it.” 

He said he had been receiving three to four cases of gadget addiction every week at his clinic in Mumbai. 

During the conference, Dr Rajeev Trehan, in-charge of the psychiatry department of the General Hospital, Sector 6, Panchkula, said addiction to violet online games was a symptom of childhood depression. “When a child is neglected, he takes the help of gadgets. He will make friends in the virtual world. He gets cut off from relatives. In familes also, people are hooked on to WhatsApp and Facebook and are hardly talking to each other,” he said.

“If a child is not showing interest in studies and feeling low, feeling fatigue and not playing with friends or having disturbed sleep and diminished appetite, then such children should be taken to a psychiatrist for consultation as they might be suffering from depression,” he said. “Depression in children remains untreated and undetected if parents don’t take their children to a psychiatrist,” he said.