Time to regulate or ban video games?

India is home to 43 crore mobile video gamers presently and the user base is estimated to go up to 65 crore by 2025, with revenue projected to grow to Rs.20,000 crore from Rs.13,600 crore now, says a report by Internet & Mobile Association of India.

Children’s growing addiction to video games, which apparently is making them more violent is a worrying sign. Video-game designers control the players’ behaviour by providing stimulus and rewards. This often results in children with poor impulse control or those who are struggling with studies and unaware of the consequences falling prey to the charms, evil or otherwise, of video games.

Many bright students, addicted to video games, are known to have lost their interest in both studies and sports. They have to contend with falling grades and failing health. There are students so obsessed with gaming that they forget how to speak and conduct themselves socially. Many are being forced to undergo protracted counselling to relearn soft skills like speaking coherently.

There is, therefore, a growing and urgent need for regulating this industry. Currently, it is free for all. The government’s oversight is missing completely. Carriers of such games like Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Microsoft, Yahoo etc. continue to operate with impunity, while minting money at the cost of our children.

There is also a thriving grey market for video games everywhere under the nose of governments. Many countries, like the US, shy away from regulations. The UK has a system of rating of games for different age groups, making it illegal to sell games rated 12, 16 and 18 to any child below that age. But these ratings are ineffective when one buys video games online.

India has no such system. Video gaming is a multi-billion global market at $178 billion with smartphones and console games sharing revenues equally. China-India, the two biggest markets account for 3.24 billion potential users worldwide, 1.5 billion more in Asia alone followed by Europe with 715 million and USA with 200 million. Growth of video games industry has been following the pandemic, a tipping point for online gaming, as per a KPMG study.

Confined to their homes for about 19 months during the pandemic, both children and adults have sought escape from boredom and turned to online gaming with a vengeance. During the first nine months of 2020, India rose to number one spot in game downloads, clocking 73 billion installs with 17% market share, the highest in the world. Over 60% users are under 25 with many spending more than four hours playing video games. Over 90% video games portray violence.

Several studies have found that video games promote feelings of hostility and aggression and desensitise the players’ perception of what constitutes violence. A study that tracked over 3,000 children for three years found playing violent games increased their impulses in a vicious cycle. Another study found playing such games risked increase in ‘sensation seeking rebelliousness’ and ‘delinquent behaviour’ for children playing violent games with anti-social prognostics like 'Grand Theft', 'Auto 111' and 'Manhunt'.

Some video games are camouflaged by educational content. The ones most addictive are built around the most negative themes that promote killings in war-like scenarios, racial and gender stereotypes. Numerous studies conducted across the world have found adverse effects of video games on the physical and mental development of children.

Video game industry has several multi-national players, Sony, Tencent, Nintendo, Microsoft, Activision etc., each of which earns billions of dollars, enjoying tremendous lobbying power, can buy scientists, writers and columnists. A Google search throws as many papers glorifying the games for supposedly increasing memory, concentration and cognitive abilities, that address mental depression and loneliness as against their harmful effects on children and adults.

But parents suffering from the unbearable agonies of their children losing focus and going stray know the truth. Gaming companies employ highly skilled scientists trained in neuro-science, child psychology and human behaviour from the best universities in the world and pay them fabulously to design games that make players addicted. Playing games releases the pleasure-giving neurochemical dopamine in the brain telling it to do it again, yet again and still again.

Studies show gaming even changes the structure of areas of brain involved with higher cognition. Studies using brain scans show decreased activity in areas of the brain dedicated to self-control and increased arousal while playing games that use violence. Consequences of addiction to video games are falling grades, sleep deprivation, fatigue, irritability, when stopped from playing, increased anxiety, obesity, aggressive behaviour, lack of interests in social interactions, other physical and mental activities essential for healthy growth.

People of India have already witnessed the ill-effects of 'Blue Whales' video games in recent past wherein several children addicted to this game developed hallucinatory tendencies seeking meaning of life in dying by suicides. The public outcry forced the government to ban this game.

Potential for earnings from video gaming blinds governments from its adverse effects and generally they overlook the importance of health and growth of children.

Gaming start-ups are mushrooming backed by investors who infused $544 million in the video gaming businesses between August 2020 and January 2021. Businesses are known for fighting any ban or regulation in lucrative markets where profits outplay any other consideration. Nothing short of the future of the nation is at stake.

(The writer is a former bureaucrat. Views are personal)