Notes on Kiddiction

Journalism is a never ending race against the clock, and sometimes we only get a partial victory. Had there been more time and space in the paper, here is some additional reporting that was done at the 11th hour but never made it in this week’s cover, “Kiddiction.” My apologies to the sources who made the time for me but didn't make it into the story.

“It’s not just the amount of time, but the consequences of the video game use, such as deteriorating social or school performance that really would indicate that there’s a problem,” said Jennifer Gonder, Phd., professor of applied psychology at Farmingdale State College.

On the merits of the study: “It’s kind of hard to tell which is the cause and which is the consequence, whereas more controlled experimental studies will allow us to draw more conclusions,” she said.

And from Adelphi University, there is Geoffrey L. Ream, assistant professor of social work, who told me: “So much about addiction and drugs is political and ideological. Psychology tries to rise above that, but it also has to respond to the fact that these things affect people’s lives.”

He added: “People are able to get treatment in South Korea, why can’t they get treatment here. Are we afraid of annoying the industry? Why are we denying people the treatment that they want?” (He was referring to South Korean video game addiction rehab centers. There have been several deaths in that part of the world because there have been some fanatical gamers play for days straight and then die of starvation.)

And in noting the irony of some players: “Video gamers talk about being addicted to video games. Some of them seem to regard addictiveness as a desirable quality in a video game.”

Then, while describing the “hedonistic response” in the human brain, he said: “There’s a shared reward pathway for both certain drugs and video games. Like, cocaine works by stimulating the reward mechanism in the brain and so do video games. Obviously, it’s more complicated than that, but dopamine is involved in both.”

Lastly, here is a sidebar of interesting stats that I compiled but we didn’t have room for:

20 percent—How many 13 to 16-year-olds could buy video games labeled M for mature in a 2008 Federal Trade Commission secret shopper audit of major retailers, down from 42 percent in 2006.

5.18 million—How many copies of Grand Theft Auto IV sold for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in 2008, second only to Wii Play with 5.28 million.

$42.67 billion—How much the video game industry earned in 2008, up 18 percent from 2007.

13.2 hours—The average weekly video game play time for those interviewed in the NIMF study: 16.4 hours for boys and 9.2 hours for girls.

26 percent—How many kids in the NIMF poll said have received games rated M for mature as a gift.