TRACY KING / SCEPTICAL ANALYSIS
OPINION
Gamer and science enthusiast Tracy King dissects the evidence and statistics behind popular media stories surrounding tech and gaming @tkingdot
T
he pandemic might not be entirely over yet, but
I would like to draw a line with a very thick pencil
under some of the nonsense from the media about
video games during lockdown.
The Guardian has seen fit to publish a scaremongering
piece that claims in loud headliney letters that referrals to UK
gaming addiction clinics have tripled during lockdown. Oh
no, TRIPLED! That must mean a huge number of people are
having serious mental health issues because of gaming, right?
These headlines are designed to make small numbers sound
big, otherwise it would be a non-story. The implication is
that the number of ‘gaming addiction’ referrals is high in the
first place, and therefore a tripling must be very
serious indeed, but of course, this isn’t the case.
The number of people referred to the NHS
specialist clinic in the year before lockdown
was ... 17. Tripled, that’s a whopping 56. It’s
an irresponsible clickbait trick, which panics
parents and distorts the nature of video game
culture and science (I recommend Tom and David Chivers’
excellent book How to Read Numbers for more information
on misleading numbers in headlines).
But even without the histrionic headline, the story doesn’t
stack up. George Osborn, head of comms for the UK’s gaming
trade body UKIE, did the maths and tweeted that 56 referrals
is 0.0000047 per cent of gamers in the age group reported in
the Guardian story – 56 out of 12 million young gamers just
isn’t a problem.
The article goes on to quote The Nightingale Clinic, which
also claims to have seen a rise in cases during lockdown. It
doesn’t say that the clinic charges hundreds of pounds an
hour to treat kids who play ‘too many’ video games, or that
despite the World Health Organisation classifying ‘gaming
disorder’, the WHO also endorsed gaming as a healthy hobby
at the beginning of the pandemic.
The Guardian article also quotes psychologist Dr Linda
Papadopoulos, an ambassador for the parental internet safety
organisation Internet Matters, as saying: ‘While the data
is worrying, there are some key signs parents should look
out for to help their children find a healthy balance before
gaming turns into a problem. Some children might begin to
show a lack of interest in their usual hobbies, spend less time
with real-life friends, and their schoolwork might start to
suffer. Complaining of headaches and problems
with sleep can also be symptoms.’
Well yes, there’s been a pandemic. I also have
all of those symptoms, but I won’t be rushing to
pathologise them or pay for private treatment.
I’d love to stop writing about gaming disorder,
because I truly think that the evidence doesn’t
support its existence, or at least not to the extent that it needs
national newspaper stories.
In June 2021, a new study showed that children who play
co-op Fortnite demonstrate greater prosocial tendencies
(prosocial is the opposite of antisocial). Did The Guardian
report on it, perhaps with a headline screaming ‘violent video
games make kids kinder and more generous?’ Nope.
There’s a growing profitable industry in treating gaming
disorder, and uncritical news stories that (unwittingly or
deliberately) promote private clinics at the expense of good
science are part of the problem. Let’s just hope that the end of
the pandemic is the end of this nonsense.MORE GAME
ADDICTION NONSENSE
Following a headline in The Guardian, Tracy King gives
us a lesson in how statistics can be distorted for clicksEven without the
histrionic headline, the
story doesn’t stack up