Can Esports Cause Gaming Addiction?
Gaming and Esports: What Parents Need to Know About Gaming Addiction Risks
Wondering if your gaming-obsessed child is heading down a dangerous path? As esports continues to gain momentum across New Zealand schools and communities, many parents, caregivers, guardians or teachers find themselves navigating unfamiliar digital terrain.
The sight of children and teenagers spending hours in front of screens, deeply engaged in competitive gaming, naturally raises questions about healthy boundaries and potential risks.
This article aims to provide evidence-based information about gaming habits, distinguish between passionate play and problematic behaviour, and offer practical guidance for supporting young gamers in maintaining a balanced lifestyle.
The Reality Behind Gaming Habits
Good news: research shows that most keen gamers, even those who play for many hours, aren’t actually addicted. While health authorities acknowledge gaming disorder as real, it affects only a small percentage of players.
According to a large 2021 study covering 17 countries, about 3% of gamers worldwide might qualify for a gaming disorder diagnosis (Stevens et al., 2021). When researchers used more strict criteria, this number dropped to 2% or lower. To put this in perspective, that’s comparable to rates of conditions like obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reinforces this understanding, emphasising that “gaming disorder affects only a small proportion of people who game,” while cautioning that individuals should remain mindful if gaming starts to interfere with other life activities (World Health Organization, 2019).
For New Zealand parents, this distinction is particularly important: a teenager who spends every evening gaming is not necessarily “addicted” if they can still complete their schoolwork, maintain friendships, and step away from the screen without distress.
How to Tell the Difference: Passion vs. Problem
Your teenager spending every evening gaming doesn’t automatically mean addiction. The key difference between healthy engagement and problematic addiction isn’t actually about time spent playing it’s about control and consequences.
Swedish researchers found that about 4.5% of gamers were “highly engaged” (playing many hours but without negative life impacts), while only 1.2% met true addiction criteria. An additional 5% showed some concerning behaviours but weren’t fully addicted.
Ask yourself these questions about your child’s gaming:
- Can they still complete their schoolwork?
- Do they maintain friendships and family relationships?
- Can they step away from games without becoming distressed?
- Do they still enjoy playing, or does it seem like a compulsion?
A passionate gamer plays because they want to. Someone with a gaming problem plays because they feel they need to, often to escape negative emotions.
When Gaming Might Be a Symptom, Not the Cause
When parents notice excessive gaming, it’s natural to focus on the screen time itself as the problem. However, mental health professionals encourage us to look deeper. For many teenagers, intense gaming serves as a coping mechanism rather than the root issue.
Consider gaming like a fever, it’s a visible symptom that something else might need attention. A young person experiencing anxiety, sadness, social challenges, or family difficulties might retreat into virtual worlds where they feel more capable, respected, or in control. The gaming environment offers predictable rules, clear achievements, and sometimes social connections that feel safer than real-world interactions.
In these situations, simply restricting gaming without addressing the underlying emotional needs rarely leads to lasting improvement. Instead, mental health experts recommend a compassionate approach that involves open conversations about what gaming provides for your child. What needs are being met in the game that aren’t being met elsewhere? Is gaming helping them feel competent when school feels overwhelming? Is it providing social connection when face-to-face relationships feel too difficult?
By understanding gaming as potentially communicating deeper needs, parents can work with their children to develop healthier coping strategies while simultaneously addressing the underlying challenges. This might involve professional support through counselling but often begins with genuine curiosity and compassionate conversations at home.
Conclusion
The growing presence of esports and gaming in New Zealand youth culture presents both opportunities and challenges for parents and educators. Rather than approaching gaming with fear or rigid control, research encourages us to adopt a more balanced perspective.
Understanding that true gaming disorder affects only a small percentage of players allows us to move beyond simplistic concerns about screen time toward more meaningful assessments of our children’s wellbeing. The crucial questions aren’t about how many hours they play, but rather how gaming fits into their overall life balance and emotional health.
When we recognise that excessive gaming can sometimes be a signal of underlying difficulties rather than the primary problem itself, we open doors to more effective support. This perspective shift encourages meaningful conversations with young people about what needs gaming might be fulfilling, creating opportunities for connection rather than conflict.
For families navigating the digital landscape, the most effective approach combines informed awareness with compassionate curiosity. By maintaining open communication about gaming habits, setting reasonable boundaries that acknowledge gaming’s place in youth culture, and watching for signs of distress rather than simply counting screen hours, parents can help ensure that gaming remains what it should be: an enjoyable, potentially enriching activity rather than a source of concern.
As esports programs continue to develop in schools across New Zealand, they present opportunities for community building, skill development, and even educational advancement when approached with balanced perspective and appropriate guidance. The goal isn’t to eliminate gaming but to help young people develop a healthy relationship with it, one where technology enhances rather than diminishes their overall wellbeing and development.
References
Graham, B. A., & Recktenwald, D. (2021). Health implications of esports: A scoping review. Public Health, 194, 186-191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2021.02.041
Parents Guide to Gaming. (n.d.). Understanding gaming disorders and addiction. Retrieved October 15, 2024
Przybylski, A. K., Weinstein, N., & Murayama, K. (2017). Internet gaming disorder: Investigating the clinical relevance of a new phenomenon. American Journal of Psychiatry, 174(3), 230-236. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2016.16020224
Stevens, M. W., Dorstyn, D., Delfabbro, P. H., & King, D. L. (2021). Global prevalence of gaming disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 55(6), 553-568. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004867420962851
World Health Organization. (2019). Gaming disorder. Retrieved October 15, 2024, from https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/gaming-disorder