As Senior Hahn Ng stares into his PC monitor, fake fans on the video game Rocket League cheer, and he shudders from the sound of crashing cars. He’s well into his sixth hour of playing and still isn’t tired due to the adrenaline from winning games and playing with his friends. Ng is not alone in his enjoyment of video games, however, and according to Dr. Daniel Alanko’s research, over 90% of children over two years old play video games, and children eight to 17 years old play an average of two hours a day.

According to a 2016 study by Dr. Charlotte Wittek and colleagues, while the number of gamers worldwide has been steadily increasing since 2013, so has the number of children with video game addictions — bringing the total number of people classified as being addicted to video games up to two percent. 

Dr. Bradley Zicherman, part of Stanford Medical’s Child and Adolescent Recovery Clinic, said a child is considered addicted to video games when playing starts to produce functional impairments in their life. 

“If you’re going to bed at really inappropriate times, such as one, two or even five in the morning because you can’t shut off the system, (that can be an addiction),” Zicherman said. “When you’re unable to go to school, isolating from family and possibly friends, not really getting out of the house, nor getting any exercise and (have) limited physical activity, that can lead to the development of co-occurring depression and anxiety disorders. ”

Because of the threats addiction poses to youth mental health, Zicherman said he is worried about increasing cases.

“When I started off (at Stanford), most of my cases were for substance addiction,” Zicherman said. “However, because I was getting so many requests for screen and video game addiction, I’ve had to pivot. Maybe 20 to 30% of my clinic is now dedicated to screen addiction.”

Zicherman said a major cause of the rising number of cases is that game companies incentivize kids to keep playing their video games.

“Games are designed to create a rush of dopamine, and most games, to an extent, are developed based on what I call a variable reward system, which is the same way slot machines are developed,” Zicherman said. “There’s something about them that is designed to bring you back. You don’t know what’s going to happen, you don’t know when you’re going to get the reward you’re looking for. So you keep pulling the slot machine lever, eventually getting a reward.”

A male junior, who considers themselves addicted to video games and only agreed to be interviewed if they remained anonymous due to the stigma behind addiction, said the addictive effects of video games drastically affect their school and social life.

“Instead of doing work or more productive assignments, I’ll play video games with no enjoyment because it’s just become such a big part of me,” the junior said. “I used to just stay home and play video games, and make up excuses to keep playing instead of hanging out with friends.”

Zicherman said the best way to prevent addiction is to limit screens from a young age.

“The adolescent brain doesn’t fully develop until you’re about 25,” Zicherman said. “The last aspect of the brain to develop is your frontal cortex, which is responsible for executive functioning and being able to make good, reasonable decisions. Naturally, it’s going to be really hard for any teenager to control impulses around video games.”

Zicherman said although the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn’t have strict guidelines, they still have recommendations for families to limit screen time. 

“Once you hit the age of five or six, what they’re recommending is that you need to work as a family towards a media plan,” Zicherman said. 

However, while video games raise concerns,  Ng said students can strike a balance to keep certain benefits of video games without indulging in unhealthy habits.

“It’s made me gain a lot of friends and spend a lot of good time with them,” Ng said. “However, I understand that there are limits and I want to be smart with my time, especially at the start of senior year. At the end of the day, you’re just playing for fun with your friends.”