Video Game Addiction Can Begin as Early as Elementary School: Study

Children as young as 10 years old are beginning to show what psychiatrists consider to be clinical levels of “gaming disorder.”

New research suggests that approximately 4% of children in grades 4 through 8 may be experiencing clinical or sub-clinical signs of internet gaming disorder (IGD), raising serious concerns about the wideranging and long-lasting side effects that video game addictions may have on the mental health of young Americans for years to come.

The findings were published in the journal Springer Nature Link late last month, indicating that in addition to the dangers of IGD, approximately 10% of children face a moderate to high risk of developing a smartphone addiction.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Psychiatric Association (APA), internet gaming disorder is characterized by a person playing online video games so often and with so little control that it starts taking over their life, causing them to ignore other important responsibilities, even after repeated negative consequences.

Smartphone addiction involves similar problematic behavior related to excessive smartphone use. Many smartphone addictions rely on social media apps that deliver instant gratification through notifications of “likes” and other interactions.

This growing body of research has intensified scrutiny of the design of digital platforms, particularly social media apps, which are now facing legal backlash. More than 1,800 social media addiction lawsuits have been filed across the U.S., with plaintiffs claiming the platforms’ tactics have caused self-destructive behavior, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and long-term psychological damage to a generation of American teenagers and children.

In the new study, researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, surveyed 1,993 students between the ages of 10 and 14 (grades 4 through 8) to assess the prevalence of gaming disorders and smartphone addiction in children. Among the participants, 66.2% were male and 31.7% were female.

The team, led by Brad Marshall of the School of Psychological Sciences, found that 1.2% of the children surveyed met the criteria for clinical internet gaming disorder, while an additional 2.7% met the sub-clinical level for IGD.

For clinical internet gaming disorder to be diagnosed, the World Health Organization requires a patient’s gaming patterns to be severe enough that they affect the individual’s functioning in personal, family, social or educational settings for at least 12 months. Sub-clinical cases of the disorder require some but not all of the clinical criteria for IGD to be met.

Marshall’s team also found that 9.9% of the children sampled engaged in medium to high problematic smartphone use. This number may have been artificially deflated since Australia has a minimum age requirement of 13 for social media use, which can be a major contributor to problematic smartphone use, the researchers pointed out.

“Taken together, the current findings suggest the need for future research into possible interventions, including but not limited to parent education and behaviour management strategies, during this critical primary school window.”

-Brad Marshall, Internet gaming disorder (IGD) and smartphone overuse in Australian primary school and secondary school children

Social Media Addiction Lawsuits

Due to the growing number of families nationwide pursuing claims against Meta, Alphabet Inc., Google LLC, YouTube LLC, Snap Inc., TikTok Inc., ByteDance Inc. and other companies, a social media addiction lawsuit multidistrict litigation (MDL) was established in 2023, centralizing cases brought throughout the federal court system before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Northern District of California, for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings.

Earlier this year, Judge Rogers issued a key ruling allowing claims involving general negligence, wrongful death and survival actions to proceed against the defendants. This decision emphasized that plaintiffs had plausibly alleged that the companies engaged in intentional conduct that interfered with child health, potentially violating a duty of care.

Although some claims, such as those involving child sexual abuse material, were dismissed due to federal liability protections under Section 230, the core allegations about addiction and mental health harm remain central to the litigation.

Since each of the claims raise similar allegations and questions of law, the Court has established a bellwether process, where a small group of representative claims will be prepared for a series of early trial dates, which are not expected to begin until at least 2026.

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