Playtime may not be fun and games for some

On Tuesday, the World Health Organization included compulsively playing video games as a mental health disorder. Fawan.com comments:

The international health organization has classified gaming disorder as a diagnosable condition and provided mental health professionals with guidelines for identifying those at risk of addictive behavior. It has called on the governments of its member states to include the treatment of video game addiction into their medical systems.

Of course, it might take some time for the medical system to cover video game addicts, but it will only be a matter of time.

That will be good news for many parents, who have long been complaining about their children being addicted to video games. According to reports, some pupils are so addicted to video games that they skip classes to play. In some extreme cases, some high school students even missed sitting the annual national college entrance examination, which might affect their future.

However, it is naive to expect the move by WHO to put an end to compulsive video game playing overnight. It has released detailed standards and descriptions, but only medical professionals, such as doctors and nurses, will understand these.

If the domestic medical authorities decide to include video game addiction into their list of disorders, it is necessary for them to make clear which category to put the new disorder in and what kind of doctors are qualified to treat it. There used to be agencies abusing young people in the name of "correcting addicts to video games", and this must not happen again.

Nowadays, a large number of online games are extremely attractive, not to mention that many teenagers lack self-discipline. Once they enter the pit, they may find it difficult to extricate themselves. Therefore, in addition to treating the addictive behavior, more stringent management measures should be introduced to prevent the disorder from developing in the first place. For example, games should have age ratings and there should be time limits on the amount of time adolescents can spend playing games online.