Socially disruptive effects of video games

The worldwide proliferation of video and computer games has led to an addiction, especially amongst teenagers, that can be socially disruptive. It is sometimes referred to as "video virus". Video and computer games are potentially addictive because they are interactive and reward success, thus encouraging further use of them. In situations where players are immediately rewarded for their behaviour, this relationship is especially powerful. The games are designed to immediately beguile through graphics and other devices, and then to deliver judicious measures of frustration, incentive and reward to encourage further playing and to pull the player further into the game. Successful games have a progressive element: every time they are played there is the possibility of progressing a bit further. Instances can be cited world-wide of young people becoming so addicted to these games that they virtually drop out of society. In addition to pre-empting children's imagination in play, many of these games actively promote aggressive and violent behaviour.

In the Galleries Lafayette in Paris video game demonstrations are so packed with young people that salesmen cannot move. In Tokyo, video game parlours now outnumber the once ubiquitous pachinko parlours. In Amsterdam male youths are often prey to older loitering homosexuals who expect favours in return for the coins they slip into video game machines. Stockholm has been terrorized by young thugs who rob people in the subways and streets in order to pay for their addiction.

Some games are based on role-playing of a particularly violent and inhumane sort: characters rip out their opponents' organs; points are earned by driving at high speeds and knocking down people or animals; players sit in pseudo electric chairs and give themselves virtual electric shocks. There are games which communicate electronically with specially created television programmes, enabling players to "kill" onscreen villains and join in battles with those depicted on the television.