“Boy, 14, Dies By Suicide Over Garena Free Fire,” says News18, “Lucknow boy kills mother for not letting him play online game, hides body for two days,” says The Indian Express, “PUBG mania: 15-year-old Jalandhar boy steals money from father’s account,” says Hindustan Times. Nowadays, these kinds of incidents are increasing and most of the reasons are games like PUBG and Free Fire. These games are all about guns and killing people; there is nothing else but violence. And the makers of these kinds of video games intentionally make these games addictive so that small innocent children get addicted, though they don’t want that kids to get violent and do all these things. These all are side effects of spending hours after hours of playing this kind of violent game. The introduction of this kind of game starts either by hearing from a friend or simply from the Play Store showing this game on the top and the kid just clicks on the icon and downloads it by just seeing the pictures of the game. The kid does not see the minimum age requirement and just downloads it blindly and gives the app any permission the app asks, like contacts, camera, etc. which could be harmful to his/her privacy. At first, kids download these games once and they play a single match of about 10 minutes, then the second day they play two matches for 20 minutes and after 7 days the time has reached 1 hour. After a few weeks, it has now become a habit to spend 1 to 3 hours daily on these games. After a month or so unknowingly this habit transforms into an addiction and the few common signs of this addiction would be: parents are telling to stop the game but he/she is unwilling to do so or the kids are getting irritated or angry upon not getting to play the game. After this stage now comes the second stage, these game developers do a smart thing - they don’t charge for playing but they earn by in-app purchases like character dress, gun skin and car skin etc. and now since the kid has got addicted, he wants to be better in the game and the game developers have made sure that if someone wants to get an edge over other players then they have to buy gun skin, characters etc. Now since the addicted kid wants to be the champion in this game, he realizes that he needs those gun skins and characters if he wants to be a champion or pro in this game and now the kid starts asking money from his/her parents. If the parents accept his/her request by giving promises of studying 3hrs daily or be disciplined etc. or sometimes some kids become so intolerant that they start blackmailing their parents by not eating food, not studying, misbehaving at home or outside or try to express their anger by breaking things. After sometime they compel their parents to give them money for buying gun skin, characters etc. but this is just going to satisfy them for some time. Again, after a few weeks, the game company will introduce some new gun skin or character or something else which will again attract the players. So, this turns into a never-ending loop. Another big threat to the kid’s life is talking to strangers. Just one question to the parents - ‘Are you okay with your 8 or 9yrs old boy/girl talking to a boy/girl of 18 or 21 yrs?’ These games have an in-game feature of talking with teammates, but now this teammate could be anyone from around the world. It could even be a 21yrs old man using abusive language and trying to mislead your kid to a wrong path. Now, you, as a parent, need to decide if you are comfortable with your 8yrs old boy/girl talking to a 21yrs old boy/girl whom you don’t know or not sure about his behavior. These are just a few of the major problems among the youth. There are a lot more.
Now, enough with the problems, let’s talk about some practical remedies which can be taken to minimize the bad effects of the internet, and for using the internet for development. Some of the steps that can be taken to decrease mobile addiction are as follows:
• Keep Separate rooms: study room, bedroom, and internet room. If you don’t have a separate study room, then make your bedroom your study room but the internet room must be kept separate. Internet room can be any room except the study room and bedroom. If you study using the internet then use the internet only in the internet room.
• You can turn off colors on your phone. When your mobile is black and white it makes you less interested in your phone.
• Create New Hobbies to pass time and distract yourself from playing games.
• Delete all unnecessary apps. If social media is really important to you then use them only on your PC.
• Encourage other activities. Encourage your teenager to engage in activities that do not involve electronic devices, such as sports, hobbies, or spending time with friends and family.
These are just a few steps that you can use to decrease mobile addiction and enjoy the real world