At an age when children ought to be playing field games, listening to inspirational stories of brave people, reading books, our youths and children have fallen into clutches of online games. In today’s materialistic world, parents are short of times; due to which they give mobile phones to children at an age they should have toys in their hands. In fact, the increasing inclination of youths and children towards online games has become a worldwide phenomenon with an unprecedented craze for smart phones having developed among children. This has now taken a form of addiction.

Many studies show the addiction to online games has negative impact on physical and mental health of children. Despite this, in India, even a two-year child is given a smartphone. The child grows up watching the mobile with great interest. It is noteworthy that in 2017, more than 130 children died in Russia due to mobile games. So far, more than 100 children have died in India, according to the official sources. Children become so addicted to online games that they forget eating and drinking and remain engaged in mobile gaming day and night. It affects their sleep and they become irritable. According to official information, currently about 30 crore (300 million) people play online games in India. By 2028, this number of mobile game addicts is estimated to grow by 55 crore (555 million). From this, it can be guessed that a large number of people is busy playing online games. At present, online gaming market is of the order of rupees ten thousand crore, which is poised to grow to rupees thirty thousand crore soon, according to a FICCI report. Annual increase of this transaction based online games, as recorded, is 26 percent.

These figures point to the magnitude of the alarming situation. But our governance system is not bothered to remedy the problem. Nor do families seem to care enough to see what children and young adults are doing on their mobile phones. A child can fall easy prey to online game addiction. This points to the responsibility of parents, guardians and society to ensure this does not happen. It is noteworthy that the United Nations World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified addiction to playing online games as “gaming disorder” as a mental illness. According to the WHO, online gaming can be as addictive as cocaine and gambling. This problem has become even more acute after the period of Covid 19 pandemic. During the Covid 19 pandemic, children’s participation in online gaming increased by 41 percent. Also, the addiction to online games has been seen more among the children of nuclear families. It is also a bitter truth that children are becoming aggressive and violent by getting involved in online games. The games also push them to depression. Many have turned obese.

In the past years, many children lost their lives in India engrossed in the games like ‘Blue Whale’. It is a worrying situation that online games are running rampant in India without proper regulations. When a child plays mobile and computer games continuously for hours, it has serious side effects on his eyes and other body organs. Curbing online games, therefore, is the need of the time and be taken seriously. The ubiquitous mobile has become critical and sometimes indispensable part of our lives. It has also caused great harm.

There are some children getting addicted to phones from childhood. Many times parents also offer the lure of a mobile phone because they (parents) are busy, sometimes just to feed a child. This soon becomes addiction and adversely affects the child’s development. Children exposed to mobile screens at an early age and who spend more time on mobile devices have a higher risks of developing behavioral problems like depression and anxiety syndrome. It is time all the stakeholders in the sound development of children and for that matter in the development of future of humans joined hands to work out measures to curb the growing menace of online games!