Keeping gaming habits under control is not something that comes easily to everyone. For some people, online gaming becomes the most important thing in their lives, affecting academic and work performance, relationships, pysical and mental health, and financial security.

The question to ask is whether gaming is interfering with your child’s life? This could mean a deterioration in grades, no time or interest to interact socially with his peers other than during gaming, damaged relationships with family members or a preoccupation with gaming, thinking about it constantly, playing whenever possible, and feeling restless or irritable when not playing.

From functional imaging studies, scientists can see that gaming affects the brain like substance addictions. When someone addicted to gaming sees images relating to the games they play, the same areas of the brain activate as those of people addicted to substances and experiencing cravings. Games work on what’s called a variable reward system, the same as pulling a lever on a slot machine in a casino. The hope that you’re going to make it big is balanced with a little bit of frustration, and unlike the slot machine, a sense of skill needed to improve, which keeps you at it.

There are three main motivation components to gaming, which incites us to spend our time and money on games : achievement (our want and needs to advance in the game, right till the finish, along with a curiosity in the system and rules of the game and the want to have a fair competition with others in the game); social (our need to form social connections, be a part of a group and chat with different people); immersion (an escape from the mundaneness and woes of life for a short period of time).