The World Health Organization (WHO) considers addiction to digital and video gaming to be a mental health disorder.
According to WHO, they have included this condition in the list of the 11th International Classification of Diseases (ICD).
In their definition of "gaming disorder," they say that individuals do nothing but play and have no interest in other things or activities.
WHO says: "Gaming disorder is defined in the draft 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as a pattern of gaming behavior (" digital-gaming "or" video-gaming ") characterized by impaired control over gaming , increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities."
The Department of Health (DOH) explained that excessive gambling has a detrimental effect on the health because otherwise those who are addicted to gaming will not eat.
According to DOH, some of those who play too much have no longer enough time to spend for their family. But they DOH clarified that this does not mean an individual has already a gaming disorder.
Some of its symptoms are lack of control over the length of play time, giving priority to play, and continuing to play despite its negative effects.
DOH advises parents to guide their children and limit their time on playing such games.