Gaming industry should offset addiction risks
Accusations by Chinese state media this week that gaming companies are selling “spiritual opium” were calculated to cause a stir: this is a country where historical accounts of widespread addiction, and the humiliation of the 19th-century Opium Wars with Britain, still provide a useful lens through which to view its 20th century rise. Yet the social problems with computer games that it referred to are by no means limited to China. Indeed, the World Health Organisation in 2018 added gaming to its list of addictive behaviours.