BENGALURU: Following the tragic death of three minor sisters who jumped from their 9th floor apartment in Ghaziabad on February 4 and its link to Korean task based online gaming, Prof Manoj Sharma, Head of Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) from NIMHANS has warned that children can develop a very strong digital self, sometimes to the point that their offline identity gets wiped out.
Sharma explained, “Such cases often reflect more than just heavy screen use. Prolonged isolation and school withdrawal increases vulnerability among children. Thus forcing them to use gaming as a coping mechanism. Real-world conversations get replaced by digital environments.”
The professor said they had dealt with a case of addiction to manga (Japanese) comics and graphic novels by a 25 year old. There were even cases of children addicted to online games like Counter-Strike and Roblox. The Ghaziabad sisters case involves task based online gaming where an in-game character assigns certain tasks to the player to score points or impress them.
“These tasks are dangerous and harmful but the players are so immersed that they are unable to differentiate between good and bad,” he said. Suggesting what parents must do to see that their children or anyone in the family don’t get addicted to gaming, Sharma said, “It is essential to have communication in family, activities involved all the family members must happen frequently.”