When it comes to the dangers tech poses to teenagers, smartphones tend to dominate the conversation. We’re most of us aware by now of the link between devices and an alarming mental health crisis in children and young people globally. There’s a growing body of evidence demonstrating that adolescents’ vulnerable, undeveloped brains are easy prey for the addictive dopamine hits that come from apps and algorithms.
Social media and screens have even been compared to this generation’s smoking in terms of health risks – we’ll look back and wonder why on earth we let children have unlimited, round-the-clock access to the mental equivalent of a pack of cigarettes a day.
Less has been said on the threat posed by gaming, yet new research suggests that we could be sleepwalking into yet another crisis. Teenage boys are now spending more time playing video games than they are at school. That’s according to a new survey of more than 1,000 parents of seven to 17-year-olds, conducted by gambling addiction charity Ygam and published by Mumsnet, which found that 15 to 17-year-olds spend, on average, nearly 34 hours a week gaming. That’s almost five hours a day, seven days a week. (Secondary schools, by contrast, are expected to deliver a week of just 32.5 hours.) And, of course, that’s only according to their parents’ estimation. As was so chillingly explored in the Emmy-winning drama Adolescence, how many parents really know what’s going on behind the impenetrable closed door of the teenage bedroom?
On the one hand, there are positives. Some 96 per cent of those surveyed recognised that video gaming had at least one benefit for their child, lowering stress levels and encouraging relaxation.
But the escalating number of hours gaming eats up is setting off alarm bells. The average time children spend gaming has increased by nearly 3.5 hours per week in just one year, jumping from 16.8 hours in 2024 to 20.4 in 2025. More than half (55 per cent) of respondents reported that their child plays video games at least once a day, rising to multiple times a day for 35 per cent of parents. Nearly eight in 10 parents said they were concerned about their child’s gaming screen time; two thirds were concerned about the risk of addiction to video games.
As well they might be. Though the image of the “gamer” who sits mindlessly at his computer for hours at a time while downing energy drinks and scoffing takeaway pizza might seem ripe for ridicule, video game addiction, otherwise known as “gaming disorder”, has become so prevalent over the past decade that it was officially recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019. Classified as “a pattern of gaming behaviour characterised 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, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences”, video game addiction affects an estimated 700,000 to 1,000,000 people in the UK alone.
Of course, not everyone who games is addicted – far from it. But regardless of whether or not a teenager is in control of their habits, there are undeniably negative consequences, some more insidious than others. Money, for one: in-game spending is common for kids and young people, while more than half of parents have observed worrying, gambling-style mechanisms within games.
There’s less moral outrage about games’ potentially violent or amoral content corrupting young minds these days. Grand Theft Auto being the prime Nineties example – it was banned or restricted in various countries due to its explicit themes including violence, sex and drug use. But regardless of game, there’s the simple fact that, if you’re spending the majority of your time indoors on a computer, you’re not spending it outdoors and in-person with friends. The amount of time teens spend face to face with mates has declined dramatically since the 1970s, with the drop really ramping up after 2010, coinciding with the rise in smartphone use. According to data analysis by Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology and author of iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood, American teens are far less likely to get together with friends, go to parties, go to the cinema or out shopping, or date compared with previous generations.
Meanwhile, researcher Dylan Bryan determined from American Time Use survey data that teens in 2021 reported spending just six hours a week with friends – a mere quarter of the time (24 hours) reported by teens in 2003. In the UK, the amount of time young people spend alone has risen markedly between 2010 and 2023, while going down for older age categories. Another 2024 report found that the amount of time British children spend outside has also declined by roughly 50 per cent in a generation.
All of this might not be so horrifying were it not for the fact that loneliness rates in young people have simultaneously rocketed and are higher for this group than any other demographic. In the Centre for Social Justice’s recent Lonely Nation report, 70 per cent of UK 18-to 24-year-olds said they feel lonely at least some of the time. Between 2021 and 2023, mental health referrals for children and young people increased by over 50 per cent.
And even for the 38 per cent of young men aged 16-34 who say gaming is one of main ways they make new friends and socialise – discussing which enemy to shoot next or which enchanted door to open through a headset doesn’t tend to build the same deep friendship foundations that come with, say, talking through feelings or real-world problems, face to face. It’s hardly surprising that the number of young men who report having no close friends at all has also climbed since the turn of the century.
None of this sounds very, well, fun, does it? Maybe it’s time to call “game over” on the unseen harm caused by unfettered screen time.
.jpeg?trim=0,45,0,44&width=1200&height=800&crop=1200:800 "Oxford to introduce a £5 driver congestion charge – UK Times")