Why is the prevalence of kids addicted to video games on the rise?

People are too quick to say "causation/correlation" but often times there is overlap. One can encourage the other.

Hot take, but:

1. more games being produced because the industry is larger and the barrier of entry was reduced

2. more and easier ways to access them: free-to-play models, relatively stable $60 top-end price even after 2 decades of inflation

3. more socially acceptable and includes more than the nerdy kids from ~20 years ago. You could get bullied for playing EverQuest when I was a kid.

4. streaming platforms complements it and probably encourages playing games more often

5. more "addiction innovation" through game mechanics

6. maybe a long shot, but both parents often working now means less time spent with kids

I'm absolutely terrified at the moment when my 3 year old son will get his hands on video games. So far we encourage outdoor play, playing with physical toys and very little screen time, etc. At some point some clash emerge (my son has a stubborn facet), a parent can guide only so much, kids do have to gain little autonomy at some point or at least prove it to themselves they do take some decisions. The problem is that lots of new games enforce really bad habits and any child can become a causality to dynamic. I will try to postpone that moment as much as possible and curate the content as to mitigate the problem. I remember when I got my first computer I was so fascinated by it that nothing my parents would say would stick but I got lucky, I got bored of games rather quickly and became interested in making them myself and that opened the gate to programming. The computer community seemed to be a lot more benevolent back then, now..

Also, way more kids got devices for playing games today than before, and them carrying it at all times is new. Being connected to the internet 24/7 is new too.

People were unwilling to pay for mobile games, which lead to the rise of the free-to-play model. Zygna with their Facebook games found an incredibly profitable variant of this: make a game that's addicting and has to be played in short intervals on a regular schedule. These games are reliable and easy to make and very profitable, so they exploded. Now lots of elements of that leak into console and PC games.

> Why is the prevalence of kids addicted to video games on the rise?

Because we have tons of companies peddling and researching how to create addictive games, without much regulation. Several of them even hide gambling (lootboxes) within games.

I played Hearthstone quite a bit in the past. The loading screen is literally the screen of a slot machine!

Yes, this speaks to why I am rejecting the idea that the kids addicted to gaming just happen to be broken in a neurochemical way.

Something else is going on. There is a positive feedback loop of some kind, and it seems apparent if you follow the money.

Videogames definitely do not encourage ADHD. But yes, it is well established that people with ADHD are likely to abuse drugs or videogames.

The WebMD link and, thus the commenters intent, was the ADHD leads to videogame addiction and NOT as you have presumed, video games lead to ADHD.

Yes, but that is well researched, so I assume it's not what they want to research.