Experts warn that excessive gaming is increasingly interfering with children’s sleep, education, and family routines, urging parents to recognise warning signs and seek gradual interventions to restore balance.
Children’s enthusiasm for video games becomes a concern when it starts to crowd out sleep, school, family life and other routines that help them function well day to day. Dr Paul Lawrence Filomeno, a paediatrician and addiction medicine specialist at Makati Medical Centre, says the key issue is not the number of hours alone but whether gaming is becoming difficult to control and is interfering with ordinary responsibilities.
The World Health Organization defines gaming disorder as a pattern of gaming marked by impaired control, growing priority given to gaming over other activities and continued play despite harmful consequences. For a diagnosis, the behaviour must cause significant disruption in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of life and usually be present for at least 12 months. The WHO added the condition to ICD-11 in 2018 after reviewing evidence and expert opinion, in part to raise awareness and encourage more research.
For parents, Dr Filomeno points to three warning signs: a child cannot stop when intended, gaming begins to interfere with daily life and repeated attempts to cut back do not work. Warning signs may include missed homework, poor grades, skipped meals, late nights, neglected hygiene, withdrawal from friends or family and spending money or possessions to keep playing.
He also cautions against assuming violent games automatically lead to violent behaviour. According to the broader medical view reflected by the WHO, gaming-related harm is usually shaped by several factors at once, including home life, school pressures, peer relationships, bullying and attitudes towards violence. In other words, the game may be one influence, but it is rarely the whole story.
A practical way for parents to assess the impact is to look beyond screen time and focus on six areas: sleep, safety, self-regulation, school, social connection and security. That means asking whether gaming is shortening sleep, exposing a child to strangers online, triggering distress when play stops, affecting attendance or grades, replacing real-world relationships or creating privacy risks through chat, sharing or account settings.
If gaming is becoming a problem, Dr Filomeno advises parents to observe patterns first rather than moving straight to punishment. Useful questions include when the gaming happens, what prompts longer sessions and what parts of life are suffering. He also says adults need to model the habits they expect, especially around device use before bed. In some cases, support from a paediatrician, child psychologist, guidance counsellor or addiction specialist may help. Even modest improvement, such as cutting back gradually, can be a meaningful step towards restoring balance.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
