A weak scientific basis for gaming disorder: let us err on the side of caution

We greatly appreciate the care and thought that is evident in the 10 commentaries that discuss our debate paper, the majority of which argued in favor of a formalized ICD-11 gaming disorder. We agree that there are some people whose play of video games is related to life problems. We believe that understanding this population and the nature and severity of the problems they experience should be a focus area for future research. However, moving from research construct to formal disorder requires a much stronger evidence base than we currently have. The burden of evidence and the clinical utility should be extremely high, because there is a genuine risk of abuse of diagnoses. We provide suggestions about the level of evidence that might be required: transparent and preregistered studies, a better demarcation of the subject area that includes a rationale for focusing on gaming particularly versus a more general behavioral addictions concept, the exploration of non-addiction approaches, and the unbiased exploration of clinical approaches that treat potentially underlying issues, such as depressive mood or social anxiety first. We acknowledge there could be benefits to formalizing gaming disorder, many of which were highlighted by colleagues in their commentaries, but we think they do not yet outweigh the wider societal and public health risks involved. Given the gravity of diagnostic classification and its wider societal impact, we urge our colleagues at the WHO to err on the side of caution for now and postpone the formalization

Zero to eight : young children and their internet use

EU Kids Online has spent seven years investigating 9-16 year olds’ engagement with the internet, focusing on the benefits and risks of children’s internet use. While this meant examining the experiences of much younger children than had been researched before EU Kids Online began its work in 2006, there is now a critical need for information about the internet-related behaviours of 0-8 year olds. EU Kids Online’s research shows that children are now going online at a younger and younger age, and that young children’s “lack of technical, critical and social skills may pose [a greater] risk” (Livingstone et al, 2011, p. 3).peer-reviewe

Bridging the distance : children’s strategies on the internet

This thesis deals with the following questions: What do children find negative on the Internet? What counter strategies do they use? How have they developed these strategies? The method used is one-to-one online interviews and the analyses are qualitative in nature. The sample is children in grade 6 of the Swedish compulsory school, aged between 11 and 13. 104 children, 52 girls and 52 boys, from different parts of Sweden were interviewed. The media debate seems to display consensus regarding what threats the Internet poses to young people. The conclusion of this thesis is, however, that children’s views of the Internet in many ways differ from the media related adult view. The children of this study do not express a great deal of anxiety about the negative sides of the Internet. They are aware of, and can describe many downsides but these are not present in their everyday use of the Internet. Digging deeper it turns out that many children have in fact well-developed counter strategies. However, these strategies are not conscious in the sense that the children discuss them. Instead, they seem integrated in their online environment. The counter strategies have been developed by the children alone or together with peers. In some, but remarkably few, cases adults have been giving tips or teaching the children strategies. Nevertheless, the study does not paint a picture of naïve children, unable to see actual threats, but of responsible young citizens who are aware of the threats that exist in their online setting – sometimes from personal experience – and have developed methods to avoid such threats

A Critical Perspective on Online Safety Measures

The Nordic countries have enjoyed mass use of the Internet at home and in schools since the mid-1990’s. Children have been noted to have rapidly taken the Internet into possession and to have made use of the affordances (Greeno, 1994) of Internet communication. However, media coverage of how children take on, and learn what the Internet has to offer has often been of a negative kind. Blazing headlines portray a generation in bottomless danger where children are defined both as possible victims and perpetrators. Another common attribute of this media coverage is the exoticising of young people’s net cultures – describing the young and their cultures as profoundly different from earlier generations and elevating the “colourful and the bizarre” (Coffey et al., 1999, p. 169) to a level where it appears normal for this particular generation. In this setting safe use guides – tips for parents and children on how to keep safe on the Internet – began to appear. They were often composed by teachers, concerned parents, non-governmental organisations and in some cases governments. The safe use guides were disseminated online in different forums aimed at concerned adults. In this article I will give a brief description of current online safety issues and examine them critically. My earlier research – 104 interviews with 12-year old Swedes conducted in 2004-2005 (Dunkels, 2007) and a study of European safe use guides conducted in 2008 (Lüders et al., 2009) left me with a number of questions. I could see that safe use guides were strikingly similar, despite their origin, and I could see that they rested upon norms and values that were actually neither accounted for nor even declared. This article is a literature review of the area with the aim of critically discussing some of these questions

Sträck ut en hand till eleverna i stället

Det är viktigt att förstå att de insatser som görs för att förbättra skolan alltid baseras på både kunskapssyn och människosyn. Att kräva att alla elever får stöd i tid och har engagerade och kunniga lärare visar på en samtida kunskaps- och människosyn, grundad i forskning om lärande och barns utveckling

Dataspelande inte orsak till dåliga skolresultaten

Vi forskare som står bakom den här artikeln har tidigare kritiserat debatten kring nät- och dataspelsberoende för att vara missvisande. Vi menar att nättid eller dataspelande i sig inte har något att göra med vare sig försämrade studieresultat eller rubbad dygnsrytm. Forskningen har på senare år antytt att överdrivet dataspelande bör ses som ett uttryck för underliggande problem, på samma sätt som överdrivet engagemang i vad som helst kan vara uttryck för underliggande problem