Gaming addictions, excessive screen time use in children on rise, parents fret and teachers bear brunt

Becka Hume-Cook first suspected her son had an addiction when he was seven years old. Two years later, she stands by an almost empty primary school oval. As she searches for Wes’ face, she shifts from side to side, arms crossed and eyes wandering. This can be a hard part of the day. She already dreads the short one-word answer she will receive when she asks how his day was. She dreads his mad rush to get home and turn on his iPad, tuning out the rest of the world for hours on end, if she lets him. Most of all, she dreads the tantrum that will surely come if she tells him “no”. She is not alone in her concern about excessive use of devices. As children are put in front of screens at increasingly younger ages — and for the majority of their day — the effect of their consumption is being felt in the classroom, as well as at home. ‘I feel like a monster’ Motherhood is challenging for anyone, but with children now born into a world of tech, mums say it adds piles of stress to an already guilty conscience. Children as young as three have been told they can bring in an iPad from home if their parents choose to provide them at Wes’ school in Perth, and this is not uncommon practice around the nation in both public and private schools. “He was in kindy, I think, and they were saying that the iPads are a bring-your-own-device system that (the school has) got here,” Ms Hume-Cook says. Wes’ parents decided to wait until after he turned seven to give him an iPad for financial reasons and concerns about him using technology, but ultimately, they didn’t give him the device because they wanted to. Ms Hume-Cook says she felt like she didn’t have a real say in the matter. “We can exclude our child, but who wants to do that?” she says. “We have to then explain to them why they can’t have something that every other kid is having, and that doesn’t feel right either. So either way, it’s coming back onto the parent, and it makes me feel like a monster sometimes.” In year one, Wes started using the iPad at home and school. And now, in Year 3, it seems he is paying the price for something neither he nor his parents truly expected. Ms Hume-Cook is contemplating taking him to the only public gaming disorder clinic in Australia — found at Fiona Stanley Hospital. Wes is struggling with his handwriting, speech, and ability to complete school tasks. “He has the extra practice and the tutoring for the stuff he should have learned in kindy, pre-primary, year one, two and three, and instead, he’s just got this addiction to games and screens in general,” she says. Ms Hume-Cook’s face falls when she speaks of the toll it’s taken on his self-confidence. “I’ve heard him say a couple of times he knows he’s not the best at certain subjects,” she says. “He struggles with it because it’s all online, and it’s visual, and there’s none of the sorts of practising the writing and really memorising what the task is.” In 2020, Australian mental health services noted a rise in the number of teenagers seeking help for gaming addiction. According to a 2022 Macquarie University study, approximately 2.8 per cent of Australian teenagers showed signs of problematic gaming, and although this seems minuscule, clinics like Fiona Stanley’s have been popping up to address these needs. As of June of last year, the clinic has treated more than 200 patients, and its youngest is 11 years old. Treatment can involve missing school to attend a day of rehab and a total ban from devices requiring parents to lock them away. Through all this, teachers are feeling the pressure. Brisbane-based Robert Amedee has worked at the Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland as a case support person, with 40 years of experience in schools. He says he’s had cases of parents locking devices in a safe overnight so their child doesn’t stay up all night gaming. “It’s a withdrawal when it’s taken off kids,” Mr Amedee says. “When it’s such an important part of functioning in the contemporary world, you can’t just remove it.” Now that technology has become an integral part of children’s education, Mr Amedee feels teachers need help. Ms Hume-Cook is the first one to say it. She moved from Victoria to WA to work with children as an Outside School Hours Care program co-ordinator in a primary school. After 15 minutes of free play, she would ask her Year 5 and Year 6 students to hop off their devices. “They were saying that I was the worst person and all of the insults that kids will come out with, ‘you’re fat’,” she says. Later, she would receive apologies from her students, who were confused by their own behaviour. “They would write me letters and say, ‘We’re so sorry about how we acted. We don’t even know why we acted that way’,” she says. One of the children who threw insults at her was 12, and Ms Hume-Cook worries he could still be struggling to regulate his emotions. “He’ll have uni and all of that to go through and still have this anxiety from having these games interfere with his schooling and his social life,” she says. WA first trialled iPads in schools in 2012. Experts feel there is a lack of research and action to combat the issue. Guidelines suggest children aged five to 17 should spend no more than two hours a day on screens, not including schoolwork. In a 2018 study by the director of the UWA Child and Adolescent Mental Health and Wellbeing Research Clinic — including the use of screens in schools — the number of hours well surpassed the advice. Clinic director Stephen Houghton says the gap in research is shocking. “One of the things that always baffled me was that when people did studies on screen use amongst young people, they never included the screen use in schools,” Professor Houghton says. “When you get children who are using it for five hours a day at school, and then they go home, they may use it for another four to five hours, which includes homework and gaming. We already have young people who are using it for 10 to 12 hours a day.” The registered psychologist has been working in child and adolescent psychopathology for the past 20 years and knows the burdens policing screens can put on teachers. “I think the problem here is that teachers have a job to do in schools,” he says. “Teachers say they’re not social workers, they’re not psychologists, they’re not police officers, they’re not nurses, and so if you now ask them to start restricting the use of screens in schools, that’s just another task on an already overburdened workforce.” ‘I’m sick of it’ Teachers are close to giving up. Twenty-four-year-old Perth high school teacher Rachel (not her real name) has only been in the workforce for two years, but that’s enough to build a love-hate relationship with technology. “I’ve got kids that come to my period four class, which is before lunch, and their iPads are dead because they’ve used it the whole time. I’ve had to train my year sevens that they come in, and they don’t touch their iPad until I say,” Rachel says. She’s even had a student in her class attend Fiona Stanley’s gaming disorder clinic once a week instead of school. The 14-year-old is not allowed to use an iPad while the rest of the students in their class are required to. “It’s both tough because you’ve got a child who’s not there, and you have to try and catch them up, but also at the same time, particularly because he’s in my science class, there’s a really great, a couple of great resources that are strictly online,” she says. “I shouldn’t laugh, but it’s just kind of like if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry,” she says. Rachel sees the teenager isolated in the classroom, away from their classmates who are using their iPads. When the student manages to get hold of a classmate’s device, it’s all over. “It’s like watching someone take a hit,” she says. Perth Family Psychology owner Bailey Bosch says situations like the one Rachel is dealing with need to be managed sensitively. “Any situation where a child is doing something different from the rest of the class needs to be managed appropriately and sensitively so as to not add to the child’s problems,” she says. “I would actually be rather surprised if this were seen as a good strategy (not allowing them to use a device in a managed, time-constrained setting), and it would not be something I would recommend as ultimately children need to use technology in a balanced, mindful way. “We live in a world that doesn’t allow for total abstinence.” Rachel feels overwhelmed by the need to cater to every child. “As a teacher, how do you adequately support a child when there’s so much going on?” she asks. “How do I alter how I run my class to make it safe for this child, and then also the other children, because if this child escalates, how do I keep everyone else safe? “You’ve already got 30 individual students in the classroom, and they all look the same, but they all are very, very different.” The State School Teachers’ Union of WA is pushing to cut class sizes from 32 students to 27 in Years 4 to 10 to help address their diverse needs. Given iPads were introduced more than a decade ago, it came as a surprise when Rachel was asked if university had adequately prepared her for teaching in the real world. Her answer was simple, “No.” “If we have to look after so many complex and diverse needs in the classroom and effectively manage behaviour, one unit is not enough, especially if that’s not with practical experience,” she says. The number of teachers exiting WA public schools has doubled in the past five years and, according to the Skills Priority List Report 2023, there was a shortage of early childhood, primary and secondary school teachers across the nation in 2022 and 2023. In the past three years, more than 5000 teachers have quit because of high levels of stress and burnout as seen in a scathing review of the Education Department. Rachel has seen her friends leave the profession because their tertiary education did not prepare them for the job. The sole reason she feels more confident in her abilities is because of her work experience where she was thrown in the deep end. “I wouldn’t consider myself to be a strong graduate had I not done my teaching experience last year,” she says. “That taught me leaps and bounds more than most of my other friends that are now slogging through it, and some of them have decided that they’re not going to continue teaching next year, and they’re going to do relief teaching.” Who’s to blame? Curtin University School of Education lecturer and academic lead in digital pedagogies Craig Sims feels there is a strong need for comprehensive development for teachers on effective technology integration and for parents to be educated on the effects of technology on their children and how to manage the use. “Universities play a crucial role by embedding digital literacy and technology integration into teacher education programs, ensuring that future educators are prepared for the modern classroom,” Mr Sims says. He wants to see game-based learning with tools like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality and simulations in the classroom. UWA’s Professor Houghton is doing just that. In world-first research with the university and Clarkson Senior High School, he is aiming to embed therapeutic gaming in education to help students navigate challenges to their mental health. Professor Houghton has worked with the high school’s students to address the issues that affect them in the multi-episode gaming program Minds Online. He wants the Education Department to include student voices in decisions on how they can incorporate technology in a positive way. Although Professor Houghton says the department has been open to his centre’s research on including gaming in schools, they have hit many roadblocks along the way. “They need to look at the big picture, and they need to then take a proactive stance and try to engage the students to overcome the issues. If they don’t do that, they’ll fail,” he says. ECU communications professor and chief investigator at the Digital Child research centre, Lelia Green, says the input of young people in finding solutions for their technology use is a necessity. “If you can find out what it is that they enjoy doing and use that to open channels of communication, that may be a starting point to find out more about what else is going on, which may help both the parents and the young person to get the issue more into perspective and then work together towards a long-term resolution,” she says. “Instead of looking at it as a problem, look at it as a coping mechanism and as a solution that this young person’s chosen as part of their autonomous handling of what’s going on, and then try to see it from the young person’s point of view, the pleasure they get, the satisfaction they get, the sense of autonomy they get. “Because a lot of young people are getting frustrated at the fact that they don’t have a sense of power or agency in their everyday life.” Although she acknowledges the severity of some children’s gaming, Professor Green thinks parents are often more concerned than they should be about their children’s devices. “When you’re worrying about a child that’s a gamer, the chances are you’re not worrying about a child that’s being brought home by the police, that’s being drug affected, that’s getting into regular, dangerous fights, that’s part of a gang, that’s alcohol addicted, right?” Professor Houghton feels parents have a part to play in excessive technology use. “I think one of the things that parents get wrong is that they model the use of the screens themselves,” he says. “How do we expect children not to use screens and phones when the parents themselves are modelling in front of them? “Have a look at any McDonald’s or Hungry Jack’s or any fast food outlet at any time, and you’ll see parents with their noses in their phones doing things while the children are there, eating junk food and they’re on the phones. What kind of example is that?” Dr Bosch agrees excessive gaming can be a coping mechanism and a symptom of bigger issues in a child’s life. She adds society is working against teens. “We don’t live in a society that is teen-friendly — there are very few places for them to gather and socialise without it being seen as ‘unsocial’ behaviour, and they get moved on,” she says. “I am thinking shopping centres, fast food places, parks, et cetera, so obviously, they will revert to an online meeting place. “Let’s open up public spaces to make them welcoming, and let’s work to change generational attitudes that automatically consider a group of teens as dangerous and disorderly.” Professor Houghton says the implementation of technology in education has been analysed too late. “I think that one of the things that’s wrong here is we take a reactive stance. We wait for things to happen, and then we do something about it,” he says. WA Director of Education Steven Watson reiterates the department has an ”‘off and away all day” policy for mobile phones by students in public schools. “Students are not permitted to use mobile phones during the school day unless they have special permission for a medical or teacher-directed educational purpose,” he says. “The policy is implemented at a school level, and any breaches by students are managed in accordance with the Student Behaviour in Public Schools Policy.” In contrast, Mr Sims expressed concern at outright bans of technology and found numerous limitations in the current Australian curriculum. “While banning mobile phones can reduce distractions and help students focus, it may also limit opportunities to use these devices as educational tools that enhance learning. Instead of outright bans, implementing structured guidelines for mobile phone use can teach students how to manage technology responsibly,” he says. “Updating the Australian curriculum to support such innovative teaching methods can help educators meet diverse student needs and prepare them for a technologically advanced future.” Ms Hume-Cook is not satisfied with the government’s response. “It’s a complete oversight,” she says. “We need to slow down.” She feels that while the government has labelled the implementation of devices in schools as a “transition”, parents’ voices have not been heard. “This is not giving us the right to educate children the way that we feel is safe, and we don’t have a say on what the curriculum is anymore,” she says. “There are a bunch of parents, especially, who are not happy with the way that things are going at the moment because they have to take this home and deal with angry children.” Ms Hume-Cook wants the government to help. “It’s not our fault. We did not want this, and we’re all suffering as families now.”