It is pointed out that young people of Gen Z are addicted to games because they have no other place to go

Keith Stewart and Kaysa McDonald, who cover gaming topics at the British newspaper The Guardian, point out that the reason why young people of 'Generation Z' (born between 1996 and 2012) spend so much time playing games is because 'there is nowhere else to go.'

It's not them, it's us: the real reason teens are 'addicted' to video games | Games | The Guardian

The Guardian published an article about children with gaming addiction in their special feature 'The Observer.' The article cites cases of children under the age of 10 who have become addicted to gaming, and asks experts about how serious gaming addiction is.

In fact, the 11th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) published by the WHO in 2018 included a new category of 'gaming disorder.' And in the UK, a national gaming disorder center has been established and has treated more than 1,000 people.

However, Stewart and his colleagues explain that many of the reasons children spend time playing games have nothing to do with gaming disorder, but rather because 'kids have nowhere else to go.'

Stuart and others described Gen Z as a 'particularly monitored generation.' Parents complain that their Gen Z children don't go outside, but the parks and pedestrian streets in town where children used to go freely are no longer public places, but are now places where security guards are present and what they are doing is monitored, so Gen Z young people are being deprived of a place to go.

For Gen Z, the world of gaming is the last frontier beyond adult control: a place where they can hang out with their friends all day.

It's true that staying cooped up in your room all day is unhealthy and leads to less interaction with people, but no one can blame Gen Z for being anxious, as they have never dreamed of 'owning a home someday' since they were young, the minimum wage hasn't risen much, and there is no guarantee of a stable job for life, says Stewart and others.

It is said that one in three people in Generation Z suffer from mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, and it is also known that Generation Z spends a lot of time playing games, but there is no established causal relationship between the two. Stuart and others are critical, saying that adults are simply trying to blame the problems faced by young people in Generation Z on social media, games, smartphones, etc.