Minors addicted to beauty, violent games

HYDERABAD: Online games have become a breeding ground for body shaming and bullying. Some online games have set specific beauty standards for women that ostensibly help in grabbing the attention of men.

Such games have fancy names like ‘dress up’, ‘glam up’, ‘love fantasy’ and the likes.

A worrying fact is that despite age restrictions, even 12-year-old children have become addicted to such games.

For instance, in one particular game, the players have to dress up and design a woman’s look for the man to accept her love. Ironically, they have more than 10 million downloads.

“Getting exposed to such games at a tender age could be dangerous. Children’s mindset gets poisoned by such misuse of technology,” said Dr. Devashish Palkar, a psychiatrist.

Many boys and girls are addicted to such dangerous games. Consultant psychiatrist Dr Virinchi Sharma said that for most under-25 people, perfection is what they see in such games and on social media. This hampers their thinking process and other abilities.

‘Anorexia nervosa’ has become common among 12 to 24-year-olds. It is an eating disorder where they cut down on food to avoid getting fat and end up binge eating and vomiting. Such games eventually affect relationships within the family,” he said. Clinical psychologist Dr. Anita Are said that children are getting increasingly addicted to games that are violent.

“Through violent games, children believe it is easy to kill people. They tend to become aggressive. Later, they either slip into depression or use aggressive methods to fulfil their wishes,” she added.

Dr. Eswari Vadlamudi, another psychologist, said that the games and society cannot be changed but the parents can and must take the lead in educating their children.

“The society has set certain beauty standards for men and women and the fear of the society will not vanish easily. The onus is on parents to keep their children away from such addictions,” she said