News Investigation

From Fun to Addiction: NIMHANS Explains Gaming Trap in Children

Feb 2026 🇮🇳 The Statesman

Suicide and self-harm are complex and never caused by one factor alone. Problematic screen use, cyberbullying, harmful content, and online exploitation may increase risk or intensify existing distress. If someone is in immediate danger or emotional crisis in the United States, call or text 988.

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This Statesman article profiles NIMHANS SHUT Clinic's clinical view of gaming among children, quoting Professor Manoj Kumar Sharma. He describes excessive gaming as often signaling underlying psychological difficulty rather than simple overuse, explaining that some children build such an absorbing in-game identity that it can crowd out their sense of self outside the game, and that gaming can become an unhealthy substitute for face-to-face relationships. He discusses how game design uses reward and task-completion mechanics to sustain engagement, and states that in his clinical experience, problematic gaming is associated with depression, anxiety, sleep disruption, emotional instability, and, in some cases, suicidal thoughts. He calls for early detection, family involvement, and structured digital routines. TechKids Foundation reports these as Sharma's own clinical characterizations, attributed to him, not as proof that gaming is a single cause of these outcomes.

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CITATION

"From Fun to Addiction: NIMHANS Explains Gaming Trap in Children." The Statesman, February 18, 2026. https://www.thestatesman.com/technology/from-fun-to-addiction-nimhans-explains-gaming-trap-in-children-1503558777.html

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