In a somewhat bizarre happening, a guest on the Fox Business Network show Mornings With Maria described playing Fortnite as aking to “giving children heroin.” A panel of speakers was discussing Fortnite, with relation to the popularity of the game and Epic Games’ success, when Dr. Kathryn Smerling was asked about families seeking help to stop children playing the game. Her response was to say that playing Fortnite, “has been likened to something like heroin.”
In an even odder twist, Dr. Smerling continues by saying that, “Even Prince Harry in Britain said, ‘I don’t know why anyone would have Fortnite in their home, because it is like giving a child heroin,’ and indeed it is.” Prince Harry did notably state that Fortnite is “created to addict” and that Fortnite should be banned, but never described it as similar to heroin. He did also describe social media as “more addictive than drugs,” however.
While Smerling’s impression that playing Fortnite is akin to a child doing heroin is unfounded, as is her impression that Prince Harry is the origin of the idea, she’s not wrong about the increasing worry about video game addiction. In 2019 the World Health Organization officially listed “Gaming Disorder” as a disease, a nearly word-for-word copy of Gambling Disorder.
WHO describes Gaming Disorder as “a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behavior,” where the victim of the disease may prioritize gaming over other life interests and ignore negative consequences. While heroin usage certainly shares these attributes, the severity of heroin addiction and its symptoms are a world apart from WHO’s description of the Gaming Disorder disease. To say so without supporting research, however, seems absurd.
Video games and their relation to children and children’s health have long been a heavily politicized topic, going back through the 80s. The discussion faltered in 2011 when the Supreme Court of the United States granted video games and digital media First Amendment protections. However, a new generation of politicized criticism of video games is taking root with the growth of microtransactions, loot boxes, and gambling-adjacent gameplay systems.
The crossover between traditional conservative criticism of video games being harmful towards children by their very nature and the harms of modern addictive monetization design are clashing in new and complicated ways. Dr. Smerling may not be informed on the topic, but she’s certainly an example of what’s likely to be a growing trend of modern criticism targeting popular games like Fortnite.
Source: Twitter
