Online addictions
Online addictions
New area of work for the Pompidou Group: Online Addictions
Over the past three decades, technological advancements have transformed various aspects of our lives. Besides the countless benefits of these advancements, there are severe challenges and negative consequences. One of the latter is the risks of excessive and addictive use of specific online activities such as online gambling and video gaming. While the majority of individuals gamble and play video games as a recreational activity in a healthy manner, a minority experiences addiction-like symptoms. Based on decades of research, gambling disorder and gaming disorder are now recognised as mental disorders by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).
Several policies, responses, programmes, and interventions are currently in place to address the risks associated with excessive online gaming and gambling. These initiatives involve regulatory policies, public awareness campaigns, self-exclusion programs, counseling and treatment services, and industry initiatives. However, continued research and evaluation are necessary to assess the effectiveness of these initiatives and identify areas for improvement.
In 2021, the statute of the Pompidou Group was revised to broaden its scope to address the challenges related to drugs and addictions in a wider sense. Therefore, as part of the adopted Work Programme for 2023-2025, one of the core priorities is to tackle these new forms of addictions.
Work programme Pompidou Group 2023-2025
Expert Group on Online Addictions
To explore the phenomenon and related risks and harms, the Expert Group on online addiction has been set up in 2023. The expert group is comprised of 14 members from the Pompidou Group member states – Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czechia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Israel, Norway, North Macedonia, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Switzerland – with participation of the WHO.
The objectives of this group include:
- Providing a better understanding of addictions facilitated by technologies and online practices;
- Exploring available online interventions and tools for self-help and treatment;
- Presenting examples of prevention and risk reduction practices for a digital world;
- Elaborating responses to reduce risks and prevent addictions.
As a result of their work, in 2024 the Expert Group finalised the report on ‘Risks and Harms associated with Online Gaming and Gambling’.
Excessive and addictive use of online technologies and digital devices creates a number of online activities and behaviors that can potentially become addictive such as online gaming and gambling, social media use, online shopping, online pornography consumption, and others. The expert report primarily focuses on online behavioral addictions classified as disorders by the WHO, such as online gaming and gambling. As online gaming and gambling share design elements with other internet applications, addressing these specific issues can help tackle other internet related addictive behaviors.
Some of the key findings of the experts:
- Risks and harms associated with online gambling and gaming, in addition to the harm caused to individuals, can be linked to significant economic and societal costs corresponding to a considerable burden of disease in both cases;
- Prevalence estimates for problem online gambling risk range from 2.7% to 6.5% in the adult population and are about 1% among adolescents despite age restrictions. Male gender and younger age are factors consistently associated with online gambling problems;
- The development of online gambling and gaming problems usually results from the interplay of three interrelated factors: (i) the characteristics of the online activity, (ii) the individual’s psychological and biological characteristics, and (iii) the environment’s characteristics (e.g., family and peer-related factors, cultural context);
- Structural characteristics and game mechanics of both online gambling and online video gaming are carefully and intentionally crafted in ways that make the activities as immersive and addictive as possible;
- One of the most striking phenomena is the convergence between gambling and gaming, namely that gambling activities increasingly incorporate video gaming features (the ‘gamification of gambling’), and video games are more and more frequently integrating gambling elements in their gameplay (the ‘gamblification of gaming’);
- The integration of gambling elements in online video games is especially problematic as minors are heavily targeted, and regulations to protect them are completely lacking at the moment;
- The video gaming industry is largely unregulated;
- Lack of proper regulation of online environments;
- Several prevention, treatment, and harm minimisation measures exist for problem gambling; however, their effectiveness for online forms and new populations (e.g., minors, women) is not sufficiently studied, or they are often not effectively implemented;
- Lack of research to guide public policy and regulatory approaches to gambling, including research that assesses the impact on the public good of various regulatory frameworks or evidence regarding the effectiveness of specific compliance requirements.
Report on risks and harms associated with online gaming and gambling
Policy paper on risks and harms related to online gaming and online gambling
Based on the work of the Expert Group and the expert report on ‘Risks and Harms associated with Online Gaming and Gambling’, Pompidou Group member states at their 94th Permanent Correspondents meeting held in Naples on 30 May 2024 adopted the policy paper on ‘Strategies and regulatory options aimed at reducing risks and harms related to online gaming and online gambling’.
This document provides conceptual guidance to political decision-makers and policy developers who are seeking to develop strategies, action plans, and regulatory frameworks to reduce the risks and harms associated with online gaming and gambling.