KUWAIT: Unsupervised videogames sessions might lead individuals into drug addiction, especially if such medium was dedicated to adult content and audiences, said Kuwaiti experts on Wednesday. Speaking to KUNA, the experts affirmed that with the development of video-gaming technologies in recent years, it was important to set certain standards to avoid leading individuals into drug use and addiction.

Children, youth and adults spend nowadays a tremendous amount of time playing videogames whether individually or online and this requires some sort of supervision from others, said acting head of the psychological department at Kuwait University (KU) Dr Huda Jaafar. She indicated that spending much of our free-time playing videogames might coheres people's minds and filling that gap with false ideals one of them being that drugs were okay to use as long as they were not strong narcotics. This case is very true when it came to children who, with the advance videogame graphics and virtual reality services, would not know the difference between right and wrong without guidance. Dr Jaafar affirmed that some would focus on imitating whatever the characters in videogames were doing whether it was some bombastic actions or taking drugs.

Similarly, head of the cybercrime committee at the federation of electronic media Mohammad Al-Rashidi warned against online videogames, saying that they were a danger especially if children were involved. Organized crime syndicates had penetrated the gaming industry, developing games where racy and adult contents and children would not know what was better without the guidance of their guardians and parents, he affirmed. Videogames must be age appropriate and geared towards the development and entertainment of children and not into corrupting their souls and minds, he concluded. - KUNA