Gaming does not pose specific health risks. It is a leisure activity, just more interactive than reading books or watching television. As it involves the use of your eyesight we generally advise players to follow these guidelines:

Playing video games is not a physical addiction. Children play games because they enjoy them; and some enjoy them more than others. While playing a video game they may be blinkered to everything else that goes on around them (the same goes for watching movies or television).

For more information about « addiction »: Mark Griffiths and Mark Davies, “Does videogame addiction exist?”

There is no evidence to prove that playing violent video games causes any long-term or lasting increase in aggressiveness or violence. The research on whether video games encourage violence focuses primary on short term effects and is inconsistent. However, in order to ensure that your child does not play games deemed to be too violent please follow the age ratings closely.

For more information:
- Raymond Boyle and Matthew Hibberd, “Review of Research on the Impact of Violent Computer Games on Young People” Stirling Media Research Institute, March 2005
- Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen and Jonas Heide Smith,“Playing With Fire? How do computer games affect the player? ” Report for The Media Council for Children and Young People, September 2003
- Freedman (Jonathan L.), “Evaluating the Research on Violent Video Games”, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto.

No. Exhaustive research has found that epilepsy cannot be caused by playing videogames. However, an extremely small number of people, who already have Photosensitive Epilepsy, may actually realise that they have this condition when playing videogames. However experiences such as watching television, going to a discotheque, or even experiencing light flickering through trees can bring about