Video-arcade game, computer game and Internet activities of Australian students: Participation habits and prevalence of addiction

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate participation habits and prevalence of addiction among Australian university and school students to video-arcade games, computer games, and the Internet. A sample of 1,326 (657 female) students from rural and urban Tasmanian schools (Grades 7–12) and 705 (509 female) university students took part in the study. Lifetime participation and the frequency and duration of time that students spent online were higher than that reported in previous research on youth. A lower percentage of students met the modified criteria for addiction to video-arcade games (4.2%), computer games (5%) and the Internet (4.6%) compared to previous studies, but the prevalence of social computer game users (55.2%) and Internet addiction (58.9%) was higher than that reported by past researchers.