Raising awareness about video game addiction with YSI

Our Young Social Innovators group has seen an increase of young people with gaming problems and set the goal of spreading awareness of video game addiction. Not only do we aim to prevent gaming addiction among young people in Ireland, we also hope to encourage people, especially children, to spend more time outside participating in outdoor activities such as spending time with friends, sports and other forms of exercise.

Our project started when we noticed that video game addiction was an increasingly large issue in modern society and we believed it was our duty to help solve the issue in whatever way possible. We thought that too many people, especially children, were experiencing this issue and that there needed to be awareness about this issue. In our research we noticed that very few people have taken action against addiction to video games. We thought we should speak up to spread awareness of the ever-growing issue that is present in today’s society.

What we did as part of our YSI project

The Gardaí presented us with facts that motivated us to design a booklet for our YSI project. During our project we collaborated with a number of people, such as the resident newsagents who helped us distribute our booklet. We were also helped by a local primary school which gave us an insight into children who may have experienced video game addiction. Our classes in our own school also filled out a survey which was quite helpful as it provided further information for our project.

Focusing on Fortnite

We specifically focused on the video game Fortnite. In the survey we conducted in our school, we asked students from several different year groups about their gaming interests and the amount of time they dedicate to gaming. We also had a guest speaker in to warn us about the dangers of gaming addiction in today’s youth. We made and designed posters to place throughout the school to raise awareness about the problem of computer games and Fortnite addiction which seems to be a growing problem as technology is becoming more available.