Gaming is an important part of life for lots of children and young people. It can be a way to relax, have fun, connect with friends, and cope with difficult feelings. But there may also be times when you’re worried about how gaming is affecting your child’s mental health or other parts of their life.
The relationship between gaming and mental health isn’t always straightforward. How gaming affects your child can depend on why they’re playing, what they get from it, and what else is going on in their life.
In this guide, we explain how gaming can affect mental health, what to look out for if you’re concerned, and how you can support your child to have a positive relationship with gaming.
How can gaming affect mental health?
Gaming can have both positive and negative effects on mental health. For many children and young people, gaming can support their wellbeing. It can be a way to:
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relax, have fun and unwind
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take a break from worries or difficult feelings
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connect with friends and feel part of a community
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socialise in a way that feels comfortable for them
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experience a sense of achievement and build confidence
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learn new skills and explore their interests
Parents told us that these benefits can be particularly important when a young person is going through a difficult time. Using gaming to switch off, regulate emotions or distract from worries is not necessarily a bad thing.
But gaming can also have a negative effect on mental health. It may be a concern when it regularly affects other important parts of your child’s life. For example, they might lose sleep, struggle with school, withdraw from other things they enjoy, experience lots of conflict around gaming, or find it very difficult to stop.
Being curious about why your child is gaming, as well as how much, can help you understand whether they need support.
When should I be worried about my child’s gaming?
Advice about gaming often focuses on how much is ‘too much’. But there isn’t a set amount of time that is automatically a problem.
Instead, it can be more useful to think about the impact gaming is having on your child’s wellbeing and everyday life. Parents and carers told us that this helped them to look beyond time spent gaming and think about what gaming was doing for their child, as well as whether it was causing difficulties.
For example, a young person might spend a lot of time gaming because it helps them relax, connect with friends, or cope with difficult feelings. But gaming may be becoming a problem if’s regularly affecting their sleep, school, relationships or other important parts of their life.
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finds it difficult to stop gaming or feels unable to control how much they play
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is losing sleep because of gaming
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is struggling to concentrate, attend school or keep up with schoolwork
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is gaming instead of doing important everyday things like eating or washing
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has stopped doing other things that used to be important or enjoyable to them
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is becoming increasingly isolated from friends or family
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experiences frequent or severe conflict around gaming
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continues gaming even when they recognise that it is causing problems
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relies on gaming as their only way of coping with difficult feelings
It’s important to look at what is happening for your child as a whole. For example, spending lots of time talking to friends through gaming is different from withdrawing from relationships altogether.
If you notice a change in your child’s gaming habits, try to think about what might be behind it. They may be gaming more because they are feeling stressed, lonely or worried, or because something else in their life has become difficult. In these situations, gaming might be one of the ways they are trying to cope, rather than the cause of how they are feeling.
What is gaming disorder?
A small minority of people experience something called gaming disorder. This is when someone has significant difficulty controlling their gaming, gives gaming increasing priority over other parts of their life, and continues to game despite it having negative consequences.Gaming disorder is not defined by the number of hours someone spends gaming.
The important thing is whether they’ve lost control over their gaming and whether it is causing significant problems in areas such as their family life, relationships, education or wellbeing.If you are worried that this describes what’s going on for your child, there is professional support available. We explain how to get help later in this guide.
How to talk to your child about gaming
If you’re worried about your child’s gaming, try to start by understanding what gaming is like for them. If you approach the conversation assuming that gaming is the problem, they may feel that you don’t understand something that is important to them.
Parents and carers told us that being curious and talking openly about gaming helped them have better conversations with their child.
It can also help to:
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Show an interest in their gaming
Ask what games they enjoy, what they like about them, and what they are working towards. You don’t need to know much about gaming to be interested in their experience.
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Find out who they play with
Gaming can be an important part of your child’s friendships. Ask who they spend time with online and what playing together is like.
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Ask how gaming makes them feel
Talk about the good and the bad. You could ask how they feel while they’re playing and afterwards, or whether there are parts of gaming that make them stressed, angry or upset.
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Explain what you've noticed
If something is worrying you, focus on the change or behaviour you’ve seen rather than assuming gaming is the cause. For example, you might say, ‘I’ve noticed you’ve been finding it harder to get to sleep recently. How are things going?’
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Choose a good time to talk
Try not to start a big conversation while your child is in the middle of a game, or when either of you is already frustrated. Find a calmer moment when you both have time to talk.
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Work towards solutions together
If something needs to change, ask your child what they think might help. Try to agree on an approach together, rather than starting with a rule or punishment.
You might not agree on everything straight away. Keeping the conversation open means you can come back to it and review what’s working as your child’s needs change.
How to set boundaries around gaming
Setting boundaries around gaming can be difficult, particularly if you and your child have different ideas about how much they should play. What works will depend on your child, what gaming means to them, and how it fits alongside the rest of their life.
You also might not get the balance right straight away. Try to treat boundaries as something you can adjust together, rather than a set of rules that can never change.
Talk about when gaming works well and where you think some boundaries are needed. Involving your child can help you agree on expectations that feel realistic and take their needs into account.
If your child does not stick to a boundary you have agreed, make sure to follow through on the consequences. Agree the consequences with your child in advance so they are not taken by surprise, or left feeling it is ‘unfair’. Following through on consequences will help to make the boundaries clear and consistent.
Stopping after a certain number of minutes might sound straightforward, but it can mean asking your child to leave halfway through a level or while playing with friends. Ask them what a natural stopping point looks like and use this when agreeing boundaries.
Let your child know in advance when they will need to finish, rather than suddenly telling them to turn a game off. This can be especially helpful if your child finds transitions between activities difficult, or if they’re playing a game that is hard to stop halfway through.
Rather than focusing on ‘replacing’ gaming, think together about other activities that are meaningful to them. This might be seeing friends, spending time outside, playing sports, doing something creative or spending time as a family. Encourage them to engage in these activities.
Abruptly switching a game off or using access to gaming as the focus of an argument can escalate things, particularly when your child is already feeling frustrated.
What works during the school week might be different at weekends or during the holidays. Your child’s needs will also change as they get older, so keep talking about what is and isn’t working.
Gaming and neurodivergence
Gaming can be particularly important for some neurodivergent young people. It might offer a predictable space to relax, focus on an interest, or connect with other people. Some parents and carers also told us that gaming helped their child regulate their emotions or cope when things felt difficult.
For some young people, gaming can make socialising feel more manageable. Having a shared activity to focus on can take some of the pressure off interacting, while still giving them an important way to spend time with friends.
This means that restricting gaming can sometimes mean taking away something that is helping your child cope or connect with other people. It’s important to understand what your child gets from gaming when you’re thinking about what boundaries will work for them.
Parents and carers told us that one-size-fits-all rules around gaming were not always helpful for their neurodivergent children: one parent said that most advice fails to take into consideration existing mental health conditions, neurodiversity, and other challenges.
Try to find an approach that works for your child. This might mean giving them plenty of warning before they need to stop, agreeing a natural stopping point together, or adapting boundaries around their individual needs.
Keeping your child safe while gaming
What happens within a game can affect your child’s mental health too. Arguments with friends, bullying, harassment or discrimination, upsetting content, and interactions with people they don’t know offline can leave young people feeling anxious, upset or excluded. They may also experience pressure to spend money or keep up with other players.
There are some practical things you can do to help:
Age ratings can help you understand the content and features of a game. But think about your individual child too. If particular content is frightening or upsetting them, they may need support even if the game is considered appropriate for their age.
Arguments, bullying, harassment and discrimination can have a real impact on a young person’s wellbeing. Make sure your child knows how to mute, block and report other players, and that they can come to you if something has happened.
The relationships your child has through gaming can be important to them. This means that falling out with a gaming friend, being excluded from a group or experiencing bullying online can be just as upsetting as difficulties in their offline friendships.
Make sure your child knows what personal information they should keep private. Encourage them to tell you if someone makes them uncomfortable, pressures them to do something, asks them to move a conversation elsewhere or tells them to keep something secret.
Young people may feel pressure to buy items because their friends or other players have them. Loot boxes – a virtual item in a video game that players open to receive a randomised selection of rewards – and limited-time offers, can also make spending feel exciting or urgent. Talk about these pressures and agree safeguards around spending together.
If your child is regularly coming away from a particular game or online community feeling anxious, angry, excluded or upset, try to find out what is happening. The issue may be something they are experiencing within the game, rather than gaming itself.
Encourage your child to report harmful behaviour through the game or platform. If you’re worried about sexual or inappropriate contact with an adult, you can also report your concerns to CEOP.
When and where to get help
If your child needs to talk, it can sometimes be easier for them to open up to someone outside of the family. Let them know about the phone, webchat, email and text support they can access from the services listed at the bottom of this page.
If gaming is affecting your child’s sleep, ability to concentrate or engagement at school, ask the school for some advice. You can speak to your child’s teacher, form tutor, head of year or SENCO. If it’s possible, agree with your child who you’re going to speak to. This gives them an important sense of control over what’s being shared about them.
Some schools also provide guidance or training for parents and pupils around gaming and screen time.
For more advice on what to do if your child is feeling anxious about school, or finding it hard to go to school, read our guide on school anxiety.
If you’re worried that gaming is having a damaging effect on your child’s mental health, and the strategies you’ve been using aren’t working, speak to your GP.
When talking to your GP, try to be as clear as possible about your concerns. For example, if your child is anxious, struggling to sleep or becoming very isolated, name these things specifically.
The GP can talk to you or your child (depending on your child’s age) to find out what’s happening. They can then suggest the types of support that might be helpful. If needed, they can make a referral to the NHS mental health service for young people, called CAMHS. They can also refer your child to the NHS National Centre for Gaming Disorders for a specialist assessment.
For some parents, gaming can feel like a strange thing to talk to a GP about. Remember that the NHS recognises that gaming behaviour can affect our mental health. They have opened a treatment programme to support people with this.
The National Centre for Gaming Disorders is an NHS clinic that provides treatment to young people and adults aged 13+. It is for people who are finding it difficult to control their gaming, despite it having a negative impact on their life.
The Centre accepts:
- self-referrals from older children or young people
- referrals from parents, carers or other family members
- referrals from professionals like GPs
Useful helplines and websites
While we take care to ensure that the organisations we signpost to provide high quality information and advice, we cannot take responsibility for any specific pieces of advice they may offer. We encourage parents and carers to always explore the website of a linked service or organisation to understand who they are and what support they offer before engaging with them.
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YoungMinds Parents Helpline
We support parents and carers who are concerned about their child or young person's mental health. We can provide detailed information and advice, emotional support and signposting.
You can speak to us over the phone or chat to us online. When we’re closed, you can still leave us a message and we'll get back to you in 3-5 working days.
- Opening times:
- 9.30am-4pm on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays; 9.30am-6pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
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Childnet - For Parents
Provides online information for parents around supporting children with gaming at different ages.
You can download their Family Agreement template and find tips on using it with your family.
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GamCare
Provides confidential information, advice and support, free of charge, for anyone affected by gambling harms in England, Scotland and Wales.
They also offer a live webchat and a WhatsApp chat service.
- Opening times:
- 24 hours a day
Read more real stories from parents and carers
This page was reviewed in August 2026.
It was created with a parent or carer with lived experience of supporting their child or young person with gaming.
We will next review the page in 2029.
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