Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will commission research on the long-term effects of video game addiction on primary school-aged children.

We have no plans to commission further research into video game addiction.

Children who spend more time on computers, watching television and playing video games tend to experience higher levels of emotional distress, anxiety and depression. This relationship is particularly negative among those who engage in high levels of screen use (more than four hours a day).

Following an in-depth look at mental health and wellbeing support for children and young people, the Government has set out a blueprint for improving care over the next five years. The Government report of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Well-Being Taskforce’s findings, Future in mind, published on 17 March 2015, sets out a clear national ambition in the form of key aspirations that the Government would wish to see by 2020.