Pupils as young as 7 hooked on online games as expert warns of alarming trend

Hong Kong school pupils as young as seven are being referred for addiction counselling for online gaming, with requests for help involving increasingly younger children, a digital habits workshop has heard.

Crystal Leung Chui-yee, officer-in-charge of the Sunshine Lutheran Centre, a counselling and treatment centre for problem gamblers, revealed the alarming frontline trend at a workshop organised by Young Post and the South China Morning Post’s student business, SCMP Learn, attended by about 70 parents on Sunday.

Leung, a counselling psychologist, cited the case of a seven-year-old Primary Two pupil who was referred to her centre with a severe addiction to virtual subcultures and pay-to-win games.

“By the time he came to us, we discovered that he had taken nearly HK$8,000 in cash from his mother and used her credit card,” Leung said at the workshop, titled “AI responsibilities, digital habits and hidden pitfalls”.

“Eight thousand dollars is a massive sum for a seven-year-old. It signals an incredibly dangerous boundary cross.”

Leung said randomised gaming “loot boxes” could act as early conditioning for adult gambling addictions.