Online games have become the go-to resort for an increasing number of people. But it’s not all fun and games online, as many of those who are addicted to the games have been victims of cyberbullying.
The Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) clinic at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) sees seven to eight cases a week with problems pertaining to gaming.
Manoj Kumar Sharma, professor, Department of Clinical Psychology NIMHANS, and counsellor at SHUT, said every third person who seeks help for issues related to gaming is a victim of cyberbullying.
Some of the forms of online bullying include passing sarcastic remarks about the manner in which the user plays, user’s previous failures, comments about the person’s intellectual ability, and advising the user to quit.
Dr. Sharma, along with Nitin Anand from the Department of Clinical Psychology, and Varghese Mathew, who works at SHUT, came out with a case study on the implications of gaming and the platform used as an expression of bullying, which was published in the Asian Journal of Psychiatry recently.
The case study highlights the life of a 19-year-old college dropout who is from an upper socio-economic background. He was involved in an multi-player online battle arena games from the age of 15.
Dr. Sharma said the patient used to play for two to three hours a day initially, but the duration increased to eight to 10 hours a day. He used to play online games to get over boredom and loneliness and during his free time. He added that playing the video game would give him a feeling of self-worth which he was not getting from his surroundings.
During the counselling sessions with the doctors at SHUT, he said this type of bullying was common and often left him sad and lowered his self esteem.
To cope with this, he said he resorted to measures such as muting their voice or ignoring them, and continued to play or change the team.
In many cases, he would stop playing for a few hours. Dr. Sharma said the patient was put under cognitive behavioural interventions and had to undergo weekly sessions after which he has reduced the time spent on online gaming.
Cyber resilience
The researchers have pointed out that there was a need to devise interventions to build the “cyber resilience among the youth”. “As India is an emerging market for e-sport, there is a dearth of national surveillance data in this area,” he said.
He said as there is an increase in the number of youngsters taking to gaming, cyberbullying in the online gaming formats increases the risk of them needing psychiatric intervention.
‘Law needs to be made stronger’
While the cyberpolice book those accused of cyberbullying under the provisions of the Information Technology Act and various sections of the Indian Penal Code based on the extent of harassment, experts feel that there is a need to make the IT Act stronger to tackle this offence.
City-based cyber expert Mirza Faizan Asad said there was a need for an amendment to the IT Act to make it stronger as the law was toothless with regard to this aspect. “Currently, it is a bailable offence. It needs to be made a non-bailable offence,” he said.
Experts also pointed out that there was a need for greater awareness to ensure that such cases are reported. Manoj Kumar Sharma, professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, NIMHANS, said most children who are victims of cyberbullying do not even communicate this to their parents let alone to cybercrime authorities.
