from china observed his son's addiction to video games, and decided to take action. he hired online assassins to kill his son's virtual avatar every time he logged in. he hoped that being relentlessly killed would help his son lose interest in this destructive habit. inclusion in the icd-11 in the draft versions leading to the final icd-11 document, gaming disorder was included alongside gambling disorder under "disorders due to addictive behaviors". the addition defines as "a pattern of persistent or recurrent gaming behaviour ('digital gaming' or 'video-gaming')", defined by three criteria: the lack of control over playing video games, priority given to video games over other interests, and the inability to stop playing video games even after being affected by negative consequences. for gaming disorder to be diagnosed, the behavior pattern must be of sufficient severity to result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning and would normally have been evident for at least 12 months. research shows gaming disorders can be associated with anxiety, depression, loneliness, obesity, sleeping disorders, attention problems, and stress. vladimir poznyak, the coordinator for the who department of mental health and substance abuse, defended the addition of gaming disorder, believing the backlash against the addition to be a moral panic as they chose a very narrow definition that encompasses only the most extreme cases of gaming disorder. he said evaluating a disorder for inclusion is nominally done without any external feedback "to avoid interference from commercial and other entities which may have vested interest in the outcome of the process". dr. poznyak asserted that several medical professionals consulting on the icd-11 did believe gaming disorder to be real, and by including it in the icd-11, there can now be earnest efforts to define its causes and symptoms betters and methods to deal with it, and now include the video game industry within the conversation to help reduce the effects of video games on public health. the addition of "gaming disorder" to the icd-11 was criticized by gamers and the video game industry, while some researchers remained skeptical. some of these researchers said the evidence remains weak and "there is a genuine risk of abuse of diagnoses." a group of 26 scholars wrote an open letter to the who, suggesting that the proposed diagnostic categories lacked scientific merit and were likely to do more harm than good. in counter-argument, a group of fifty academic researchers in behavioral science agreed that the evidence to support gaming disorder was weak, but it would be best that who identify gaming disorder in icd-11 so that it could be considered a clinical and public health need. a report, prepared by mental health experts at oxford university, johns hopkins university, stockholm university and the university of sydney, sponsored by the association for uk interactive entertainment argues that while there may be potential addiction associated with video gaming, it is premature to consider it a disorder without further study, given the stigmatisation that surrounds video, and ask the who to use caution when finalising the icd draft. this report was promoted by 22 video game industry trade organizations including the entertainment software association of the united states and interactive software federation of europe as the final approval of the icd-11 neared, several video game trade associations issued a statement requesting who to reconsider the addition of "gaming disorder", stating that, "the evidence for its inclusion remains highly contested and inconclusive". the entertainment software association had meetings with the who during december 2018 to try to convince them to hold off including gaming disorder within icd-11, with more planned meetings to follow. society and culture parental concerns according to abc news, parents have many concerns about their children playing video games, including concerns about age appropriateness, the amount of time spent playing games, physical health, and aggressive behaviour. governmental concerns the first video game to attract political controversy was the 1978 arcade game space invaders. in 1981, a political bill called the control of space invaders (and other electronic games) bill was drafted by british labour party mp george foulkes in an attempt to ban the game for its "addictive properties" and for causing "deviancy". the bill was debated and only narrowly defeated in parliament by 114 votes to 94 votes. in august 2005, the government of the people's republic of china, where more than 20 million people play online games, introduced an online gaming restriction limiting playing time to three hours, after which the player would be expelled from whichever game they were playing. in 2006, it relaxed the rule so only citizens under the age of 18 would face the limitation. reports indicate underage gamers found ways to circumvent the measure. in july 2007, the rule was relaxed yet again. internet games operating in china must require users identify themselves by resident identity numbers. after three hours, players under 18 are prompted to stop and "do suitable physical exercise". if they continue, their in-game points are "slashed in half". after five hours, all their points are automatically erased. in 2008 in the united states (us), one of the five federal communications commission (fcc) commissioners, deborah taylor tate, stated that online gaming addiction was "one of the top reasons for college drop-outs". however, she did not mention a source for the statement nor identify its position in relation to other top reasons. in 2011, the south korean government implemented a law, known as the shutdown law or the cinderella law, which prohibits children under the age of 16 from playing online video games between the hours of 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. later on, the law was amended and now children under the age of 16 can play after midnight if they have permission from their parents. in 2021, the south korean government moved to abolish this law. a systematic review identified in 2017 three types of currently attempted governmental policies: 1) limiting the availability of video games (shutdown, fatigue system, parental controls), 2) reduce the risks and harm (warning messages), 3) provide addiction help services to gamers. most of these policies were either not as efficient as intended or not yet evaluated for efficiency, which lead some researchers to prompt for a global public health approach to prevent the onset and progression of this disorder. some researchers suggest that the video game industry should itself place preventive measures against video game addiction. deaths there have been at least a few deaths caused directly by exhaustion from playing games for excessive periods of time. china in 2005, thirteen-year-old zhang xiaoyi committed suicide by jumping from the top of a 24-story tower block in his home province tianjin. after previously having spent two straight days playing online role-playing games in an internet cafe, zhang had told his parents that he had "been poisoned by games and could no longer control himself". his parents sued aomeisoft, the china-region publisher of the game world of warcraft. the head of a software association said to gaming website play.tm that same year: "in the hypothetical world created by such games, become confident and gain satisfaction, which they cannot get in the real world." in 2007, a 26-year-old man identified only as "zhang" died of a heart attack following a seven-day gaming binge, while a 30-year-old man died in a guangzhou internet cafe after playing online games for three straight days. south korea in 2005, 28-year old industrial repairman seungseob lee (hangul: 이승섭) visited an internet cafe in the city of daegu and played starcraft almost continuously for fifty hours. he went into cardiac arrest and died at a local hospital. a friend reported: "... he was a game addict. we all knew about it. he couldn't stop himself." about six weeks before his death, he was fired from his job, and his girlfriend, also an avid gamer, broke up with him. in 2009, kim sa-rang, a 3-month-old korean girl, starved to death after both her parents spent hours each day in an internet cafe, rearing a virtual child in an online game, prius online. the death is covered in the 2014 documentary love child. united states in november 2001, 21-year-old wisconsinite shawn woolley committed suicide; it has been inferred that his death was related to the popular computer game everquest. shawn's mother said the suicide was due to a rejection or betrayal in the game from a character shawn called "iluvyou". ohio teenager daniel petric shot his parents, killing his mother, after they took away his copy of halo 3 in october 2007. in a sentencing hearing after the teen was found guilty of aggravated murder, the judge said, "i firmly believe that daniel petric had no idea at the time he hatched this plot that if he killed his parents they would be dead forever", in reference to his disconnection from reality caused by playing violent video games. on 16 june 2009, petric was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison.