Fortnite streamer Ninja has heard the allegations that the game that made him famous is causing an increase in video game addiction, and he’s not having it.
A recent Bloomberg report that examined video game addiction in kids specifically pointed out Fortnite as a major cause. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tyler Blevins, better known by his streamer moniker Ninja, doesn’t think that the game is to blame. Instead, he thinks it’s the parents that are at fault:
Title should be “Terrible parents don’t know how to take their kids gaming system away”
— Ninja (@Ninja) November 28, 2018
In response to Blevins’ comment, Bloomberg tweeted ways that parents can limit their kids’ playtime by using different platforms’ parental controls:
Ninja raises an interesting question: Who’s to blame for video game addiction? Parents, here’s what you can do to limit your child’s play pic.twitter.com/cP0qxAopmq
— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) November 29, 2018
Ninja’s point that parents need to assert their authority a little more when it comes to curbing their kids’ addictive behavior seemed to have a lot of support on Twitter, but it’s important to remember that Blevins isn’t a psychiatric expert. He’s a streamer that makes his money by streaming Fortnite. The World Health Organization, on the other hand, recently qualified “gaming disorder” as a disease, so insinuating that parents can help children who are fully addicted to gaming by taking away their means to game may discount the power of addiction. Still, putting some hard limits on how much your kids’ can play, as Blevins asserted, isn’t a bad way to stop addiction from taking hold in the first place.
Source: VG 24/7