What about adults?

I am very addicted to video games...

But not as bad as my VGChartz addiction!

If you introduce a child to video games at ages 5 through 10, it's almost guaranteed that they will be "addicted" to them for the next 6 months more or less.

They will want to play them when they come home from school, they will want to play them on the weekend, and they will want to play them instead of doing homework, participating in after school sports/activities, and more.

At about the 1 year mark, video games may still be a part of the weekly or daily life, but they will be able to live without playing them 24/7.

Such is my experience with children and video games after a LOT of time spent with them.

I would like to throw in my 2 cents on this topic.

I always notice one huge piece of "evidence" to support video game addiction is skipping homework, studying etc. etc. to play games.

I think that this isn't a problem with video games but a problem with the person himself. A kid who doesn't want to study will find ways not to study, same with homework. It just so happens that video games are one thing to turn to instead of doing homework. Take away video games and he will browse the internet to kill time. Take away the internet and he will watch Tv, take away Tv and he will rather sit in his room and do nothing rather than do homework, someone who doesn't want to do homework won't unless disciplined to do so or there is some reward, don't go blaming video games for your kids lack of academic prowess, blame yourself.

I can see video games as a possible way of improving schoolwork. Kids will complete their homework and studying faster so they can go do the next level in a new game, or parent could award good grades with a new game purchase like my parents did..

This.

Except for the third paragraph. :P

Another instance where video games are singled out over other "more acceptable" activities that could also be classified as an addition.

Browsing the web, reading books, playing sports, talking on the phone, texting, watching television, MySpace.  Under the same rules, how many teens are "addicted" to one of those activities.

In some cases such as comparing video games to reading books or playing sports, video games are seen as unproductive as they do not encourage physical fitness as sports would nor do they (arguably) enlighten the child as much as reading books.

The rest are not necessarily singled out.  Before video games, watching too much TV was the big menace.  Before that it was spending too much time playing with toys or reading comic books.  It's a generational thing in this sense I believe.

So what if some kids are addicted to video games? It is a little bit better addiction than drugs imo. It does have a downside though as I know a few friends that have failed out of college because of their videogame addiction. But on the other hand if a person has an addictive personality than they can get addicted to other things also.

Hey it's better than being addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. . So is it really a bad thing to be addicted to video games when you compare other, far worse addictions that many people develop? Didn't they say this about music and television?