Anadolu University Social Media and Digital Security Education Application and Research Center (SODİGEM) Director Prof. Dr. Levent Eraslan stated that all applications such as Blue Whale, Momo, Mariam fall under the “digital drug” class.
Expressing that they are not in favor of calling them “games” and that this creates an innocent perception, Prof. Dr. Eraslan said that these applications create addiction in people.
Indicating that families must follow and understand their children’s digital worlds, Prof. Dr. Eraslan warned that parents and teachers’ failure to understand the digital world well can cause major problems for children.
Addictive
There are new trendy games that people use between the ages of 16-26. We call these ‘digital war games’. It has become so widespread that people play war games on the bus, at home, everywhere and learn about violence here. Violent-based games teach violence. Because violence can be learned and taught. That’s why, in the game, when someone hits the other person in the head during the war, it creates dopamine and serotonin effects, gives pleasure and happiness, and is addictive. As a center, we call such games ‘digital drugs’. Factors in dopamine and serotonin drugs. The brain secretes it and it is addictive. I think it is important that such wider age groups are involved in the process. Digital dangerous games and their sub-segments directly affect all age groups from pre-school to the end of university.
There are criminal time zones. Criminal elements take place especially in the 00.00-02.00 and 00.00-05.00 time zones. If children are online during these hours, it is most likely and according to the information from the security, we see that they may be related to a criminal process. It can be thought that children who have a sudden decrease in motivation, whose success in school suddenly drops, who go out of their daily life processes and who stay online all the time in their rooms use such digital dangerous applications.
Reduce gradually
First of all, we recommend gradual reduction by agreement, not prohibition. SODİGEM experts agree on this issue. The report has a 12-year age limit. Unfortunately, it is not possible today not to give tablets or smartphones to children under the age of 12. Because there is a group of young people called ‘digital natives’. This group, which was born in 2000, is around all of us, they make a living with their phones in their hands. We are in the position of ‘digital immigrants’ in age. We do not understand this business very well, but they know very well.
