The World Health Organization is concerned that young people are playing video games too often for their own good – so it wants to classify "gaming disorder" as a mental illness.
The proposal has been met with surprise in some corners of the medical community.
Dr. Christopher J. Ferguson, professor and co-chair of psychology at Stetson University in Florida, notes that video game addiction has been studied for more than two decades, but there's no consensus on how to define or measure it, or even know if it exists.
He tells NewsRadio 740 KTRH that persistent game-playing may be caused by larger psychological factors.
If the WHO proposal is approved, it would mean a teenager's lack of self-control with video games could be classified as a specific mental illness
The guidelines have been recommended to the American Psychiatric Association – though some critics deride the affair as a First World problem that smacks of the nanny state.