Transcript for 'Gaming disorder' now designated as mental health condition

I letter from the world health organization about video game addiction. Gaming disorder as a mental health condition. ABC's Deborah Roberts is here with more. Reporter: Good morning, Michael. This move has stunned many in and out of the medical community. Some saying it's about time we recognize the intense pull of video games given the science showing there could be some addiction nature to them. Some asking whether disorder is going too far. They're everywhere. On your TV. Your computer. Even on your phone. While video games seem close beginning our new national pastime, this morning the W.H.O. Raising a new flag. For the first time adding gaming disorder to their list of addictive. This dad was addicted to video games at one point spending up to 18 hours a day playing in his basement. After therapy and detox he's now in recovering. I'm a year better, a father, more involved in my marriage. It's been a good year. Reporter: The W.H.O. Says video games can become addiction when gamers can't control how much they play impacting their lives for 12 months or more. Lot of people use games for educational purposes but for a subset of people this becomes compulsive and really addictive. Reporter: An estimated 60% of Americans play video games every day. But only 3% of them are affected by the disorder. Leading some experts to caution the new classification could lead to a misdiagnose. The international games developers say, there are serious and troubling consequences of w.h.o.'s creation of a gaming disorder. Adding, the science and common sense around how video games are played supports the conclusion that video games are not addictive. Now, some medical experts also request "The wiz" domestic of classifying gaming as an addiction. It may on open the floodgates and the weaken. But that father of four begs to differ, he had to work to kick his addiction. In his case, there was really something going on. Good for him that he took care of it. Deborah, stick around. We'll bring in Dave Anderson from the child mind institute. Thank you for joining us. How big of a deal is this? This has been classified as a mental health disorder. If you have children out there how concerned should you be? This is not without some level of controversy. They require 12 months of addictive behavior around games before you can get the diagnose. It represents a campaign by parents worldwide to bring attention to a problem. How do you know there is a problem. There are stringent guidelines for kids under 6. As far as time spent, face to face interactions with kids or sports and exercise. Deborah, there's some technology out there that helps you monitor how much times you're spending. We have teenagers, we know they're glued. Believe it or not, Google is actually announcing it's going to come up with new features to limit your screen time. Apple is going to have a new app called screen time. Suggesting that some people may be spending too much time. If you're on, doc, and you have a problem what is some of your best advice for kicking the addiction? That's the thing. What technology companies are doing, now, the acknowledment of gaming disorder allow parents to seek treatments for this and in terms of what parents can do, a lot of this is setting boundaries from the start. Making sure you've got boundaries around the time you spend as a family. Making sure they still have time for home work and the red flags that are always there, anxiety and depression. In my case, just yanking that phone from time to time. Locking it up, yanking that phone. Making sure they're aware you're watching. It's not always the kid with the problem but the parent with the problem as we saw in that piece. I want to thank you both. Very important message this morning. Back to you, David. Coming up here on "Good

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