A workshop that focused on safeguarding the mental health of children and youth from the harms and risks of online gambling and video gaming was held in Paris. Leading experts and practitioners from over 28 countries across Europe and beyond attended with the aim to identify and classify evaluated and promising interventions to prevent and reduce mental health risks linked to online gaming and gambling among young people.

Over three days, participants defined the methodology of interventions for online gambling and video gaming, and the matrix of classification for existing prevention, harm-reduction, and treatment programmes. Together, they developed a comprehensive set of criteria to highlight the promising practices. This will support the countries involved in their reform efforts to address Internet-use related addictive behaviours.

“The goal of this workshop was to evaluate the different potential interventions to mitigate online gambling and online video gaming among adolescents and young adults. During this two-and-a-half-day meeting, we had the opportunity to go through the methodology of preparing these recommendations with a brilliant group of experts from over 20 countries around the world, and to discuss in detail how to reach conclusions that could be used by policymakers in deciding how to implement and support interventions to address these issues,” said Zsolt Demetrovics, the leading expert of this research and  Director of the Flinders Institute for Mental Health and Wellbeing of the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work at Flinders University.

This workshop marks a key milestone in the ongoing efforts to review and share international good practices on addressing potential risks of youth online gambling and video gaming, and promote exchanges among state authorities, academia and civil society. The outcome will be the creation of a common toolbox of promising interventions providing beneficiary authorities in the nine participating EU Member States the resources they need to take action. These tools will help ensure that children and youth are better protected from the risks and harms associated with online gambling and video gaming in digital world.  

Mateja Markl from the Public Health Directorate of the Ministry of Health of Slovenia shared her reflection on the workshop’s impact: “It was great to meet all the experts in this group and to witness their creativity during the discussions. Hearing opinions from professionals across different occupational fields: clinicians, researchers, representatives from ministries, public health professionals, and from various parts of the world was incredibly valuable. It wasn’t just about sharing opinions and expertise, we also exchanged concrete information about actual practices and experiences with some of these measures, which made the process highly productive. I hope that the analysis resulting from this research will be useful - not only for the beneficiary member states but also internationally, for EU countries and beyond. I am truly grateful for this opportunity.”

The project “Promoting the mental health of children and youth by addressing the risks of online gambling and gaming” is co-funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument and implemented by the Council of Europe in cooperation with the European Commission.