87% Indian adults believe online gaming has an adverse affect on health, says a new survey

• About 87% adults in India believe online gaming affect the mental health.
• Of these, 76% believe this could lead to depression and anxiety, while 70% feel online gaming could lead to cyberbullying.
• The survey included 1,500-city based adults.

About 87% adults in Indian cities believe that online gaming takes a toll on their physical and mental well-being, showed a survey on Tuesday.

About 76% of respondents feel that addiction to action games lead to changed behaviour and can increase depression and anxiety levels, according to the "India Digital Wellness Report" by consumer cybersecurity brand NortonLifeLock.

Nearly 70% of respondents feel that children connecting with strangers while playing games online can lead to cyberbullying, harassment, and violence.

The findings are based on an online survey of over 1,500 city-based Indian adults.

"People could be drawn to online gaming for entertainment, but data shows that it is not all about fun and games. The virtual playing field comes with risks such as identity theft, cyber bullying, phishing, and credit card theft, to name a few," Ritesh Chopra, Director, NortonLifeLock, India, said in a statement.

Two of every three respondents said they prefer playing online games to going outdoors or having social interactions.

Almost 73% of the parents in the survey said that their children prefer shooting and adventure games, while 21% said that their children show a preference for casino and card games.

There is a sense of growing concern among parents as 45% of respondents said they find it difficult to control their children's smartphone usage.

Interestingly, 81% of the respondents who put a check mechanism on children's usage of smartphones feel they have not been effective in controlling the gaming time.

The children of 42% of these respondents played games online for more than two hours every day.

However, online gaming seems to have some positive impact, too, on users.

About 81% of respondents feel that multiplayer online games enhance teamwork skills, while 70% of respondents feel that playing online games can make people smarter, as they improve brain coordination and reaction.

The online gaming space, largely perceived to be male dominated, seems to have a lot of female takers, the results showed.

About 88% of female respondents find online games to be the best pastime as compared to 86% of their male counterparts.

The study also showed that when it comes to mobile gaming, children and parents tend to have a shared behaviour -- six in every 10 respondents said that they and their children spend roughly the same amount of time playing games online.