Epilepsy and games: A closer look
Anyone who plays video games has probably come across the scary-sounding warnings about epileptic seizures that affect "a very small portion of the population." But it's still a bit shocking to stumble across a headline that urges reader to "Beware! Video game turn kids epileptic."
The sensationalistic headline in the Hindustan Times is a bit misleading -- as the Epilepsy Therapy Development Project (ETDP) explains, "playing video games can, in rare cases, trigger seizures, but there is no scientific evidence that video games can cause epilepsy." Still, the article points out how otherwise normal children who have not yet been diagnosed with epilepsy can have scary, violent, seemingly unexplained fits when exposed to certain games.
Research shows that while 1 in 200 people have some form of epilepsy, only about 1 in 4,000 have the photosensitive type that can be triggered by video games. That might not sound like much, but multiplied over tens of millions of video game players it adds up to thousands of people who are potentially susceptible.
ETDP has some suggestions for preventing the risk of seizure, including playing in a well lit room and playing for shorter periods of time. NIH suggests that TVs running at 100 Hertz won't induce seizures, and that some children simply outgrow the problem as they get older. In short, while video game-induced epilepsy is something to keep an eye out for, it's not something to be overly panicked about.
