WHO issues guidelines for video game play

Authored by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition

The World Health Organization — in conjunction with the International Telegraph Union — issued guidelines for video game play. The guidelines are for manufacturers, game developers, educational institutions with course work on game development, governments and regulators.  The new standard recommends that video games have warnings, automatic sound adjustments when switching from a device’s speakers to headphones and the ability to adjust categories of sounds to different levels.

Photo credit: cottonbro studio

Any standard for noise exposure is probably better than no standard at all, at least in terms of raising awareness about the dangers of noise. However, as with parental controls for sound output, middle schoolers and certainly teens can go online and easily learn how to get around any lower sound output setting. Young people don’t only play video games using headphones. They listen to personal listening devices for many hours a day, every day of the week. Published reports already document hearing loss and tinnitus from personal listening device use. WHO estimates that more than one billion young people are at risk of hearing loss from noise exposure.

The best advice I can give is to keep the sound level as low as possible. It doesn’t have to be deafeningly loud to have fun playing the game. If it sounds loud to the player or parent or other responsible adult, it’s too loud and the player’s auditory health is at risk.