A MOBILE APPLICATION TO MONITOR ADDICTION ON GAME PLAYING

Modern hand held devices such as smart phones and PDSs have become increasingly powerful in recent years. Dramatic breakthroughs in processing power along with the number of extra features included in these devices have opened the doors to a wide range of commercial possibilities. A lot of free games applications on the platform have driven the kids to spend their time more on the games rather than the studies. As parents, they will be surely worried about the children since the habit may slowly affect the performance on the examinations, school work and social interactions. Researchers say they found in a national Harris Poll survey that 8.5% of youths 8 to 18 who play tablet and computer games show collective signs of addiction that psychologists know exist in pathological gamblers, says Douglas Gentile, PhD, an assistant professor at Iowa State University [1]. Hence, this project will be focusing on the development of an Android application to control the utilization of a game by the kids whereas it will pause the game and alert the kids that they have reached the time limit set by the parents. Besides that, this application also will be very useful for teenagers and students to manage their time between entertainment and studies.