Does “forced abstinence” from gaming lead to pornography use? Insight from the April 2018 crash of Fortnite’s servers
Does “forced abstinence” from gaming lead to pornography use? Insight from the April 2018 crash of Fortnite’s servers
Author(s): Jesús Castro-Calvo, Rafael Ballester-Arnal, Daniel L. King, Marc N. Potenza, Joël BillieuxSubject(s): Psychology, Social psychology and group interaction
Published by: Akadémiai Kiadó
Keywords: gaming; Fortnite; withdrawal; compensation behaviors; pornography
Summary/Abstract: In April 2018, the servers of the popular video game “Fortnite” crashed for 24 hr. During this period, Pornhub (a popular pornographic website) analyzed trends in pornography access, finding that: (a) the percentage of gamers accessing Pornhub increased by 10% and (b) the searches of pornographic videos using the key term “Fortnite” increased by 60%. In this letter, we discuss these observations in the context of ongoing debate regarding the validity of “withdrawal” when applied to problematic involvement in video gaming and the potential use of pornography as a “compensation behavior” during the periods of “forced abstinence” from gaming.
Journal: Journal of Behavioral Addictions
- Issue Year: 7/2018
- Issue No: 3
- Page Range: 501-502
- Page Count: 2
- Language: English
