By age 21, the average young person spends 10,000 hours playing video games, roughly the same amount of time they spend for all of middle school and high school, said Dr. Sina Safahieh, a child psychiatrist who oversees an Orange County program specializing in mental health treatment of adolescents.

At a Sept. 11 panel discussion at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo titled “Gaming, Social Media and Mental Wellness,” Safahieh, along with other mental health clinicians, spoke to parents about the consequences of overuse of technology by teens and adolescents.