Video Games for kids: Good or bad?

December 31, 2008

My daughter got some sort of V-tech handheld Dora the Explorer video game from my parents for Christmas. That evening she wouldn’t put it down, to the point where she played down the sidewalk and stairs to the truck, all the way home to Papa’s house and inside. She was totally sucked in. Claire visited her cousins who just got a Wii for Christmas; the kids sat there playing (in part) while we were there. Their mother is also a school teacher, and we got a little into the discussion of video games and their affects on kids. She said one her colleague’s tween plays Call of Duty online through his Xbox with adults who use profanity. She thought this wasn’t acceptable, but agreed that certain games are ok.

My wife and I disagree on the affect of video games and what we want in OUR house. My back ground with video games includes playing Texas Instruments & Commodore 64 with my cousin’s (these were mostly role playing games), Nintendo (old skool) with the neighbor kids and Jaime, and then playing Heroes of Might and Magic on the PC with my wife when we were dating. Donna was not permitted to have video games in her house, although she played some games on her dad’s Amiga (look it up, dinosaurs used them!)

I’ve been known to stay awake all night long playing Heroes or Nintendo, so to have my own console in the house for my family scares me a little bit. I barely have time for television, so how can I play video games? In November I met Marc Prensky whose son is Claire’s age. This kid has a Nintendo DS. I mentioned getting Claire one, and Donna said “Hell No!”.

When working on my doctorate, I did study how video games are used to better develop certain higher level thinking skills & eye hand coordination. I agree with the benefits of video games within reason. Even Bill Gates limits his children’s time online each day. The two things I think are important are 1) limiting time the kid (or adult) uses the system & 2) educate yourself on the types of games you allow you kid to play (or see you pay) inside your house and at friends’ houses.

Brian, my cousin with the Wii, and I agree with the important of using video games to educate our kids, but we also know that we need to be smart about it. Think about all the ways games are already used to educate, and maybe you will realize too that this just an extension of what you already permit your kids to do.

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