Video Games - An Endless War Between Parents And Children
Divergence of opinions between parents and their children concerning video games has been present from the very first day of their creation. And this problem is increasing not just day by day, but hour by hour. During a recent survey (August 1-6, 2008) at a parental advisory website “What They Play” it was found that a larger group of parents are more worried by their children spending a great deal of time playing Wii games than using alcohol, drugs and watching porno.
An overwhelming majority of the parents are concerned by the amount of violence in these games, which are sure to leave negative consequences on their childrens’ psyche. Moreover, these parents are not simply worried by the ferocity of these video games but other major annoyances are the amount of sexuality and distortion of reality that these “childish games” contain.
In 2005, in California, a law was passed forbidding children under 18 to buy or rent violent video games, which was unfortunately a failure, as game producers managed to put a stop to that, and such video games are still available to everyone. On the other hand, parents and educators do not want to retreat and are doing their best to overthrow these game producers.
Prof. Melanie Killen, of the College of Education at the University of Maryland advises all the anxious parents to be vigilant about limiting the time their kids spend with these games and to screen all their games for the content.
“Parents need to open their eyes and watch the games that their children are playing,” Killen says. “They should examine the content of the games, and what’s involved. Many of the games involve horrific violence; repeated exposure to this content has short-term and long-term negative consequences.”
Many specialists strongly recommend everyone to limit their time spent on video games. For children it is recommended that they don’t exceed 30 minutes per day and for adolescents not more than 1 hour. This alone cab greatly help avoid permanent negative consequences.
However, whatever measures parents undertake, whatever advice specialists give, and whatever steps governmental bodies take, it is important to make our children realize the negative side effects themselves. Once they truly understand how much damage video games can do, they will be more likely to limit their time spent on them.
Photo: © www.sciencenewsforkids.org
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