Children and video games - Essay Example

CHILDREN AND VIDEO GAMES Should children be allowed to play video games? Evidence proves that some video games help children develop in many aspects Parents should be selective while choosing the video games for their children Video games are commonly known as time wasters by parents and educational experts. Many educational experts define video games as tools that corrupt childrens brains. However even with the studies video games also have positive impacts on children, these positive impacts include the development of the brain and increases the communicational levels of children. In the world, almost 80% of the children play video games at least once a month, some of them are addicted spending almost 13 hours of video games per week (8-12 years old). Those of the age 13-18 years spend fourteen hours a week playing video games, an hour more than those of 8-12 years old (metrics 2.0, 2007). In most cases, stopping the children from playing video games is difficult as video games are prominent in most of their lives. Past evidence proves that gaming has more advantages than disadvantages, especially in the development of the brain and improvement in the social life. When a child plays video games, his or her brain is in a real workout, many of the video games require the child to use a lot of skill in order to win through the levels. In this, the kids have the chance to engage the high level of thinking, skills not even in school. Some of these skills include gained when playing video games include, fine motor, hand-eye coordination, and spatial skills, following instructions and problem solving and logic (Cesarone). Children who play violent games have high levels of aggressive thoughts and are more violent, behaviors, and feelings (Anderson & Bushman, 2001). In many violent games, the players get reward in the violent scenes, experts and psychologists such as Henry Jenkins have noted that there is increase in juvenile cases under which the juveniles crimes are related to video games. It is true that children that spend many hours playing video games have a higher rate of committing crimes; an example is the kids from the Columbine massacre. References Cesarone, B. (n.d.). Gracepoint. Retrieved May 28, 2015, from Video Games and Children – Child & Adolescent Development: Overview.: http://www.gracepointwellness.org/28-child-adolescent-development-overview/article/1949-video-games-and-children Tumbokon, C. (n.d.). Raise Smart Kid. Retrieved May 28, 2015, from The Positive and Negative Effects of Video Games: http://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/34-the-good-and-bad-effects-of-video-games Read More