Gaming

Video games

It is clear that video gaming in its many forms has become a significant part of some young people’s lives. As with so many aspects of the digital revolution in recent years, video games can be both a positive and negative influence on children’s lives. Problematic use of video games can also mask other more fundamental difficulties a child is experiencing. A general awareness of these factors and a balanced approach to gaming is therefore necessary.

Positives

Video games undoubtedly offer many positives for young people. First and foremost they are a fun and easy way for students to relax after a busy day or week, a need that is often overlooked. They can be an exciting and innovative way of learning and have also been shown to improve hand-eye co-ordination. Lots of video gamers find their proficiency accrues them social currency among their peers, helping them make friends, often providing them with a friendship group they might otherwise have struggled to build. Video gaming has, for example, been found to strongly correlate with face to face interaction. Gaming can also encourage the learning of highly desirable transferable skills in the technology field.

Things to be aware of

Excessive video gaming has been correlated with social difficulties, obesity and reduced academic performance. There is ongoing debate among academic psychologists about whether video games are genuinely addictive, but researchers agree that the more negative consequences of playing all involve excessive use. Dr Mark Griffiths, Professor of Gambling Studies at Nottingham Trent University, says, ‘there is little evidence of serious acute adverse effects on health from moderate play. Adverse effects are likely to be relatively minor and temporary, resolving spontaneously with decreased frequency of play, or to affect only a small subgroup of players’.

Commonly, studies of video gaming tend to consider excessive use that which exceeds approximately 4 hours per day or 30 hours per week. In contrast, moderate gamers in such studies often game approximately 2 hours per day. A survey of research suggests a minority of gamers should be considered at risk, meaning they spend an excessive amount of time gaming and may develop some of the more negative consequences of play. Estimates vary from 2-7% of a given sample of adolescents.

Recommendations

How much time a child spends gaming is ultimately a decision that must be taken by parents, but there are some broad guidelines given on the 1:1 website. Expert advice recommends parents show an interest in their child’s games and ideally sit and play with them sometimes. Games for relaxation and fun should be saved as rewards when other important work is completed. Once family rules are agreed with children they must be enforced.

For children who persistently game, don’t respond to transparent rules that are appropriately enforced and whose behaviour results in ever escalating conflict there may be a need for further help from professional counselors or psychologists, as it is often the case that games provide a refuge from other causes for concern, like bullying or social difficulties. In such cases, the root cause of the problem needs to be explored with the child and thus simply limiting gaming addresses the symptoms alone.