Video games for children have ‘good and bad effects’

TDT | Manama                           

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com    

Reported by Zahra Ayaz

Video game addiction in children is becoming a serious problem for parents as they spend hours each day in front of screens, lost in an illusory world.

There is a debate that gaming can become a true addiction, but according to the World Health Organisation, ‘gaming disorder’ can result in significant impairment in personal, family, social, educational or other areas of functioning.

Speaking to The Daily Tribune, child psychologist Deepthi Prasad said: “Two vital things are attention concentration and self-control for youngsters or else it will impair their social life. Aggressive video games should not be played by children, as they cause them to become aggressive, see violence as normal, or, in some cases, even lead to physical harm, and parents should strictly enforce rules.

“Parents should allow their kids one or two hours after study time, and they can install software to monitor what their kids are doing on their laptops because some of the videos include unsuitable content.”

She pointed out the negative effect of children being more obese as a result of spending hours playing video games or sitting in front of computers without getting up and moving around. There’s more to video games than meets the eye.

According to Ms Deepthi, video games can also be used to help children to educate across a spectrum of areas. Problem solving games can help young children develop their cognitive abilities, skills related to social interactions and even offer a different way to learn subjects.

According to experts, children and teens should trust parents enough to ask questions and also collaborate on plans to choose appropriate video games and times for multimedia devices. Parents have to build a relationship with their child in which there is mutual respect.

Parents need to allow kids to learn how to master using the Internet for their future success, but while they are online, they should understand how to be safe and be smart about what they are doing. Everything we do online reflects on us and is a record of our actions and character and that we should have fun online but also learn how to use the Internet in productive ways as we get older.