The "General Games Chat" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
"Are computer and video games harmful to children?" What a question, in short, no I do not believe that they are in the slightest bit 'harmful' to children and I invite anyone who thinks different to challenge my views on this one- sum up the reasons to why you disagree in the comments section. How can computer games possibly be ‘harmful’ to children? I do not see any logic in this whatsoever.
Ok, children are very impressionable. This has been proved so I am not going to argue with it. Children tend to take after someone near to them such as parents or an elder sibling and copy what they do and say. I know that video games have a big impression on children -I was one once- but I cannot bring myself to believe that games can have a harmful effect on children.
First of all video games are now a big part in nearly every child's life and some say this is a bad thing. Surely something as entertaining as a video game is not a bad thing. I mean what were kids doing before video gaming became an accepted part of society? Some people seem to have a rather rosy picture of little kids reading books on their mother’s laps before the dirty invasion of video games. This is simply not true. Before the onset of video gaming, TV was the entertainment media that was criticized for having a negative affect on children.
I feel that in today’s modern culture it is quite harmful to a child if he/she does not possess a PC or console. This is because they will be left out of the many conversations that revolve around video games. Also the children will be missing out sorely on a great way to spend their leisure time. Also, I wonder if these people who talk about the horrors of video gaming have ever really sat down and watched a child play a video game and seen first hand the pleasure that is readily available from these games.
I myself was raised in the computer game era from an early age, my first computer being a Spectrum. As a child I took part in horrendous activities such as murder, joy riding, GBH and various other unwholesome activities- No don't call the police- I did these things in video games. Games such as the Resi-evil series, Driver and GTA are the genre of games that has ultimately sparked this debate over the harm that video games can cause to children. Now these games are by their very natural, criminal and some people seem to think that by doing things as a fictional character in a video game, children will imitate this in real life. Right so kids do exactly the same things as they do in video games, here are a few possible examples:
James walks out of his house after playing Quake 3 with a rocket launcher in search of deformed aliens so that he can blast them into multiple lumps of gore.
Bill sees a square metal shaped object and remembers from his video game experience (playing on Driver 2) that he must steal the car and kidnap someone before handing him over to a very scary man.
Charlie attempts to become a secret agent by infiltrating the local Comet store and snapping the guards neck’s in two before putting on his stealth suit and sneaking past the surveillance camera’s. (No introduction necessary for this one!)
Now please tell me that you do not believe that this sort of thing happens.
Also if video games like this have a harmful affect on children then what about some more benign kids games such as Frogger and Pokemon. A few more possible scenarios needed I think:
Lucy wonders out into the street and spots a frog. She then decides to pretend to be a frog whilst crossing the M1 motorway.
Jack is on a nature hike when he encounters a badger and picks up some rocks (poke balls I think?) and throws them at the now enraged badger.
So if these examples are taken literally I have a point to make. In Driver 2 when you are caught by the police you are arrested teaching kids the pitfalls of crime. The brilliant MGS also shows children that if you become a secret agent when you are shot you die, horribly. Surely Frogger shows children that if they get run over by a lorry they will miraculously end up on the side of the road totally unhurt with two more lives. Now which game is more harmful to children? Following on from this logic, the people who believe that video games are harmful to children must want an outright ban on all video games! Strange or what.
Surely the only way that video games can be harmful to children is in a totally different way to the psychological, brainwashing theme. The games could be harmful to a child’s education if too much time is spent gaming instead of learning at home but this problem can be cured by the parents, not the games manufacturers. There are pitfalls of gaming that can affect children but not in a harmful way. Most good games are addictive and this could cause problems for the parents in attempts to drag their children away from the console/PC. Games can also cause frustration especially in children when the game is too hard for them. Now this could result in a harmful effect to the child but it is not directly caused by the video game itself. If a child cannot deal with the simple frustration of a computer game without becoming abusive or violent then how on earth are they going to deal with real life events that come up like getting told off by a teacher or not being able to do a maths problem that everyone else can do. If it is looked at in this way then computer games can teach a very important lesson to children about how to deal with this frustration calmly by walking away.
As well as the pitfalls, video games can be helpful to a child e.g. A puzzle game could teach children problem solving skills that can be used in schools. Also a very important plus of video gaming is the usual release from stress that a good blast on an entertaining game can bring. If a child has not played on games all their life then by the time they are doing their GCSEs they will have to find other ways of stress relief, none of which could be as effective as taking your anger out on a fictional human on Tekken or another such game. Another benefit of gaming that tends to be overlooked is the ability of games to curb boredom in a child. 9 out of 10 crimes committed in the real world by children are the result of boredom and these crimes are the scourge of many neighbourhoods. Video games could be a possible cure for this as if a child knows that they have access to a multitude of entertaining games maybe they will not start hanging around on street corners out of boredom.
If a child is harmfully affected by video games then it must be blamed on a mixture of causes and not just video games. The games industry only exists for one reason-we love playing games. Games are made to be as entertaining and engrossing as possible so that they can be used as a form of escapism. Escapism, remember that. Video games are played in a different world to our real one. Every time someone turns on a console/PC then they are transported to another world where they can do things that are just not possible in real life like saving the world, winning the F1 world championship or being a God and these experiences are great. However when the console is turned off this world vanishes as you return to reality and become a normal person again. Video games are not and therefore should not be connected to the real world in any way.
They are games.
Ok, children are very impressionable. This has been proved so I am not going to argue with it. Children tend to take after someone near to them such as parents or an elder sibling and copy what they do and say. I know that video games have a big impression on children -I was one once- but I cannot bring myself to believe that games can have a harmful effect on children.
First of all video games are now a big part in nearly every child's life and some say this is a bad thing. Surely something as entertaining as a video game is not a bad thing. I mean what were kids doing before video gaming became an accepted part of society? Some people seem to have a rather rosy picture of little kids reading books on their mother’s laps before the dirty invasion of video games. This is simply not true. Before the onset of video gaming, TV was the entertainment media that was criticized for having a negative affect on children.
I feel that in today’s modern culture it is quite harmful to a child if he/she does not possess a PC or console. This is because they will be left out of the many conversations that revolve around video games. Also the children will be missing out sorely on a great way to spend their leisure time. Also, I wonder if these people who talk about the horrors of video gaming have ever really sat down and watched a child play a video game and seen first hand the pleasure that is readily available from these games.
I myself was raised in the computer game era from an early age, my first computer being a Spectrum. As a child I took part in horrendous activities such as murder, joy riding, GBH and various other unwholesome activities- No don't call the police- I did these things in video games. Games such as the Resi-evil series, Driver and GTA are the genre of games that has ultimately sparked this debate over the harm that video games can cause to children. Now these games are by their very natural, criminal and some people seem to think that by doing things as a fictional character in a video game, children will imitate this in real life. Right so kids do exactly the same things as they do in video games, here are a few possible examples:
James walks out of his house after playing Quake 3 with a rocket launcher in search of deformed aliens so that he can blast them into multiple lumps of gore.
Bill sees a square metal shaped object and remembers from his video game experience (playing on Driver 2) that he must steal the car and kidnap someone before handing him over to a very scary man.
Charlie attempts to become a secret agent by infiltrating the local Comet store and snapping the guards neck’s in two before putting on his stealth suit and sneaking past the surveillance camera’s. (No introduction necessary for this one!)
Now please tell me that you do not believe that this sort of thing happens.
Also if video games like this have a harmful affect on children then what about some more benign kids games such as Frogger and Pokemon. A few more possible scenarios needed I think:
Lucy wonders out into the street and spots a frog. She then decides to pretend to be a frog whilst crossing the M1 motorway.
Jack is on a nature hike when he encounters a badger and picks up some rocks (poke balls I think?) and throws them at the now enraged badger.
So if these examples are taken literally I have a point to make. In Driver 2 when you are caught by the police you are arrested teaching kids the pitfalls of crime. The brilliant MGS also shows children that if you become a secret agent when you are shot you die, horribly. Surely Frogger shows children that if they get run over by a lorry they will miraculously end up on the side of the road totally unhurt with two more lives. Now which game is more harmful to children? Following on from this logic, the people who believe that video games are harmful to children must want an outright ban on all video games! Strange or what.
Surely the only way that video games can be harmful to children is in a totally different way to the psychological, brainwashing theme. The games could be harmful to a child’s education if too much time is spent gaming instead of learning at home but this problem can be cured by the parents, not the games manufacturers. There are pitfalls of gaming that can affect children but not in a harmful way. Most good games are addictive and this could cause problems for the parents in attempts to drag their children away from the console/PC. Games can also cause frustration especially in children when the game is too hard for them. Now this could result in a harmful effect to the child but it is not directly caused by the video game itself. If a child cannot deal with the simple frustration of a computer game without becoming abusive or violent then how on earth are they going to deal with real life events that come up like getting told off by a teacher or not being able to do a maths problem that everyone else can do. If it is looked at in this way then computer games can teach a very important lesson to children about how to deal with this frustration calmly by walking away.
As well as the pitfalls, video games can be helpful to a child e.g. A puzzle game could teach children problem solving skills that can be used in schools. Also a very important plus of video gaming is the usual release from stress that a good blast on an entertaining game can bring. If a child has not played on games all their life then by the time they are doing their GCSEs they will have to find other ways of stress relief, none of which could be as effective as taking your anger out on a fictional human on Tekken or another such game. Another benefit of gaming that tends to be overlooked is the ability of games to curb boredom in a child. 9 out of 10 crimes committed in the real world by children are the result of boredom and these crimes are the scourge of many neighbourhoods. Video games could be a possible cure for this as if a child knows that they have access to a multitude of entertaining games maybe they will not start hanging around on street corners out of boredom.
If a child is harmfully affected by video games then it must be blamed on a mixture of causes and not just video games. The games industry only exists for one reason-we love playing games. Games are made to be as entertaining and engrossing as possible so that they can be used as a form of escapism. Escapism, remember that. Video games are played in a different world to our real one. Every time someone turns on a console/PC then they are transported to another world where they can do things that are just not possible in real life like saving the world, winning the F1 world championship or being a God and these experiences are great. However when the console is turned off this world vanishes as you return to reality and become a normal person again. Video games are not and therefore should not be connected to the real world in any way.
They are games.
There have been no replies to this thread yet.
"Are computer and video games harmful to children?" What a question, in short, no I do not believe that they are in the slightest bit 'harmful' to children and I invite anyone who thinks different to challenge my views on this one- sum up the reasons to why you disagree in the comments section. How can computer games possibly be ‘harmful’ to children? I do not see any logic in this whatsoever.
Ok, children are very impressionable. This has been proved so I am not going to argue with it. Children tend to take after someone near to them such as parents or an elder sibling and copy what they do and say. I know that video games have a big impression on children -I was one once- but I cannot bring myself to believe that games can have a harmful effect on children.
First of all video games are now a big part in nearly every child's life and some say this is a bad thing. Surely something as entertaining as a video game is not a bad thing. I mean what were kids doing before video gaming became an accepted part of society? Some people seem to have a rather rosy picture of little kids reading books on their mother’s laps before the dirty invasion of video games. This is simply not true. Before the onset of video gaming, TV was the entertainment media that was criticized for having a negative affect on children.
I feel that in today’s modern culture it is quite harmful to a child if he/she does not possess a PC or console. This is because they will be left out of the many conversations that revolve around video games. Also the children will be missing out sorely on a great way to spend their leisure time. Also, I wonder if these people who talk about the horrors of video gaming have ever really sat down and watched a child play a video game and seen first hand the pleasure that is readily available from these games.
I myself was raised in the computer game era from an early age, my first computer being a Spectrum. As a child I took part in horrendous activities such as murder, joy riding, GBH and various other unwholesome activities- No don't call the police- I did these things in video games. Games such as the Resi-evil series, Driver and GTA are the genre of games that has ultimately sparked this debate over the harm that video games can cause to children. Now these games are by their very natural, criminal and some people seem to think that by doing things as a fictional character in a video game, children will imitate this in real life. Right so kids do exactly the same things as they do in video games, here are a few possible examples:
James walks out of his house after playing Quake 3 with a rocket launcher in search of deformed aliens so that he can blast them into multiple lumps of gore.
Bill sees a square metal shaped object and remembers from his video game experience (playing on Driver 2) that he must steal the car and kidnap someone before handing him over to a very scary man.
Charlie attempts to become a secret agent by infiltrating the local Comet store and snapping the guards neck’s in two before putting on his stealth suit and sneaking past the surveillance camera’s. (No introduction necessary for this one!)
Now please tell me that you do not believe that this sort of thing happens.
Also if video games like this have a harmful affect on children then what about some more benign kids games such as Frogger and Pokemon. A few more possible scenarios needed I think:
Lucy wonders out into the street and spots a frog. She then decides to pretend to be a frog whilst crossing the M1 motorway.
Jack is on a nature hike when he encounters a badger and picks up some rocks (poke balls I think?) and throws them at the now enraged badger.
So if these examples are taken literally I have a point to make. In Driver 2 when you are caught by the police you are arrested teaching kids the pitfalls of crime. The brilliant MGS also shows children that if you become a secret agent when you are shot you die, horribly. Surely Frogger shows children that if they get run over by a lorry they will miraculously end up on the side of the road totally unhurt with two more lives. Now which game is more harmful to children? Following on from this logic, the people who believe that video games are harmful to children must want an outright ban on all video games! Strange or what.
Surely the only way that video games can be harmful to children is in a totally different way to the psychological, brainwashing theme. The games could be harmful to a child’s education if too much time is spent gaming instead of learning at home but this problem can be cured by the parents, not the games manufacturers. There are pitfalls of gaming that can affect children but not in a harmful way. Most good games are addictive and this could cause problems for the parents in attempts to drag their children away from the console/PC. Games can also cause frustration especially in children when the game is too hard for them. Now this could result in a harmful effect to the child but it is not directly caused by the video game itself. If a child cannot deal with the simple frustration of a computer game without becoming abusive or violent then how on earth are they going to deal with real life events that come up like getting told off by a teacher or not being able to do a maths problem that everyone else can do. If it is looked at in this way then computer games can teach a very important lesson to children about how to deal with this frustration calmly by walking away.
As well as the pitfalls, video games can be helpful to a child e.g. A puzzle game could teach children problem solving skills that can be used in schools. Also a very important plus of video gaming is the usual release from stress that a good blast on an entertaining game can bring. If a child has not played on games all their life then by the time they are doing their GCSEs they will have to find other ways of stress relief, none of which could be as effective as taking your anger out on a fictional human on Tekken or another such game. Another benefit of gaming that tends to be overlooked is the ability of games to curb boredom in a child. 9 out of 10 crimes committed in the real world by children are the result of boredom and these crimes are the scourge of many neighbourhoods. Video games could be a possible cure for this as if a child knows that they have access to a multitude of entertaining games maybe they will not start hanging around on street corners out of boredom.
If a child is harmfully affected by video games then it must be blamed on a mixture of causes and not just video games. The games industry only exists for one reason-we love playing games. Games are made to be as entertaining and engrossing as possible so that they can be used as a form of escapism. Escapism, remember that. Video games are played in a different world to our real one. Every time someone turns on a console/PC then they are transported to another world where they can do things that are just not possible in real life like saving the world, winning the F1 world championship or being a God and these experiences are great. However when the console is turned off this world vanishes as you return to reality and become a normal person again. Video games are not and therefore should not be connected to the real world in any way.
They are games.
Ok, children are very impressionable. This has been proved so I am not going to argue with it. Children tend to take after someone near to them such as parents or an elder sibling and copy what they do and say. I know that video games have a big impression on children -I was one once- but I cannot bring myself to believe that games can have a harmful effect on children.
First of all video games are now a big part in nearly every child's life and some say this is a bad thing. Surely something as entertaining as a video game is not a bad thing. I mean what were kids doing before video gaming became an accepted part of society? Some people seem to have a rather rosy picture of little kids reading books on their mother’s laps before the dirty invasion of video games. This is simply not true. Before the onset of video gaming, TV was the entertainment media that was criticized for having a negative affect on children.
I feel that in today’s modern culture it is quite harmful to a child if he/she does not possess a PC or console. This is because they will be left out of the many conversations that revolve around video games. Also the children will be missing out sorely on a great way to spend their leisure time. Also, I wonder if these people who talk about the horrors of video gaming have ever really sat down and watched a child play a video game and seen first hand the pleasure that is readily available from these games.
I myself was raised in the computer game era from an early age, my first computer being a Spectrum. As a child I took part in horrendous activities such as murder, joy riding, GBH and various other unwholesome activities- No don't call the police- I did these things in video games. Games such as the Resi-evil series, Driver and GTA are the genre of games that has ultimately sparked this debate over the harm that video games can cause to children. Now these games are by their very natural, criminal and some people seem to think that by doing things as a fictional character in a video game, children will imitate this in real life. Right so kids do exactly the same things as they do in video games, here are a few possible examples:
James walks out of his house after playing Quake 3 with a rocket launcher in search of deformed aliens so that he can blast them into multiple lumps of gore.
Bill sees a square metal shaped object and remembers from his video game experience (playing on Driver 2) that he must steal the car and kidnap someone before handing him over to a very scary man.
Charlie attempts to become a secret agent by infiltrating the local Comet store and snapping the guards neck’s in two before putting on his stealth suit and sneaking past the surveillance camera’s. (No introduction necessary for this one!)
Now please tell me that you do not believe that this sort of thing happens.
Also if video games like this have a harmful affect on children then what about some more benign kids games such as Frogger and Pokemon. A few more possible scenarios needed I think:
Lucy wonders out into the street and spots a frog. She then decides to pretend to be a frog whilst crossing the M1 motorway.
Jack is on a nature hike when he encounters a badger and picks up some rocks (poke balls I think?) and throws them at the now enraged badger.
So if these examples are taken literally I have a point to make. In Driver 2 when you are caught by the police you are arrested teaching kids the pitfalls of crime. The brilliant MGS also shows children that if you become a secret agent when you are shot you die, horribly. Surely Frogger shows children that if they get run over by a lorry they will miraculously end up on the side of the road totally unhurt with two more lives. Now which game is more harmful to children? Following on from this logic, the people who believe that video games are harmful to children must want an outright ban on all video games! Strange or what.
Surely the only way that video games can be harmful to children is in a totally different way to the psychological, brainwashing theme. The games could be harmful to a child’s education if too much time is spent gaming instead of learning at home but this problem can be cured by the parents, not the games manufacturers. There are pitfalls of gaming that can affect children but not in a harmful way. Most good games are addictive and this could cause problems for the parents in attempts to drag their children away from the console/PC. Games can also cause frustration especially in children when the game is too hard for them. Now this could result in a harmful effect to the child but it is not directly caused by the video game itself. If a child cannot deal with the simple frustration of a computer game without becoming abusive or violent then how on earth are they going to deal with real life events that come up like getting told off by a teacher or not being able to do a maths problem that everyone else can do. If it is looked at in this way then computer games can teach a very important lesson to children about how to deal with this frustration calmly by walking away.
As well as the pitfalls, video games can be helpful to a child e.g. A puzzle game could teach children problem solving skills that can be used in schools. Also a very important plus of video gaming is the usual release from stress that a good blast on an entertaining game can bring. If a child has not played on games all their life then by the time they are doing their GCSEs they will have to find other ways of stress relief, none of which could be as effective as taking your anger out on a fictional human on Tekken or another such game. Another benefit of gaming that tends to be overlooked is the ability of games to curb boredom in a child. 9 out of 10 crimes committed in the real world by children are the result of boredom and these crimes are the scourge of many neighbourhoods. Video games could be a possible cure for this as if a child knows that they have access to a multitude of entertaining games maybe they will not start hanging around on street corners out of boredom.
If a child is harmfully affected by video games then it must be blamed on a mixture of causes and not just video games. The games industry only exists for one reason-we love playing games. Games are made to be as entertaining and engrossing as possible so that they can be used as a form of escapism. Escapism, remember that. Video games are played in a different world to our real one. Every time someone turns on a console/PC then they are transported to another world where they can do things that are just not possible in real life like saving the world, winning the F1 world championship or being a God and these experiences are great. However when the console is turned off this world vanishes as you return to reality and become a normal person again. Video games are not and therefore should not be connected to the real world in any way.
They are games.