How Video Games Affect Children?

Over 85 percent of kids play video games. Did you ever wonder how these games affect your children? Some violent games can cause kids to turn violent on their friends and family. In some rare occasions these games can cause seizures to kids who play for excessive amounts of time. Although most games have a negative influence, some games can help kids learn and succeed in school.

There are many games that can influence kids to turn on their family and friends. War games can encourage the use of guns for a child who plays video games often. Other games can encourage the use of drugs, alcohol, and violence. Games such as Grand Theft Auto set a scene as a gang member trying to live his life through drugs and alcohol. This game is one of the most popular games for young children.

As you may hear in the news or see in the paper, kids have suffered seizures from playing video games. The kids who are at risk are the ones who are photosensitive. This is about 130 out of 200 people who have this. This is a lot more common in children than it is in Adults who play video games. The typical ages for this are 9-15 years old. Females are more affected than males that are photosensitive. Although these seizures differ from one person to another the most common one is the tonic-clonic seizure. Normally when you suffer this kind of seizure you clench your teeth and jerk your arms and upper body while your legs stay stiff or don't move. In September of 2007, The Epilepsy Foundation came up with these guidelines while playing video games. Play games in a well lit room, take frequent breaks from the game, and decrease the brightness and contrast of the television screen. Children that play often have a high risk of suffering from a seizure.

Even though video games have more negative effects on children, one positive effect is that some games can help kids learn and do better in school. Games such as Leap Frog focus on grammar and spelling as well as Math and the other main subjects. These games make a fun and interactive game out of learning. Some of these consist of a character walking around and to keep going you need to complete a math problem or correct a sentence. These games can really improve a student's school work and grades. This is one of a few positive effects of video games.

All in all, video games are mostly negative but have a few positive effects. The positive effect is that there are learning games that help children with school work and grades. The two negative effects are that they encourage violence in children which can make them turn on their friends and family. The final negative reason is that they can cause seizures in children who play for a prolong amount of time. Video games are worse for kids who don't play the educational games.

Sources

1 http://rolemodels.jou.ufl.edu/rolemodels/entertainment/videogames.shtm

2 http://www.pamf.org/preteen/parents/videogames.html

3 http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_effect.shtml