CHAPTER-III EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAMES ON CHILDREN
Video games were first introduced in the 1970s and have now become an invariable source of fun and entertainment for children. This virtual world has become a place of fantasy, where they are rewarded for every game they win. Nowadays, they can be seen in almost all homes, with kids having their own individual video game consoles and play station. There are basically five varieties including sports, general entertainment, fantasy violence, educational games and human violence. Extensive research has been conducted since the time of its inception to study the effects of these games on kids. The results of these studies have shown that there are both goods as well as bad consequences on children, depending on type of game they play and their level of exposure. Let us look at the possible advantages and disadvantages of gaming on children.
COMPUTERS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT TOOLS OF MODERN SOCIETY: Why would we want to limit a kid’s computer time? The computer is without question, the single most important tool of modern society. Our limiting kid’s computer time would be like hunter-gatherer adults limiting their kid’s bow-and-arrow time. Children come into the world designed to look around and figure out what they are much better at that than adults. That’s they learn language so quickly and learn about the real world around them so much faster than adults do. That’s why kids of immigrant families pay more attention to the language spoken by their new peers, in the new culture, than to the old language spoken by kids learn how to use it more quickly than their parents do. They know, instinctively, what they must learn in order to succeed.
CAUSES AND IMPACT OF VIDEO GAME ADDICTON: Some children get into bad habits with their homework because they become preoccupied with TV programs or video games. Some middle school children become side tracked by their social life or by sports. Other children who find school work difficult would simply rather play. If parents help these children cut back other activity to reasonable amounts and count on the teacher to grade the child’s on schoolwork and homework, most of these children will improve. Motivation for good grades eventually comes from a desire to please the teacher and be admired by peers, enjoyment in knowing things, ability to see studying as a pathway to a future career, knowledge that she needs a 3-point grade average to get into college and her own self-approach when she falls short of her goals.
Computer and video games had been the subject of frequent controversy and censorship, due to the depiction of graphic violence, averaging (a form of advertising in games) consumption of illegal drugs, consumption of alcohol or tobacco, propaganda or profanity in some games. Among others, critics of video games sometimes include parent’s groups, politicians, organized religion groups and other special interest groups, even though all of these can be found in all forms of entertainment and media. Various games have been accused of causing addiction to such and even violent behaviour. Moreover, it appears to be question of age. Since these arts form have been around longer, backlash against them occurred farther in the past, beyond the remembrance of today’s youth. We have lots of violence in multiple media, including TV, movie, video games and music and that the violence does affect kids. There’s a tendency to discount that as significant. For example there’s some evidence that some of these video games actually teach kids weapon- related skills.
The playing violent video games may be more harmful for kids than watching violence on TV. The AAP said, because video games involve kids in practicing repeated acts of violence and often reward them for it, the games make the violence more realistic and intensify the kids learning of violent behaviour. Moreover middle school students who spend their after- school hours watching cable TV programs and playing video games could see their school performance suffer. The gamers were divided into four groups, each asked to play different games. They answered questionnaires both before and after playing the games. The researchers used the questionnaires to look at the underlying motives and satisfactions that can spark player’s interest and sustain them during play. The games can provide opportunities for achievement, freedom and even a connection to other players. Those benefits trumped a shallow sense of fun, which does not keep gamers as interested. Player reported feeling the best when the gamers produced positive experiences and challenges that connected to what they knew in the real world. “It’s our contention that the psychological pull of games is largely due to their capacity to engender feelings of autonomy, competence and relatedness”. Those video games not only motivated further play but “also can be experienced as enhancing psychological wellness, at least short-term”. Video games do have ratings to indicate when they have violence, strong language, mature sexual themes and other content that may be inappropriate for your child. The ratings, established for the entertainment software review board, range from E(meaning early childhood)- which indicates that the game is appropriate for kids ages 3 and older- to AO (for adults only)- which indicates that violent content makes it appropriate only for adults. Monitor how the games are affecting your child. If your child seem more aggressive spending time playing a certain game, it’s a good idea to discuss the game and you’re your child understand how the violence that’s portrayed is different from what occurs in the world. By doing that you can help your child identify less with the aggressive characters and reduce the negative effects that the violent video games can have, according to the AAP (The American Academy Of Paediatrics). AAP recommends that kids older than 2 years spend no more than 2 hours watching TV or movies or playing video games daily. The authors further suggest limiting media use to no more than 1 hour on school nights and restricting access to adult to adult media- including cable movie channels and R-rated movies and videos- too support better school performance. One of the easiest ways to get the family moving is to encourage playing outside during the days. “Limiting the amount of TV children watch, video games they play or the amount of computer time they have is really an important part of 0of the parents’ responsibility to get their kids moving”.
An increased rate of violence and aggression among children and teenage, is one of the most important problems faced by today’s parents. But we hardly spare a thought to the fact that entertainment media like television, video movies, can be an important factor contributing to the growing trend of violent behaviour among children and teenagers. Video games are perhaps the most significant source of entertainment for young children that were first introduced in the year 1970. From then it has pervaded the world of child entertainment and become a subject of many studies and researches for its presumed role in influencing child behaviour and psychology. VIOLENCE AND AGGRESSION: Violence and aggression depicted in video games, if practiced in the real world, can cause serious injuries and even death. It is believed that excessive video game playing may reduce a child’s empathy or his/her willingness and desire to help other. Besides, excessive playing of video games can have an adverse impact on the academic performance of a child. It can also result in social isolation, as children trend to spend less time playing and interacting with family members and friends. Another important harmful effect of video games is that it can affect a child’s perceptions about gender roles, as women often portrayed as the victim or the weaker person, in many of these games. Spending an increasing amount of time on video games can significantly reduce physical activity in children and teenagers, thereby increasing the risk of obesity among them. Besides obesity, other health related issues associated with playing video games include video-induced seizures, muscular and skeletal disorders and nerve compression. However, it has to be taken into consideration that video games can have certain beneficial effects on children. If used properly, these games can improve hand-eye coordination, problem solving and logic, multitasking, quick thinking and decision-making, attention to detail and teamwork and cooperation, if played with other. So parents have an important role to play to ensure that the negative or harmful effects of video games do not outweigh the positive ones. For this they can limit the amount of time for playing and also take into account the rating of video games while purchasing them. In addition, they can also participate in the games and discuss the harmful effects of violence and aggression, their inappropriateness or in effectiveness in solving problems in the real world. Besides this, children and teenagers should be encouraged to participate in other games and activities so that they don’t get addicted to video games. The question of whether video games cause aggressive in children is something that’s been up for debate since video games were created. Of course, violent video games are a fairly recent addiction to the entertainment world in the larger scope of things, so as far as lines go, information is pretty limited. However, the immediate impact off violent video games on the behaviour of children is quite easy to see.
What is the appropriate amount of time children should be allowed to spend playing video games? Although this is a highly personal decision based entirely on your family’s individual needs, most experts agree that setting limits on screen time allowance, such as one hour per day, and add or subtract time as a reward or punishment for good or bad behaviour. Note that the American academy of paediatrics recommends limiting a child’s use of TV, movies, video games computer games to no more than one or two hours a day. The national institute on the media & family further suggests offering no more than an hour of video games time daily. Whichever advice you choose to follow, beginning at a fixed base level, such as an hour per day, can make a good starting point giving you some wiggle room to add or subtract time based on children’s behaviour. While it seems obvious to many parents that different content is appropriate for different ages when they think about movies or music, many parents struggle with figuring when and how to introduce their kids to video games. There are not only a vast number of different video games titles available to choose from targeted at multiple age groups, but also many different ways to play that appeal to kids of different ages. HEALTH AND OBESITY- if you are concerned that your kids are becoming “couch potatoes” you aren’t alone. Parents everywhere are witnessing their kids becoming slothful or seeming not to get enough exercise. Video games are a part of the equation, as are the foods they eat and other issues that can range from social concerns, the availability of active alternatives and even deeper-seated emotional troubles. When it comes to games, key is to balance game play with other activities, including but not limited to outdoor play, reading, team sports, group events and community service. Luckily, an increasing number of today’s games require players to move around in order to control the game play. As a general rule though, many parents require kids to experience two hours of outside time for every one hour of video game time. We encourage you to experiment and adjust as needed and of course also set aside time that the entire family can spend together. ADDICTION-for some kids, there is a real danger of becoming too involved in playing games or even in living too much of their lives in the virtual world of the internet. In rare cases, true symptoms of addiction can develop and such kids can require direct help from their parents, peers and professionals as to regain control of a healthy, balanced life. While a change of environment and routine can sometimes be enough to break kids out of an addictive mind set, the reality is that it’s hard to prohibit kids from using technology on a regular basis, since it’s such an integral part of daily life. Many experts encourage parents to become more engaged in the addictive activity in an effort to better understand the problem and prospective solutions. They also encourage families to actively seek out professional help should children exhibit warning signs of addiction. Several of these warning signs (drawn from the search institute, an independent non-profit organization dedicated to creating healthy communities and other sources) include:
Playing for increasing amounts of time.
Lying to family and friends about video game usage.
Thinking about gaming during other activities.
Using video games to escape from real-life problems or bad feelings as well as anxiety or depression.
Becoming restless or irritable when attempting to stop playing video games.
Skipping homework in order to play video games.
Doing poorly on a school assignment or because of time spent playing video games.
SAFETY CONCERNS- The internet has opened worlds of opportunity to gain information make new friends and playing in virtual worlds with people from all over the world and different cultural backgrounds. They are many positive things to say about it, but there are also real danger to be aware of including identity theft, cyber-bullying and exposure to information and influences that are far different from those your family values. In fact, according to the 2011 Norton online family report, children worldwide spend more than 1.6 hours per day online and almost two-thirds of them report having had some sort of negative experience. The same survey notes that only 45% of parents realize this, underscoring the need for more parental involvement and education as a starting point, followed by effective communication with kids so that they, too, can comprehend the dangers and how to avoid them. VIOLENCE, AGGRESSION AND MISBEHAVIOUR- while video games are rarely the primary cause of violent or antisocial behaviour, they can frequently be seen as a part of the problem, especially when conflict occurs over gaming habits. There is also some evidence that kids can become more aggressive or even violent in the short-term after playing certain types of games. Note that such rises in aggression are similar to how they might behave after playing a highly active and physical sport, such as football, or how they might act after a seeing a particularly brutal movie. In general, many experts have found that video games in and of themselves do not cause kids to be any more violent than other forms of entertainment. Additionally many times kids that are predisposed to misbehaviour may inherently be drawn to certain types of darker or more violent entertainment. However, it is important for parents to identify video game and entertainment choices that won’t contribute to or exacerbate behaviour problems, and monitor the way in which children consume these titles. Doing so can help minimize both conflict within the home and negative impulses, as well as associated outbursts. It’s important to remember, however, that video and computer games aren’t all bad. Quality games give children the opportunity to practice problem solving and logic skills. They increase fine motor and coordination skills and foster an interest in information technology. And, if you’re playing the games with your child something I highly recommend they provide an occasion for you to do something together. Your best is to limit video game playing now while your child is still young. In addition, be a smart consumer and choose video games for your child that are age appropriate and that aren’t sending the wrong message.
Video games that have educational content are proved to have a positive effect on children. Such games make learning fun and entertaining. Even educational institutions encourage these games where children learn problem solving skills while playing. Research has found that all games, including those that have violence need the children to think about ways and methods to reach their goals. This teaches them the ability to plan and handle complex situations. These games are interactive games where the children as to practice more and more in order to be the best. They go back to them again and again because it gives them a sense of achievement. Moreover, playing games helps in the development of their perceptual, cognitive and motor skills and ability. CONS: Although these games have certain advantages, studies have shown some negative effects too. Various research studies have shown a relation between aggressive behaviour and playing video games that have violence in them. Including in games that have a lot of shooting and killing is said to increase the emotion of anger in children, leading to aggressive behaviour in real life. Further. As their act of violence is rewarded in the world of gaming, they may become motivated to repeat it in real life. These games hook the children to their consoles as repetitive playing a winning boosts their morale. They start feeling that shooting and killing are normal and do not even feel guilty about beating or clobbering siblings or peers. There is also said to be a direct correlation between poor academic performance and playing video related games. Studies have shown that some children spend a lot of time playing games, thus ignoring their studies, relating in poor scores at school. The news isn’t all bad for gamers. Studies of puzzle-based video games found they improve problem solving skills and raised intelligence levels in children. Other studies cite video games as stress reducers in children and adults. In addition, video games appear to improve and co-ordination. A hospital-based study found doctor who practiced on a modified WII video game controller improved their skills on tools used in minimally invasive surgery up to 50%. PROS: These games have negative effects on the physical health of children. Sitting for hour before the video game consoles can increase the risk of obesity, carpal tunnel syndrome, muscular diseases and well as skeletal and postural disorders in kids. Other move severe health effects include increased heart rate and high blood pressure. To decrease the negative effects of gaming on the short of games their children play. When buying games for kids, parents should check the age limit mentioned on the cover. They should also avoid buying games that have too much violence in them. The most important thing that parents must observe is the amount of time their children spend in front in front of the video games consoles. They should not allow their kids to spend more than hours in gaming.
EDUCATIONAL USE OF VIDEO GAME: The educational use of video games is central to the broader area of learning with video games and throws up one or two unique problems related to educational scope. We still lack an exclusive overview (on the use of video games for educational) focused on the implications of using video games within an educational context. The educational setting presents unique problems in terms of methods focus and relevant research questions. LIMITATION OF VIDEO GAME USEAGE: While direct parental oversight is ideal in limiting video game use by children parents do have additional tolls. Devices like the “Play Limit” attach to televisions and limit viewing as well as game play in 15 minute increments. Child psychologists recommend that parent both limit the time their children spend playing games and take heed of heed of ratings on games. Many parents are unaware that popular games rated as “MA” (mature audiences) often contain graphic content, like profanity, excessive violence, sexual content and nudity. FREEDOM VS CONTROL: All research on the educational use of video games emphases the freedom and control that student gain in video games compared to traditional teaching. However, research shows that it also creates several problems in an educational context. This issue is less pronounced in behaviourist and cognitivist edutainment titles compared to the other areas because of the more fixed game universes, where there are fewer changes of detours. However, the problems grow as those of us in education begin to use the more open-ended and complex game universes like THE SIMS in educational settings. The player has much freedom when using video games, which is contrary to the more explicit demands an educational situation makes on a student. The player feels that the control should not be tainted by outside interference but students may also criticize the lack of direct educational interventions. Indeed, many studies show the benefit of careful guiding, supporting, scaffolding, introducing and debriefing the video games experience. His is difficult when students want to make their own mistakes, decide how to play and expect to maintain control. The risk of freedom, control and play dominating learning may have to be dealt with by the teacher. The right approach seems to be an explicit framing of the game experience as education i.e. stressing the goals from an educational perspective and control one would expect when playing in one’s spare time. Otherwise the lack of a firm setting confuses students who are uncertain about the expectations when playing and learning. If this explicit framing is not made, some students will shift between the different modes not focusing on educational goals and vary in commitment- thinking that after all it is just a game, so why bother about the educational agenda.
TRANSMISSION VS CONSTRUCTION: From the behaviourist perspective, the challenge of educational video games is in transmitting information from the video games to the player. There is no difference between different contexts and the transmission of content is reliant on conditioning and reinforcement. From a constructivist position, the transmission of information is not sufficient to our understanding the educational process. Situations need to be facilitated where players actively engage in the video games and construct their own knowledge through the artefacts of the game world to make it more broadly accessible. Research points out that the immersive effects of video games leads to a lack of awareness of the contents, structures and concepts integrated in the video game. This results in weaker learning overall and especially in the transfer of game experience to other contexts. Students may learn some content or skills in the game universe and apply them in the game context, but they are not constructed in ways that are accessible in other contexts. TEACHER INTERVENTION VS NO TEACHER INTERVENTION Teachers play an important role in facilitating learning with video games, in terms of steering use in the right direction and also in providing an effective debriefing that can catch misperceptions and interesting differences in students’ experiences while playing. Many edutainment titles adhering to behaviourism and cognitivist neglect this, whereas it is central in the socio-cultural approach. Teachers may also use educational titles in ways that extend a title’s narrow focus on, for example behaviourism or cognitivist. However, many teachers while appreciating this intuitively fail to take charge when using video games. Many researchers argue that video games are not explicitly, but that they provide opportunities for interested teachers. Therefore, they also see the teacher`s role as imperative for the learning experience. This is true particularly settings which have not been developed with curriculum explicitly in mind. The problem is that if we really too much on teachers we may be disappointed by their reluctance to engage with games and their knowledge of how to use games. Possible disorder Video game addiction is not included as a diagnosis in either the DSM or the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problem. However, some scholars suggest the effects (or symptoms) of video game overuse may be similar to those of other proposed psychological addictions. Video game overuse may be like compulsive gambling, an impulse control disorder. “All addictions (whether chemical or behavioural) are essentially about constant rewards and reinforcement”. Griffiths believed that addiction has six components: salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, and relapse. Some scholars claim that the social dependence that may arise from video games occurs online where players interact with others and the relationship”.
However this is not a view which is generally accepted among all scholars. In fact, one of the most commonly used instruments for the measurement of such addiction. Kids` Behaviour TO VIDEO GAMES: Do you feel like your kids’ behaviours completely out of control? Disruptive Behavioural Conduct, Oppositional Defiant Disorders, and behaviour problems are defined by disobedient, aggressive, or rule-violating behaviour. By definition, Behavioural Problems cause difficulties in one or more areas of the child`s life including at home with family members, in school, or in the community. The problems are generally reported by authority figures and not by the children themselves. PROBLEMS OF KIDS ATTENTION TO VIDEO GAMES:
Among the middle childhood cohort, those who spent a median of 3.86 hours in front of a screen had an odds rational for developing attention problems of 1.86(95% CI,1.56 to 2.11). Among the sample of late adolescents and young adults, those with a median of 4.36 hours of total screen time, the odds rational of attention problems was 2.04(95% CI 1.45 to 2.88). The findings suggest that the risk of attention problems could be reduced if patents limited children`s viewing and video game time to a total of two hours a day, as recommended by the American Academy of Paediatrics. To help fill the gap, took the advantage of a cohort of children recruited from 10 school is two Midwest states as part of an obesity prevention project. The children, their parents and their teachers reported on video game use, television watching and attention problems four times over 13 months.
As well, they recruited undergraduates at a large public university, also in the Midwest, for a single laboratory session in which participants reported their video game and television exposure and also completed the adult ADHD self-report scale, the brief self-control scale and the impulsiveness scale. Among the children, they found the median daily exposure to television was 2.99 hours and to video games was 0.66 hours, for a total of 3.86 hours a day of screen time. Those who were above the medians were significantly also more likely to have attention problems: For those above the median in television viewing, the odds ratio for attention problems 1.55 with a 95% confidence interval from 1.33 to 1.79. For video games, the corresponding odds ratio was 1.82 with a 95% confidence interval from 1.57 to 2.11. For both combined, the odds ratio was 1.81 with 95% confidence interval from 1.56 to 2.11. Among the undergrads, odds ratios were similar- 1.68 for television, 1.82 for video games and 2.04 for both combined. None of the confidence intervals included unity. When the researchers compared children whose screen time was more or less than two hours a day, they found those above the cut off had a 67% increased risk of attention problems compared with those below. The odds ratio was1.67, with a 95% confidence interval from 1.27 to 2.2.The pattern was similar in the undergrad sample – an odds ratio of 2.23 with a 95% confidence interval from 1.13 to 4.39.
