Today's Children and Video Games

Today’s Children and Video Games

Many debates have come to the surface about children and video games. These debates include, children are playing video games too often or the video games are too violent for children to be playing. Debates also suggest the government should get involved on screening video games instead letting parent use their own discretion with their children. Are children plating outside and getting plenty of exercise or are children staying inside playing video games. The saying, “It takes a village to raise a child” is truer than one may think. Debates over children and video games have been around since the first video gaming station came out onto the market. Some experts say video games are a great brain workout for children. (Palo Alto Medical Foundation, 2012)

Experts say in order to win video came it takes a kind of critical thinking that is not tough in schools. “James Paul Gee, professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that playing a video game is similar to working through a science problem. Like students in a laboratory, gamers must come up with a hypothesis. For example, players in some games constantly try out combinations of weapons and powers to use to defeat an enemy. If one does not work, they change hypothesis and try the next one. Video games are goal-driven experiences, says Gee, which are fundamental to learning. (Raise Smart Kid bright child, bright future, 2012) ”

In the article “Parents Need Help” Barbara Dafoe Whitehead discusses some of the challenges parents face when it comes to protecting their children from excessively violent or sexually explicit games. Physically and emotionally these violent games are hurting children and there should be more support from the government and the entertainment industry to help parents raise stable individuals. (Lamm & Everett, 2007)

The argument has been ongoing since the first