Video Games and Children

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Video Games and Children
A report released in 2003 by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that even the youngest children have experience with video games. The report indicated that 49 percent of children aged 0 to 6 years have a video game player in their home, while 10 per cent have a video game console in their bedroom (Vorderer and Bryant 23). Thirty percent of young children have played video games, including 35 per cent of children aged less than two years. Although game playing is less common among children this age than using other media, 50 percent of children aged 4 to 6 years play video games, and on a typical day, 16 percent of these children play video games for not less than an hour (Vorderer and Bryant 23). Among boys this age, 9 per cent play video games on a daily basis (Vorderer and Bryant 23). Playing video games has become a popular leisure activity. Most importantly, children across the globe have abandoned traditional outdoor games and have resorted to playing video games. A number of children sociologists and developmental biologists argue that the shift from traditional outdoor game to video games in children has various negative effects on the development of children. Children should not be allowed to spend too much time playing video games for many reasons, three of which are that it affects their health, their behavior, and their life.
According to Griffiths, playing video games has significant negative health effects on young children and adolescents (122). Various case studies have indicated that epileptic individuals who are photosensitive are likely to suffer epileptic seizures when playing video games (Griffiths 123). These studies have highlighted that seizures are likely to occur in games that have rapid scene changes and those with patterns of highly intense repetition and flickering. In addition, other studies have revealed that video game playing can cause “auditory hallucinations,...