For parents, their children’s development years from infancy to eight years old are important, as it is when their children are most impressionable and learn life skills such as to talking, walking, reading, writing, and, as of the last few decades, picking up a video game controller. Today, more children than ever are playing video games, but an important question for parents to consider is whether they should let their children play video games at or under the age or eight years old. The answer to said questions is that parents should not let their kids play video games at eight year old or younger, as video games can influence children’s behaviour and thinking in a negative way, cause parents to spend hundreds on video games, and cause children
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To elaborate, video game players receive specific objectives and/or enter situations in which they can gain rewards for doing certain actions, which can be a big motivator for kids to play games. For instance, a study by Koepp et al. from Nature found that people, when playing video games, people experience increased levels of dopamine, which is a chemical in the human brain associated with reward-seeking activities (266-268). The increased levels of dopamine come from the desire to earn rewards in video games that are often easier to earn and achieve than those in real life are. Unlike video games, real life lacks the option to ‘start over’ or ‘try again’ when mistakes when players make mistakes, making video games comparatively easier than dealing with real life, which may cause children to neglect reality and play video games instead. In addition, the immersive, interactive nature of video games themselves perfectly complements children’s notoriously short attention spans and desires for control, captivating them for hours on end while they neglect all else (Reeves “Why We Play: How Our Desire For Games Shapes Our World”). The time children spend playing video games ultimately has consequences on parts of life such as physical health, social life, and academic performance, which can all suffer because of video games. Parents should avoid letting their children video games or find other outlets so that their kids can have a happy, balanced
To elaborate, video game players receive specific objectives and/or enter situations in which they can gain rewards for doing certain actions, which can be a big motivator for kids to play games. For instance, a study by Koepp et al. from Nature found that people, when playing video games, people experience increased levels of dopamine, which is a chemical in the human brain associated with reward-seeking activities (266-268). The increased levels of dopamine come from the desire to earn rewards in video games that are often easier to earn and achieve than those in real life are. Unlike video games, real life lacks the option to ‘start over’ or ‘try again’ when mistakes when players make mistakes, making video games comparatively easier than dealing with real life, which may cause children to neglect reality and play video games instead. In addition, the immersive, interactive nature of video games themselves perfectly complements children’s notoriously short attention spans and desires for control, captivating them for hours on end while they neglect all else (Reeves “Why We Play: How Our Desire For Games Shapes Our World”). The time children spend playing video games ultimately has consequences on parts of life such as physical health, social life, and academic performance, which can all suffer because of video games. Parents should avoid letting their children video games or find other outlets so that their kids can have a happy, balanced