Pros & Cons of Kids and Video Gaming
I don’t know what all the hullabaloo is about considering video games and kids. Do Parents let their kids go to x rated movies? No. Do Parents allow kids to Drink before legal age? No. Do Parents allow kids to do drugs, especially when THEY themselves may have done it back in the sixties? No. Why? In the sixties, it was a generational thing; And, now they have learned. It is a traditional thing to find something bad in every good new thing invented..that’s known as being progressive; or is it the other way around..we find something good in newly invented things and that is being progressive…that’s it.
We have high tech kids born today. Do you know any child, say 3-4 years of age today, who does not already know more at that age than you did? Or possibly, even when you were 5-6? Is it because the parents ate the proper foods and now have created robotic techie kids? Don’t think so… Are we worried that traditions will break with the (not so new anymore) technology? Too late. Traditions as we knew them have been challenged..but there is a little consolation in that fact that some important ones remain; Santa isn’t analoged or digital when he visits the kids each Christmas yet.
So, why does playing video games HAVE to be an issue. It is a matter of parental control, that’s the long and short of it. Always was that, and always will be. That is one formula in life that won’t change…ever, even though some parents may exercise it more than others. Parental Control.
O.k. for the sake of argument, let’s say that little Johnny does find his way to a game that is not age appropriate and has violence in it. I believe the animation found in the games, still wins on the basis of keeping it a fairytale; where in real life, on the news, you can find missing and murdered children; kids abused and used as sex slaves; drug rings and gang activity.
If the video games stop, and the shows become more kid friendly, will it stop the gangs and killings and shootings? I think not. Aggression has been around for a long, long time. It’s shown in relationships through abuse and ignorance in how to deal with it.
Perhaps the more powerful stigma, as a result of kids playing these games, could be illustrated by seeing the aggression children feel, for any reason, being cornered by venting it through gaming channels and role playing. Parental Control should be the issue here, not the gaming our techie kids and their generation adhere too. If for any reason, it’s not good for them, they’ll learn…don’t you think parents?