Gaming Has No Negative Effect on Kids' Behavior

[CommanderFrank]

I hope someone is keeping score with all of these studies on how much game playing influences kid’s behavior, unofficially it feels like the results are about even. This study has a slightly different twist: the TV made me do it.

When it comes to videogames, the study says that “playing electronic games at 5 years was not associated with increased risk of problems.”

 

[Moneyless]

BREAKING NEWS! Water is wet. More at 11.

 

[horse]

this is untrue. when I was a kid and used to play super mario and lose it made me want to murder prostitutes. ask my mom. cereal

 

[sfsuphysics]

Yeah I'm going to call bullshit on this study.

Mothers of 11,014 kids from the UK Millenium cohort reported how often their 5 year olds watched TV of played electronic games. Those mothers then reported “conduct problems, emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems, hyperactivity/inattention, and prosocial behaviour.

More like when we asked parents what their own kids did.... like no parent ever saw their kid as the perfect angel regardless of what they did? And are parents really trained to notice those problems? Plus what video games are 5 years olds really playing?

 

[MacLeod]

I'm 41 and have been playing video games since 1982. I'm happily married with a great little 4 year old boy, nice big house and good job. Didn't bother me.

My little boy also sits and games a good bit too on a PC I built for him and the wife. He's not trying to kill the other kids at daycare and he plays Batman, Bulletstorm, Dead Space and Wolfenstein! If a 4 year old can know that these games are not real and they're all basically just a big interactive cartoon, I don't see why anybody else couldn't.

It's no different than anybody my age growing up watching Elmer Fudd shoot Daffy Duck in the face with a double barrel shotgun. Never once did it make me want to shoot some kid in the face.

 

[Bill86]

It's no different than anybody my age growing up watching Elmer Fudd shoot Daffy Duck in the face with a double barrel shotgun. Never once did it make me want to shoot some kid in the face.

But I bet you murdered A LOT of talking ducks

 

[Nenu]

Depends on the kid, what they play, what they are allowed to do and for how long.
For some it wont matter, for others it will.
At a minimum they should know that being addicted will change your behaviour
Banana studies that try and make blanket statements.

 

[Quix]

This ridiculous, I played Super Mario for years and it gave me razor-keen turtle murdering skills. I still kill any turtle I come across.

 

[Exavior]

Depends on the kid, what they play, what they are allowed to do and for how long.
For some it wont matter, for others it will.
At a minimum they should know that being addicted will change your behaviour
Banana studies that try and make blanket statements.

But that is the kid not the game that is the issue. That same kid could flip out from watching somebody getting shot in a cartoon or anything else. They could get ahold of their mom's copy of 50 shades of gray and go out raping woman.

 

[Nenu]

Agreed, but even normal kids can get addicted to games and that can prevent/restrict them from living a normal life.
I've been through it, occasionally still do.

Games are pretty addictive so games can have negative effects on some kids.