Parents' Response to Child and Youth Gaming Essay

The attention of scholars has been drawn to the continued increase in the popularity of digital games over the past few years and the amount of time spent by children and youth playing them. Studies show that the amount of time used by children and youths in playing digital games has continued to increase. Research shows that more than a third of children and adolescents in the United States between the age of two and seventeen use a significant amount of time playing video games. Fifty percent of children and adolescents who play digital games spend less than five hours every week, while the remaining fifty percent spend between six and sixteen hours every week playing digital games (Chai, Chen and Khoo 1237). In Singapore, more children between the age of ten and sixteen spend an average of twenty hours every week playing digital games, representing twenty-two hours for boys and eighteen hours for girls (Chai, Chen and Khoo 1237). This implies that digital gaming is a social activity and is a major part of children's and youth's social experience. Some digital games are believed to promote peace and break harmful beliefs (United Nations Development Program n.p). They are also considered useful in promoting peace (United States Institute of Peace n.d). Parents have varying responses to children and youth gaming. Some responses are positive while other responses are negative. This essay seeks to argue that parents have a negative response to child and youth gaming.

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Parents perceive that digital gaming spurs violence among children and adolescents. The coverage of media on digital game violence contributes to a negative image of the effect of violence involved in digital gaming on the well-being of children and adolescents. The increase in public debates concerning the excessive involvement of violence in digital games contributes to the overall perception among parents that digital gaming has adverse effects of the well-being of children and youth (Gong and Piller 787). However, it is important to note that the perception of parents towards the inclusion of violence in video games played by children varies. A video game is considered violent when it contains violent and aggressive content.

Research shows that the short-term and long-term playing of violent video games contributes to a decline in empathy, and reduced aversive response to aggression and violence among children and adolescents. Some scholars argue that the engagement in violent video games leads to the portrayal of violence as an act that is acceptable in the society. Children may lack the ability to differentiate between violence and aggression in realities and in fantasies. Research shows that the involvement of children between the age of seven and fifteen impacts negatively on their ability to perceive other people's perspectives and to sympathize with them (McLean 57). It is for this reason that parents perceive digital games harmful to children and adolescents by influencing them towards violence and aggressive behaviors.

Some parents perceive digital gaming as one of the contributing factors to conflict with their children and adolescents. According to a study by Chai, Chen, and Khoo interviewed students confirmed that their parents would demonstrate unhappiness with their playing of digital games, especially when the play period would be interrupted (Chai, Chen and Khoo 1240). Children feel irritated when their parents interrupt and ask them to stop the game to attend to other issues. The conflict between parents and children also occurs when children fail to adhere to some of the rules put in place by their parents to regulate their playing of video games. On the other hand, some parents may react negatively to the tendency of their children to play digital games and enforce strict rules without letting their children understand their concerns and the reasons for regulating the use of digital gaming. However, the conflict between children and adolescents is reduced with children and adolescents prioritize some of the other important activities, such as studying. The amount of time spent on playing digital games influences the relationship and the degree of conflict between children and their parents. Some parents discourage the use of digital gaming by their children to prevent parent-child conflict and promote positive social interaction.

Parents believe that when children and adolescents exposed to video games, they may be addicted. There are several ways through which video games are believed to facilitate addiction. The brain reward systems facilitate the understanding of the nature of addiction. Continued exposure to events facilitates the production of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which modifies the neural connections leading to a response to a mere anticipation of reward. Addiction in video gaming is influenced by the uncertainty of when the objective of the game, such as finding the treasure offered by the video game, will be achieved (Zastrow 4270). A good example is the candy crush video game where sounds and colors are used to communicate game results. The brain, therefore, becomes conditioned to the color and sound, which leads to addiction. It is for this reason that parents consider video games addictive and harmful to children and adolescents.

According to a study in the United States by Iowa State University's researcher namely Douglas Gentile, at least eight percent of children and adolescents between the age of eight and eighteen playing digital games showed various behavioral addiction signs (The Washington Post n.p). Symptoms of addiction to video gaming included the increased amount of money and time spent on video gaming to attain a desired level of excitement, using video games to escape problems, a feeling of irritation when video games are scaled back, failing to attend to other important activities to spend more time on gaming, and giving lies about the amount of time spend on gaming (The Washington Post n.p). Addiction to video gaming is considered among the main reasons why parents discourage or limit video gaming in children and adolescents.

According to parents, excessive gaming makes their children and teenagers miss out or neglect some other important life experiences and activities. According to a study that involved 540 video gaming participants, nine percent sacrificed work or education, eighteen percent sacrificed sleep, twenty-six percent sacrificed another hobby, ten percent sacrificed social interactions with friends, five percent sacrificed time spent with a partner, five percent sacrificed family time, while twenty-three percent did not report any sacrifice to get time for video gaming (Russell and Johnson 67). The study also notes that:

Less common sacrifices included fitness, house duties (such as cleaning), dating, other games, television, and reading. In a qualitative study of a clinical population of addicted gamers, participants also noted gaming addiction led to them neglecting to eat or sleep, lying to family, abandoning educational activities and other activities that they previously enjoyed, through neglect of eating seemed to be specific to addicted gamers. (Russell and Johnson 67)

According to a study by Russell and Johnson (67), all participants who were also parents confirmed that they felt their children were missing out on various important experiences by playing video games. However, what was believed to be missed by children and adolescent gamers varied across parents. Some parents confirmed that video gaming had cost their children a lot, including social, educational, and employment costs (Russell and Johnson 70). Children and adolescents are unable to balance video gaming and other important life activities and experiences. The common cost incurred by children and adolescents through excessive involvement in digital gaming is educational cost. The amount of time spent on video gaming deprives children and youth of the required amount of time that should be spent on studies, which may lead to negative education outcomes. Children also lack adequate time to interact with family and friends, which has a negative effect on their social development.

However, some parents have a positive response to child and youth gaming. According to this section of parents, gaming enhances academic success and facilitates various aspects of development in children and youth, including social and motor development. SimCityEDU is a video game employed in schools and facilitates the learning of energy management and addressing environmental questions (Represa 1). Video games such as Age of Mythology and Rise of Nations are quite educational and are applied in various areas of education, including history, politics, sciences, cultural studies, and pilot-training simulation. Video games are widely used in promoting education and learning (World Bank Institute 1).

Video gaming has educational benefits for children and youth and that is why some parents allow some time to their children for play video games. Research shows that children who play educational video games score better than those who do not play video games. According to a 2004 study by Squire, Barnett, Grant, and Higginbotham, children who played Supercharged, which is a game that involves electromagnetic simulation, during a physics class and who were also given more supplemental materials and lectures from the teachers recorded better performance than those who only attended the lectures and did not play the video game (Dunifon and Gill n.p). When parents know that children are playing video games from educational websites, they allow them to play but discourage the video gaming when the video games display violence and crude scenes and nudity (Hill 6). "The Fiscal Ship", which a video game released by the Brookings Institute, can be used by youth in acquiring budgeting skills and knowledge (Brookings Institute n.p).

Parents also believe that digital gaming contributes to social and motor development in youth and children. Most of the video games require one to play with another person, which could be a parent, a sibling, or a friend. According to a study by Adigwe whose aim was to determine the perception of mothers of the influence of interactive and digital media on social and cognitive development, it was found that children played digital games with their friends. Twenty-two percent of the respondents confirmed that their girls and boys would not play video games alone, but with friends, which impacted on social development (Adigwe 21). Research shows that gaming enhances the development of excellent motor skills, the coordination between the hand and the eye, and special reasoning, which are essential in children development. When playing shooter games, children are required to monitor their position, speed, direction, and results, thus enhancing reasoning, and hand-eye coordination (Hughes n.p). The brain is involved in coordinating all activities involved in the game and ensures that the hand performs the required tasks to achieve the desired outcomes. Although there are some positive responses by parents to child and youth gaming, they are outweighed by the negative responses.

Conclusion

The following recommendations are made to enhance reasonable child and youth gaming to achieve the related benefits and reduce the possible side effects. First, the introduction and implementation of filtering and screening technologies will help parents limit and regulate the use of digital gaming by children. This will help to ensure that children are protected from harmful content and only a reasonable amount of time is spent on gaming. Second, parents should be actively involved in monitoring child and youth gaming to regulate and recommend the types of video games played and increase exposure to v...