I don't know if they are a problem or not. I think it depends on the extent to which you allow your kids to play. And if you can afford to do it. I am shocked sometimes by the amount of money other people spend on something so silly as video games. All the money spent could be saved for college, or a car when that child is older. I allow my daughter to play games but so far she is limited to the plug and play type games. They are cheap and fun (like pac man). Mostly they are nonviolent. I also limit the amount of time she can play them.

well my son is only 5, so what I enter here is just based upon what I've read from others, the media, the experts, etc...

my concerns with them are this:

that too many hours playing the games is bad for a number of reasons. there are some theories that too much "screen time" is somehow linked to ADHD. when I think about how games and even commercial TV changes "channels or modes" so quickly, it must be what having ADHD feels like from what I understand, so this makes sense to me. my brother is ADHD.

also the time they spend on the games is time they aren't spending on good stuff, reading, conversing, being creative, helping, etc.

also, as someone put it recently, seeing people being violent on games just makes violence seem OK or commonplace, as part of life. I just think it has to have a negative effect. if nothing more than helping players see other's lives as not that valuable, dispensable.

I know most of us wouldn't dream of allowing violent games at ages 5-8, but I think things of this nature creep in when we least expect it and before we know it, our kids are playing games where they shoot others.

having said all that, I do have a used GameCube and allow my son to play stuff like pacman.
I bought him the seemingly innocent game called "Animal crossing". it's rated E. well......
the characters are MEAN! the way they talk to each other and to your character is just unacceptable about 1/2 the time. now that my son can read, I try to steer him away from that game. before he could read, it did indeed appear benign to him, so I let him play it for a while.

I try to keep his total screen time (tv, computer, game cube) all totalling no more than 1.5 hours a day. so, naturally, I often fail at this, but it's just my personal goal.

My son has been begging for a whee (unsure of the spelling) I am particularly resistant to buying him one. We are already dealing with a television addiction and I don't want to add that to it. What I did instead is invest in a number of board games. We play them as a family. I want to introduce things that encourage family time, not things that allow him to disconnect completely. That said the decision is up to each parent.

I contest that the amount of exposure and ways are so unlimited you would almost have to lock your kids up to prevent your kids from accessing violent video games . I don't lock up my kids and I don't like alot of the video games out there but my kids don't participate in those violent games often at all . I think it would overwhelm them and besides playing games like Dungeons and Dragons before people had access to computers was no different. Its the concentrated building of characters and powers over time (day after day month after month same game )which are the real bad influences ...thats right just like the dungeons and dragons board game .

It depends on the choice of game. I chose things like snakes and ladders, monopoly JR, operation etc...we even work on puzzles together.

I think it's fine in moderation, as is television viewing.

I played a lot of Nintendo when I was 12-13 because I adored Super Mario Brothers 1, 2, and 3. (Especially 3) I remember playing for hours.

The Wii is a great system. It incorporates movement, coordination, and the mind.

I agree about not allowing the violent games. I do believe that they have negative effects.

my daughter has never rearly playesd with video games shes nerly 7 and cant work the dvd. i dont know if using them is bad for ther social development but not using them does seem to put them at adisadvanteg with frends as all her frends do play on them and meg is left out alot i wish id encorage meg to have a go

The only problem that I see is that my daughter would play them all the time if we let her. So what we do is limit her game time to an hour a day. I try to get her to do other things as well like read or draw. I also think that if there is alot of violence can cause problems. Kids think that the games are real and may try things that can harm them or someone else. Hope this helped.

THe only problem we've had is getting him off the games. He is only allowed 1 hr per day (and NO TV) during the school week to play. We are more flexible on weekends. But, when I tell him its time to get off and play with something else, suddenly he's a terror child "I don't like anything else, I hate all my toys, etc." We've been taking the games away for 1 day everytime he acts like that and it seems to be getting better. Also, my son has to do extra chores (after his regular ones are done) in order to buy new games. He earns his money $.50 to $1.00 at a time.
As for the social aspect, him and his freinds "play" video games like role playing. THey will run around the house or yard with 10 lives and "pick-up" super powers, etc. He could tell you more about it, i just think it's funny.
BOth my b/f and I grew up playing video games and we turned out okay. I think it's just a matte of making sure they still interact with other kids on a regular basis and do other things everyday as well.

wantobe

I like the way you put that very sensible ...btw my boys run around the yard with superpowers too lol I believe I had those superpowers too as a kid I wish I still had them lol

Banff - THey are cute to listen to, they certainly are imaginative! I actually would run around as a little kid pretending to be WonderWoman, so I guess it's not much different from a video game if you think about it!