Exploring the Impact of Video Games on Children's Development

This essay delves into the pervasive influence of video games on children's lives, examining the substantial amount of time spent gaming and its multifaceted effects. It begins by establishing the prevalence of video game usage among children aged 5 to 16, highlighting the shift from traditional activities. The essay reviews literature supporting the impact of video games, including both potential benefits like cognitive skill development and potential risks such as reduced social interaction and health issues. The research explores facts and figures from various sources to understand the impact on social, leisure, and learning activities. The study also examines the impact of console games on children and the potential for both positive outcomes, such as improved communication skills, and negative consequences, such as addiction and social anxiety. It also looks at the role of parents and the changing landscape of technology. The conclusion summarizes the findings and provides recommendations regarding the responsible use of video games for children.

Essay
Most of the time spends by children in video games and its
impact on their life and health

TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION 1.....................................................................................................................................1
Abstract........................................................................................................................................1
SECTION 2.....................................................................................................................................2
Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
Facts related to time spend by children in computer games........................................................2
SECTION 3.....................................................................................................................................4
Literature review support the case for chosen topic....................................................................4
SECTION 4.....................................................................................................................................6
SECTION 5.....................................................................................................................................8
SECTION 6.....................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion and Recommendations..............................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Access of games...............................................................................................................3
Figure 2: Hours children spend gaming weekly in the United Kingdom........................................4
Figure 3: Mind Maps.......................................................................................................................8

SECTION 1
Abstract
In 21st century, dramatically changes arise in the technologies and life style of people. In
addition, children's TV viewing habits have also changed dramatically with the emergence of
computer and mobiles. It is examined that most of the children belong to age group 5 to 16 years
have most of their time in front of computer and games to spend their leisure time. For physical,
social and psychological development of children, different types of activities including social
interaction, physical activity and love and care of adults are needed. However, children spend an
average of eight hours in playing computer games and other computers activities which
consumes most of the time of organized sports and other social activities which is necessary for
child development. Due to this, many authors have criticized the use of video and computer
games and their impact of day to day life of children and behavior. From the research result, it is
clear that children who spend most time in computers games are facing lower self-esteem and
greater emotional kinds of problems in their life which also affect of health of individuals. The
rationale behind to conduct present study is to measure influence of computer games in health
and development of children. Besides that, present research also emphasizes on the dramatic
impact of computer games on society and individuals as an anti-social element. In this regard,
literature review will be conducted to understand the risks and benefits of video and computer
games usage on children. In this regard, real facts and figures from various authentic sources will
be used. At the end of the study, researcher will be able to understand various facts related to
more time spend by children time in computer games and their impact on their social and
physical development activities. By conducting the research, investigator will be able to
investigate impact of computer games as an anti-social element within society.
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SECTION 2
Introduction
In modern era, computer games become an important part of childhood like never before.
Today’s, children are spent their most of the time in playing video games on different types of
platforms such as TV sets, computers, mobile and many more. This section of the study
describes about the scenario of time spend by children in computer gaming activity and their
adverse effects on the health and lifestyle on the teenagers of London. With help of using
academic sources and published online sources researcher tries to meet the objectives of present
research in a significant manner. The study begins with the average time spend by children in
computer games in their free time and further, it provides detail about the positive as well as
negative impact of playing computer games on children life. In this regard, researcher has framed
objectives that help him to determine the adverse effect of computer games and suggest ways to
overcome the harmful effect of games of life of individuals. In order to attain objectives, critical
review of different studies done by previous researchers has been considered. The rationale
behind conducting the present research is to major impact of playing games on children belong
to different age group along with describing major benefits and risks. By conducting the
research, investigator would be able to investigate the impact of video and computer games in
the social, leisure and informal learning activities of children in a significant manner.
Facts related to time spend by children in computer games
According to Kaiser (2002) children ages group 2-18 spend on average, 20-33 minutes in playing
games in a day. In addition, boys spend substantially more time than girls in playing games. As
per the result of Cassata (2014), it is found that video-gaming or internet gaming are responsible
for creating disorder kinds of health related issue (Cassata, 2014). From the sales of computer
and online games in UK, it is clear that most of the time children and their parents are played
game together to spend their leisure time in the digital world. Technology access and usage were
increased between 2008 and 2009. From the below figure, it is clear that younger children aged
between 0-6 were highly associated in computer games. From the research findings of Ulicsak
(2009), is found that video games were generated €2.3 billion revenue for all platforms (Ulicsak,
2009).
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Figure 1: Access of games
(Source: Ulicsak, 2009)
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As per the report of Statistia (2014) in UK, most of the children whose aged was 12 to 15 were
spent most of their time in playing games. In addition, in 2014, this video games playing time of
children were enhanced from 10.7 hours to 11.2 hours in a week (Statistia, 2014).
Figure 2: Time spend by children in playing game in UK
(Source: Statistia, 2014)
SECTION 3
Literature review support the case for chosen topic
Cenzon (2015) stated that over the past few years, a growing number of children are spending
most of the time in playing computer games. Result of study shows that parent has positive
attitudes about gaming software and they argued that it provides educational and improved
learning opportunities for their children. Besides that, computers games help them to prepare for
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the ``information-age'' and builds good sportsmanship and fair-play characteristics which are
necessary for development of children. Fröding and Peterson (2013) explored that many
computer applications and games are required information-processing, from verbal to visual
which can be beneficial for children in developing cognitive skills. The positive impact of
computer games on the life of teenager can be seen in form of increasing their interest toward
science and technology and encompasses a broad array of skills which is necessary for visual
intelligence of children Fröding and Peterson 2013)). Despite of that, other factors including
iconic representation, dynamic imagery, structural features of the medium and the capabilities of
current computer games encourage children and their parent to spend their time on computer
gaming activity. Goh, Lee and Low (2012) argued that by spending their time, children can
develop their iconic or analog representation which helps them in creating scientific and
technical thinking. Subrahmanyam and their colleagues (2001) conducted study and the main
purpose behind conducted study was to determine influence of computer game on children's life.
They found that improving academic performance in math, science, language arts, and writing
are the positive impact of games on children (Goh, Lee and Low, 2012). Furthermore, they
described that by using computer games children can effective use of hand-eye coordination in
various sectors. For example, if children will play sport game then they will be able to develop
their interpersonal skills and enhances their capabilities also. Moreover, brain training games can
be beneficial for children in making learning more enjoyable as compared to traditional
classroom learning. Besides that, through playing computer games, children can learn new things
such as careful planning, strategies to real-world decision making and think outside the box etc.
In addition, computer games have had a massive effect on day to day activities of children in
terms of developing skills and develop practical skills in a virtual environment.
Case 1: Computer game playing and social skills
Griffiths (2010) was conducted questionnaire study and in this regard, 144 sample size was
taken. The sample was taken from Nottingham university students.
The major reason behind conducting study was to measure impact of computer games on life of
children and their personal development. From the result, it was found that children whose
played more games and spent their time on such kind of events faced social anxiety kinds of
issues as compared to other children whose were not played games.
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.From the findings, it is clear that in university more than 88% of the students were played
computer games. On the other side, very few females (21%) were played a computer game. It
was found that no females were played games for more than two hours per day (Thomson and
Williams, 2014). Griffiths found in his study that game negatively influences life of children and
creates barrier in social development of children. However, researcher argued that high amounts
children who spent most of their time in playing computer games will be faced health related
issues in future. Case study evidence shows that if children spend more of their time in playing
than they become addict as well as their social development activities will also be influenced in
negative manner. From the result of Social Situations Questionnaire (SSQ), it is found that mean
SSQ score for females candidates was higher than male candidates. Higher value of SSQ
indicates the greater difficulty with the social situation. Besides that, 5.5% of the total sample
size of total population was suffered seriously from psycho-social kinds of problems. Result
indicates that most of candidates were male who were involved in playing computer games
activities for more than four hours per day. They were suffered from social inadequacy and
psycho-social problem in their life (Griffiths, 2010).
Case 2: The main impact of console games on children
Groff, Howells and Cranmer (2010) conducted the study in order to explore the impact of
console games on children. They found that computer games and game-based approaches
provide opportunity to students to enhance their learning skills and produce appropriate
outcomes in a significant manner (Rubin and Camm, 2013). Besides that, they identified several
positive outcomes of computer games on life of children such as improves communication skills,
enhance parental engagement in children’s learning and narrow the gap between children’s home
and school cultures effectively. In this regards, researcher were used interview method and
conducted interview with class room teachers and students. Most of the teachers who
participated in game-based learning have positive attitude towards game-based learning activities
and they argued that it can create positive impact on learning and development activities of
children. Students participated in survey shows their positive interest about benefits of computer
games and game-based learning activities in terms of increasing collaboration, creativity and
communication at workplace (Kosminsky and Daniel, 2005).
SECTION 4
Nowadays with constantly improving technology is providing positives to businesses,
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elder people, but it is negatively affecting the life of children. However, it is because they are not
interested in playing the games or activities which are physical in nature that affects directly to
their health and mental growth (Tomlinson, 2005). However, there are several authors who have
proposed potential negatives of playing video games for the children's.
Case 1: Effect of Video Games on Child Development
According to the study of Dai and Fry (2014), parents in this era of information technology have
the chances that their children spend their most of time in playing video and computer games.
Further, through the help of survey author identified that, most of the youth in America (81%)
involved in playing game activity at least once in a month. On the other side, approax 8.5%
belong to age group 8 to 12 years were addicted to play games on computers per week (Fröding
and Peterson, 2013).
In context to its negativity, there are various types of video games available in the present
industry which is intended to target different aspects of a child's life. In this regard study of
Buchman and Funk identified that, “Violent games becoming constantly popular among the
children's”. Furthermore, there are several studies made on negative effects of video games
clearly defines that its have major impact on younger generation of children's significantly. In the
study of Calvert and Tan on teenagers, they identified that due to access playing of violent
games have increased their heart rate which reported more dizziness and nausea as well as
possess more aggressive thoughts as compared to the children's who play non-violent games (Dai
and Fry, 2014).
From the study, it was found that video and computer games are not beneficial for children's in
term of social development and health. According to research of CDC, most of the children
(12.1% ) belong to age group of 2 to 5 year were obese. On the other hand, children whose were
were 6 to 11 year (18%) were obese. In addition, 12 to 19 year children (8.4%) were find
obese. In rationale to this, author defines that, in today arena, most of the children's are spending
their leisure time on computer or other game console, due which they are unable to go out and
play physical games. This directly impacts on their mental state as it makes them lazy mentally
and obese physically (Teng and et.al, 2012).
Case 2: Negative effects of Video Games
Researcher identified in the study of Dmitir A. Christakis, that children who watch video
games and spent their lot of time were face immune issue and they also behave emphatically. In
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addition to this, Shapiro (2014) illustrates that, playing too much of video games makes children
socially isolated. This also negatively impacts on his/her routine activities can be seend in
different day to day activities of children sports, playing, reading and interacting with family and
friends (Shapiro, 2014).
Other than this there are several negatives that a child can acquire while playing video
games such as in the study of Dai and Fry (2014) it has been evaluated that, while playing on
computer or online, child can learn bad language and behaviour negatively. Apart from this, they
can make more vulnerable and face health related issues. However, study done by university
defines that, video games can create negative impact of the life of children and make them
addictive to the child and this addiction can lead to increase in depression and anxiety levels.
Along with this, children faces major concerns in his/her school performance (Dai and Fry,
2014). Furthermore, according to the study published by Journal of Psychology and Popular
Media Culture states that, children are spend most of their time in playing games activity and it
negatively affect their behaviour also. and create lack of attention problem. Further, article
defines the lack of attention, poor health and behaviour change kinds of issues raised through
spending most of time playing games (Shah, 2007).
In this case, Catherine Steiner-Adair defines that, its not only the action of kids that
makes video games bad for them, parents are also responsible, because it has been often seen that
in order make the trip from home to school silent, parents give their child to play candy crush
which is not often demanded by the children. However, this encourages and promotes more of
the negative anxiety and laziness in the traits of kid.
SECTION 5
Mind map has been framed on the basis of findings.
Figure 3: Mind Maps
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SECTION 6
After reviewing different cases, it can be said that children spend their time on playing
computer games have both positive and negative effects. Griffiths (2010) showed that children
whose spent most of their time in playing video and computer games faced social anxiety and
lack of attention related problems as compared to other who does not play game. In addition,
findings of Groff, Howells and Cranmer (2010) explored that computer games and game-based
approaches provide opportunity to students to enhance their learning skills and produce
appropriate outcomes effectively. From the study, it is found that children aged 12 to 15 spent
their most of the time in gaming (Zdravkova, 2014).
In the present study the focus of researcher was to evaluate the impact of video games on
the upbringing of the children. In this regard, investigator concentrated on both aspects of video
games for the life of children. However, there are several authors that proposed positives about
the statement and there are some of the authors who evaluated that video games or computer
games are having negative impact on the development of children (Fikry and Bustami, 2012). In
this regard, researcher through the help of study made by Raise Smart Kid, (2012) analysed that,
advancement in technology is the only major reason behind lack of interest of children ageing 5
to 15 in playing physical games. However, parents are playing vital role in the growth of kid, as
they in order to do better for their children are supporting in their lack of interest and buying
them new and latest versions of game console. Furthermore, investigator agreed to the fact stated
in the study of Buchman and Funk that, constantly playing of violent games is negatively
affecting behaviour of children. Along with this, researcher supporting to the study of the Calvert
and Tan that, due to access playing of violent games is directly affecting their heart rate and
increasing the health related issues such as dizziness and nausea (Raise Smart Kid, 2012).
Obesity is one of the major concerns in the children ageing from 2 to 19 as the study of CDC in
2009-10, showed such disturbing numbers. However, researcher believes that these percentages
should have increased from 18.4% to 30% during the course of 5 years. Agreeing to the reasons
that more use of computer games and other console is the actual cause of obesity in the young
age of children (Babooram, Mullan and Sharpe, 2010). Researcher supporting to the study made
by institute that, children are getting highly addictive to the video games which is causing several
issues like increase in level of depression and anxiety. Furthermore, due to these children are
unable to concentrate on their academics. However, it can be said that conducting this study
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helps in defining the major impacts on the life and development of children from the age of 2 to
19 year. However, it is the duty of parents to provide the facilities to their children as well as to
make sure that they doesn't make over use of it. Buying video games is not harmful for the
development of kid, but it's the access use that causes the major concerns for both parents and
children (Flurry, Swimberghe and Parker, 2014).
Conclusion and Recommendations
On the basis of present research, it can be concluded that computer games have created both
positive and negative impact on development activities of children. It is identified that by playing
computer games, children can take several advantages such as increasing their interest toward
science and technology and encompasses a broad array of skills which is necessary for visual
intelligence and builds cognitive skills etc. However, due to spend more time on playing games
also creates adverse impact on life of an individual and ways of their thinking in a negative
manner. It is responsibility of parents to emphasize on monitoring their child activities and
encourages them to play computer games but limited time in a day. By balancing between
computer games and physical activities, they would be able to take real advantages of games and
software’s in a proper manner. Teachers and parents should try to balance between physical and
computer activities. By balancing between these two activities, they will be able to enhance
knowledge level and skills of the children.
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