Examining the Positive and Negative Effects of Video Games on Children

This essay delves into the multifaceted effects of video games on children, acknowledging both the negative and positive influences. It highlights the increasing popularity of video gaming among children and the significant amount of time they spend playing. The essay explores the potential for violent video games to promote aggressive behavior and desensitize children to violence. It also examines the impact of gaming on brain structure and function, including attention, visual-spatial skills, and the neural reward system, while addressing the risk of addiction. Furthermore, it discusses the social and emotional consequences of excessive gaming, such as social isolation and exposure to inappropriate content. The essay also acknowledges the potential benefits of video games, such as improved problem-solving skills, hand-eye coordination, and multitasking abilities. Ultimately, the essay concludes that while controlled video gaming can offer some benefits, the negative effects of addiction and exposure to harmful content require careful consideration and management.

EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAMES ON CHILDREN
Effects of Video Games on Children
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EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAMES ON CHILDREN
Video gaming is increasingly becoming a popular activity among people, particularly
children. Many children spend large amounts of time playing video games (Guins, 2015).
Many children spend more than two hours a day playing video games. In many developed
countries, video gaming industry has continuously thrived beyond movies and DVDs
combined. Investors continue to create very sophisticated video games, some of which make
playing them an almost realistic experience. The innovation online video games allow
children to play with other children or adults around the world. Most children do not know
the online gamers, which may alter their behavior. While some video games have educational
content, many of the most popular games emphasize on negative themes (Bavelier et al.,
2011). They instill and promote certain negative behaviors in children. This essay evaluates
the negative effects of gaming in children.
Violent video games promote murder and criminal behavior. Children exposed to
violent video games become immune to the horror of violence (FirstCry Parenting, 2021).
Studies show that children often imitate what they experience in violent video games in real
life. As children see and play intensively violent video games, they develop more aggressive
behavior (Weber et al., 2020). Innovators continue to develop more realistic violent videos
games, which makes children to imitate the exact characteristics depicted in the movie. Most
children tend to strive to become the hero in the video game in real life. Repeated exposure to
violent video games increases the violent nature of these children in real life (Graham, 2014).
Children who become overly involved and obsessed with violent video games develop a
criminal behavior, which progresses to old age.
Video gaming affects the brain. It changes multiple regions of the brain. It affects the
structure and activity of the brain. Video games do not only change the brain performance,
but also changes its structure. First, video games affect attention. Many children who play
video games display improved sustained attention as well as selective attention (Annetta et
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EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAMES ON CHILDREN
al., 2006). Video gamers display a more efficient attention in completing demand tasks as
compared to non-gamers. However, this is only practical if done with moderation. Second,
video games improve children’s ability to identify visual and spatial relationships among
objects. They enlarge the right hippocampus, which is responsible for visual and spatial
characteristics (Bavelier et al., 2011). However, addictive video gaming, which is common
among children, alters the functional and structural positions of the neural reward system.
The neural reward system helps children in feeling pleasure, learning, and motivation. Video
game addicts experience certain cravings, which children cannot overcome even in old age.
The risk of addiction affects the normal functioning of the brain as it fails to control the
ability of children to resist to certain behaviors (Cesarone & ERIC Clearinghouse on
Elementary and Early Childhood Education). Video games only stimulate the part of the
brain that controls vision and movement. However, it may lead to underdevelopment of other
parts of the brain that are responsible for emotion, behavior, and learning.
Video game addiction constitutes the other harmful effect of gaming. Video gaming is
continuously dominating the world. Addiction to these video games destabilizes the normal
functioning of children (Graham, 2014). Many children who are addicted to video gaming
develop mental disorders associated with video gaming. For instance, majority of children in
the United States who play video games experience slow development and reasoning. Most
of these children are unable to express themselves fluently. Most children who play video
games can spend a whole day in the house. Most of these children develop social disorder. A
socially isolated gamer can only interact with people or peer in massive virtual worlds, but
cannot converse with a friend physically in the same manner (Weber et al., 2020). Most of
children gamers avoid social places. They opt to spend time alone in their rooms. In most
instances, they choose to do their duties singly. They often develop poor teamwork skills.
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EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAMES ON CHILDREN
Children who are addicted to video games shows little cooperation with parents and other
members of the society.
Video games expose children to wrong values. Many video games in the market
comprise of certain features that teach children wrong values (Tumbokon, 2021). Excessive
violence is a common characteristic among many video games. Children enjoy playing
violent video games. Other common features of video games include racism, sexuality, and
profanity. Children cannot perceive these things in the right manner even if used to castigate
certain societal issues. They may not comprehend the context of these depictions.
Subsequently, they emulate these behaviors as exactly portrayed in the video games. The
brain architecture of children is still developing and they cannot differentiate right from
wrong (Guins, 2015). They end up emulating these values, which transcend to adolescent and
adulthood if not addressed. Similarly, children also interact with different people during
online gaming. Some of these people are adults pretending as children. The adults may
expose them to wrong online content, which may alter their values (Graham, 2014). It will
make them imitate the values they observe in online platforms.
Video gaming does not have negative effects on children only. It also has a series of
positive effects. Playing video games improves the problem-solving skills and logic of
children (Annetta et al., 2006). It trains the brain to develop creative solutions to puzzles.
Video games also enable children to coordinate the hand and eye, and fine motor (Liu et al.,
2020). Games that encompass running and shooting at the same time require great
coordination in the brain, hands and fingers. Video games also enable children to multitask
(Tumbokon, 2021). They also help in quick thinking, ability to make fast analysis and
decisions. Every second of the game requires brain coordination, which is important in real
world. It also promotes accuracy. However, these benefits are only attainable upon controlled
video gaming, which is not easy to achieve among children.
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EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAMES ON CHILDREN
In conclusion, video gaming has both positive and negative effects. The positive
effects are majorly evident under control gaming environments. Video gaming addiction is
common among children. The addiction is increasingly becoming a serious concern because
of its underlying negative effects. It promotes aggressive thoughts and behaviors. It also
decreases the ability of children to social freely. Most gaming children like to spend most of
their time alone. It also slows down development of certain parts of the brain. Controlled
video gaming among children is important for consistent positive effects.
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EFFECTS OF VIDEO GAMES ON CHILDREN
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