GameSpot - An hour of Gaming can be Good for Your Child

Researchers from Oxford University have found, in a new study, that if children play videogames for an hour or less pr. day, it is actually good for them.

A new study from researchers at Oxford University found that video games can be good for children, but only if they play for around an hour or less per day. The study, published today in Pediatrics, found that children who played games for a few hours each week were better adjusted, had fewer conduct problems, and better empathized with others than those who played no games at all, according to a breakdown of the report from Today and BBC.

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More information.

Research probably funded by Electronic Arts.

Now, go buy your kid a phone and get him install Heroes of Dragon Age phonegame. What are you waiting for?

Kids should IMO be out getting dirty. All day long. Leave videogames to age when a person can recognize scams.

If I ever have kids: no TV, no video games, & very limited internet access. Society is more and more a pathetic husk of consumerized ideals, sped to this end by exploitative mediums. We are all born with such incredible potential… most of it quickly squandered away…

I'll probably be voted the worst dad in the neighborhood, but I'll be damned if my kids don't opt for picking up a book rather than sitting down to watch the latest Disney schlock.

At least computer games are interactive and require more cognitive function than just watching a TV show.

The results aren't a surprise to me; play is a nature's evolved training system. Computer games are just an extension of that.

I think it is better to choose what your children watch and play since there are shows and games that can be really helpful for education while being entertaining and I'm not talking about crappy educational games.

When I was a kid I went outside a lot for playing ball with friends and other sports, read many books, watched TV (popular 1980s cartoons, Fall Guy, Knight Rider, popular local shows, whatever) and played a fair number of games on the family C64.
The key word is balance.
Certainly an hour of gaming won't hurt any child if other interests are also tended to. Not sure why it required a study to figure that out.

I would much rather have someone I love use their brain for something like video gaming than not use their brain much at all for something like TV or something else non-interactive. I think that a mix of video gaming and something providing physical exercise (such as outside play) would be best.

It's the non-interactive entertainment which I believe would be most harmful to someone's development, especially to the level which can occur with many people who just veg out.

In other Gamespot news... they named D:OS their game of the month for July.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/game-of-the-month-july-2014/1100-6421479/

I'd say early overexposure to gaming can be a problem alongside with overexposure to math and other rigid human constructs that have little bearing on reality.

While I'm sure it has helped me with problem solving and decision making, I'm not sure the obsession with optimising and constant awareness of time is a great help in my everyday life. While those things can't be directly attributed to gaming - I have a feeling they're closely related.

I often feel I would prefer having a relaxed mind that doesn't go out of its way to construct a problem because it's not being challenged.

Considering the ridiculously weak position on knowledge of the human mind - I'd be very cautious trusting much of anything "official" for quite a few years yet.

That said, an hour probably can't hurt.

NFLed said:

I would much rather have someone I love use their brain for something like video gaming than not use their brain much at all for something like TV or something else non-interactive. I think that a mix of video gaming and something providing physical exercise (such as outside play) would be best.

It's the non-interactive entertainment which I believe would be most harmful to someone's development, especially to the level which can occur with many people who just veg out.

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I agree. Also, shouldn't this kind of study take into account WHAT games the children play? I don't know the age of the children in the study, but I would think there's a world of difference between playing games that makes you think to games that make you react. I would guess the people in this forum are a bit better at solving problems then the ones at for example a shooter forum. On the other hand, we might be socially incompetent instead?

I DO have a daughter, she's two years old and handles a touchscreen better than her grandparents. I feel that to completely cut her off from computers and electric devices would just make her unprepared for reality. The key word like someone mentioned is balance. I always had this rule for myself that if I wanted to play games I had to go work out first.

Today I play computer whenever I get the chance though, which is still not even a tenth of the hours I spent in gaming ten years ago…

Children who played more than three hours a day were more likely to have ADD symptoms, feel less compassion, and be unhappy with life in general.

Good thing for all of us that goes away in childhood!