Gamertell

According to SignonSanDiego.com there’s a growing concern about children learning unpleasant behaviors through game addiction and warns that parents should pay attention to what their child is playing even more, especially the Nintendo Wii.

Grant it, the Nintendo Wii is so easy that even my cat, Maki, can figure out how to play with it. But I’m not quite sure why a Wii system should a cause for an alarm. When I read this article by Jennifer Davies, a Union-Tribune staff writer, Davies focused on a family with three toddlers ranging from 18-months old to a five year old playing Wii-Tennis.

One of the parents she interviews went as far as to say that they “see video games as the root of all modern-day child-rearing problems, from hyperactivity and obesity to attention deficit disorders and addictive behavior.” Which I found surprisingly funny in that, for a long time, the complaint was that children were not getting enough exercise or communicating with their parents and bonding well.

Having played in a Wii tournament in my town recently, those wireless remotes aren’t easy to keep moving. In fact, after playing half an hour of Wii Bowling all I wanted to do is go take a WiiNap and rest until I can feel my WiiArms again. If that isn’t a workout, I can’t imagine what Wii-Fit has in store for us with its variety of workout routines and games.

As the article continues, Davies interviews Lawrence Kutner, co-founder of Harvard Medical School’s Center for Mental Health and Media and author of Grand Theft Childhood who warns that parents should consider monitoring what their child is playing and how much time they spend on it. He admitted that its not the games that are the problem until parents use these gaming consoles and television as “an electronic baby sitter.”

To me that makes more sense than another professor Davies interviews who suggests parents should prevent children from playing games that involve sword fighting or boxing, regardless of how mild they are.

“The main lesson is that content really matters,” Anderson told Davies. “If you teach children violent lessons, they will take those violent lessons to the playground.”

Which would be true for the parents of a 3-year-old in Belfast, UK who threw a tantrum and cracked his father’s plasma television after losing a game of Wii Tennis. But after reading the article, the parent left the child alone to fetch something to drink when the incident occurred, so who is really at fault?  I’m pretty sure the Wii didn’t tell the child to hit the television. Anyway, the debate about the pros and cons of video games and video game consoles in general is much like a tennis match.

I’m pretty sure we haven’t heard of the last of this topic, but until then let me volley this ball back into the tennis court and go rest my Wii-arms and get ready for my next match of Wii-Bowling next week.

Read [Sign on San Diego] Read [Belfast Telegraph]

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