Culture

Talking to Today: are videogames damaging children's brains?

January 07, 2010
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I was lucky enough to spend four minutes on Radio 4's Today progamme this morning talking about whether videogames affect how children communicate (the implicit question being that they do, and that the effect is a negative one), in connection with the publication of my book on games, Fun Inc, which is out next Thursday. I was debating the point with the education consultant Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood. My lack of ferocity may have disappointed the editors, but it's fair to say that I don't really disagree with her argument that it's a Bad Thing for young children to spend all their time staring at screens instead playing outside, socialising and other such activities. Then again, I can't think of many people who would argue that young children should spend all their time staring at screens.

As Palmer undoubtedly knows, many children end up doing an excessive amount of screen-staring not because their parents honestly believe that everything of value in life can be imbibed through a monitor, but because it's much easier to plonk children down in front of the telly/Wii than it is to give them your full attention. Now, I'd far rather plonk down any children I end up having in front of a games console than in front of a television. But I hope dearly also to introduce them to the joys of reading, sports, music, and conversation, in addition to the joys of both "real" and electronic games. As one gaming expert (and devout Catholic) put it to me while I was writing my book, when it comes to integrating new technologies into society, strategy number one has nothing to do with technology itself. It's about "healthy family formation, early childhood development and an absolutely unequivocal commitment of human beings to the children that they bring into the world. If we could do this I don't think any technology could harm us." I find that argument pretty hard to fault.

Real life has a habit of not working out as well as it might, of course. But I do wish we could get away from this dichotomous talk of games as exclusively good/bad, evil/wonderful. There are good and bad games, and good and bad ways to use them; and if this sounds banal, it's only because it conceals the really important business of trying to work out what makes a game good or bad, why this emerging medium is quite so powerful, and what its true possibilities and pitfalls are. All of which I couldn't quite fit into four minutes on Radio 4, but which I hopefully do slightly more justice to in the book. For the record, I don't think that games are a terrible danger to younger children, so long as parents pay attention to age ratings. I'd also argue that, in the 21st century, we need to get past the screens=bad notion that dominates so many debates. They don't suck out your soul while you're sleeping. Honestly.