Coming soon, to the brain of a child near you…

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.