How young is too young for children to play video games?

[Sevion]

Video Games are just like anything else. They have the potential to benefit you or hurt you.

Sports are exactly the same.

 

[FireCat]

Video Games are just like anything else. They have the potential to benefit you or hurt you.

How does playing computer games benefit a young child?

 

[Sevion]

From my own experiences and the experiences of my brothers (who are 9 and 5), they learn a LOT from video games and using a computer in general.

They've learned how to read, type (write), count, and a lot more. And no, they aren't playing those crappy "How many apples does Dora have!?!!? What colors the red house!?" games. They're playing games that teach teamwork and listening skills. They also improve their motor skills and coordination (in the hands and fingers). They play games like Alien Swarm and Garry's Mod. When my brother plays Garry's Mod, he actually builds stuff. So you can't say he's not learning.

Games encouraged both me and my brothers to problem solve. In fact, VIDEO GAMES are the reason I learned MATH. Until the 4th grade, math was like rocket science to me. I didn't understand a thing about it. I could add and subtract, but anything else more than that, I was drowning in the deep end of the pool. Then, it all clicked once I started playing video games and got interested in games like Garry's Mod and Warcraft III. Why? Garry's Mod includes addons (like Wiremod) and those in turn include things like Expression Gates and Expression2 Gates which are script logic gates. Warcraft III because I started learning a scripting language and in programming/scripting, math is very intensive (generally). If anything at all with math, it includes numbers (usually).

http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/10_Benefits_Of_Video_Games.html
http://www.sandradodd.com/videogames/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/17/AR2009081702114.html
http://discovermagazine.com/2005/jul/brain-on-video-games
http://medgadget.com/archives/2008/08/studies_show_benefits_of_video_game_playing.html

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=What+are+the+benefits+of+Video+Games

 

[tom_mai78101]

But those games were teaching kids that had learned how to read and write to do something fun.

In my case, my brother is 3 years old. He doesn't even read or write ABCs. Suppose you give him Garry's Mod, all he could do was keep pressing the keys on the keyboard. His hands aren't large enough to let him click on the left mouse button. From there, he would get bored or something and wanted to play Need For Speed.

 

[Sevion]

Your brother is 3... Mine is 9... Quite a large age difference for their ages.

 

[thewrongvine]

Let's let a 6 year old play Gears of War! Wait, that's bad.
Let's let him play SIMS (E), that's good.
Let's let him play kickball with friends, that's good too.
Let's let him play real football with adults!

As you can see from that carefully detailed illustration...

~Hai-Bye-Vine~

 

[Sevion]

Let's let a 6 year old play Gears of War! Wait, that's bad.

I guess it's horrible that my 5 year old brother plays Gears of War 1 AND 2.

 

[tooltiperror]

I personally don't think it's that big of a deal. I combined a book that pronounced letters with OoT to teach myself to read so I could figure out whatever the hell that damned Deku Tree was saying. And I'm not addicted to video games, and I was like six. Since then I've been playing games on a regular basis, but I also play several sports in real life.

 

[13lade619]

I guess it's horrible that my 5 year old brother plays Gears of War 1 AND 2.

uh, dude, has it ever occured to you that YES it is.

Ever heard of the ESRB Ratings?
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

 

[Sevion]

No. I haven't. I've been playing video games for well over 12 years. What's the M mean? I saw like five games once with the AO on it and I always see the one with the T on it. I don't really like the games with the E on it.....

Is it bad that my brother plays those games? No. It's not... He's fine. Has he gotten very violent? No...

 

[thewrongvine]

Okay... people just ignored mine awesomely detailed example, :C

My first XBox game was Gears too when I was younger. I mean I wasn't 5, but still. C:

~Hai-Bye-Vine~

 

[Lyerae]

uh, dude, has it ever occured to you that YES it is.

Ever heard of the ESRB Ratings?
http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp

Those ratings are based on what parents may fine inappropriate for their children.

 

[ElderKingpin]

GTA Bioshock and a lot of good games are rated M, its not our fault that good games are rated M ._.

Even Halo 3 and MW2 are rated M and theres no way that all of the people that play those games are 17+ >.>

 

[tom_mai78101]

Maybe we need to rethink how mature people really are.

Maybe we didn't see the other good games labeled as Everyone, and Teens.

 

[Sevion]

The thing is, while the ratings may prove accurate for ONE PERSON, it might not for another. That's why I don't follow those guidelines and instead look at the content of the actual game to judge.

 

[Winterherz]

I have no problem with a 3 year old playing games, except for

[YOUTUBE]x4c_wI6kQyE[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Slapshot136]

The thing is, while the ratings may prove accurate for ONE PERSON, it might not for another. That's why I don't follow those guidelines and instead look at the content of the actual game to judge.

I agree,

age is a pretty crappy measurement of maturity, so even if the ratings weren't the crap they are (affected by politics/money/etc.), assigning an age as a limit between what is appropriate and what isn't is inherently flawed

I personally learned a lot about history from the age of empires series when I was about 8-10 ish, and then started learning to code from wc3, but I didn't have video games when I was younger so I can't really say much about a 3-5 year old playing games, except for that im sure that they can also learn useful things from them - it depends on the individual kid/game

 

[Jackal]

I personally learned a lot about history from the age of empires series when I was about 8-10 ish

Same.

Then I realised that Wallace didn't win the Battle of Falkirk and I never took any of the games' stories as fact after that.

Just as well that this was the time before AoE III.

 

[Slapshot136]

I think AoE 3 is a complete fail outside the graphics, and sorry, but I knew that the tutorial mission was all wrong, the rest was more or less accurate, also in those early days I was playing rise of rome so ;P

 

[sqrage]

Closing this if it doesn't get back on track.