[News] BBC Article on Kids and Games

A few moments ago I was just harmlessly reading articles over on the BBC News website when I came across this.

A number of school ministers and teachers will be talking about the effects playing videogames has on young children to the The Association of Teachers and Lecturers Conference in Manchester.

Most of the comments on the article are aimed towards violent games that kids have been seen re-enacting at school:

"The inspiration for this motion was when I watched my class out on the playground throwing themselves out of the window of the play car in slow motion and acting out blood spurting from their bodies," Alison Sherratt - Teacher

What is refreshing about this article (compared to similar violent videogames articles) is that the teachers/ministers and such involved are looking at parents, and whether or not they're controlling the use of gaming consoles. They report that a large number of children stay up later at night due to playing games, thanks to many kids having access to games consoles in their bedrooms:

"If children come into school exhausted the next day - it's difficult for that child to participate and difficult for the school to teach that child properly." Nick Gibb - Schools Minister

A small dose of gaming can be fun, however children shouldn't substitute other social activities to play games at home. Worth noting as well that they should be playing games suitable for their ages.

I'll link the original article here too, just in case you missed the link at the top of the article. A little while ago I posted a piece about videogames and kids after reading a statement from MP Keith Vaz, which you can read here.