Are children to young to play games?

[Alexander.]

What age is to be considered to young for gaming? 9, 6, 3? Why?

I don't think any age is to young for gaming aslong as they own the right games for there age group and there not playing age restricted games.(18+)

 

 

[The Blackangel]

I think you said it right. It's fine for children of any age to play video games, as long as it's appropriate for the child's age. I don't think you would want your 6 year old playing GTA of Call Of Duty. Or even something that seems cartoony like Conker's Bad Fur Day. Which I might add started out as a child's game until the developers got perverted.

But pretty much any Mario, Zelda, or Sonic game would be fine for pretty much any age. Then there's games that are aimed for more of a younger age bracket like Banjo Kazooie. I'll admit, I'm 37 and LOVE Banjo Kazooie. But hell I still watch Fraggle Rock, so go figure.

[kingpotato]

Well I played GTA games at a early age 8-10 and I was never affected by the violence in those games, however there are plenty of kids that are more susceptible to violence.

[StaceyPowers]

I agree with @kingpotato. I too played violent video games at a young age, and wasn't affected adversely in any way. I think it depends more on a child's personality and maturity level than their age. So different ages for different kids. Hopefully their parents know them well enough to make sensible choices.

 

[Aerielle del Rosario]

It depends on the age bracket. When I was 8, accidentally they downloaded GTA IV San Andreas and I got hooked into it then I started saying bad stuffs towards my parents and peers so I would say also appropriation.

[mont86]

I feel so old saying this , but I think most kids are too young for most video games. But as a kid I would have loved to have these games to play.

[Heatman]

To some extent, there are so many games that were designed specifically for kids, so it won't be a problem saying that kids are meant to play games. Unless it's games that have too much violence scenes that would be kind of harmful to kids, then it's not good for them to play such games. 

[killamch89]

On 3/27/2019 at 4:55 PM, StaceyPowers said:

I agree with @kingpotato. I too played violent video games at a young age, and wasn't affected adversely in any way. I think it depends more on a child's personality and maturity level than their age. So different ages for different kids. Hopefully their parents know them well enough to make sensible choices.

 

The buck stops with the parenting. I grew up playing GTA and RE and I was never in any way influenced by the content of such games because my parents taught me better. A game will only be just that - a piece of software for entertainment. It cannot be substituted for good parenting.

[SpaceExplorer]

8 hours ago, killamch89 said:

The buck stops with the parenting. I grew up playing GTA and RE and I was never in any way influenced by the content of such games because my parents taught me better. A game will only be just that - a piece of software for entertainment. It cannot be substituted for good parenting.

That's the thing. A lot of parents today will just give the kid video games or whatever to shut it up and then later down the road blame the said video games because their child didn't end up as they wanted.

[skyfire]

I think the issue is that parenting from millennial will only make things worse. We are getting things lot quicker compared to the past generation. So we have attention span issue that affects the real life too. So if kids in next generation also have low attention span. That is going to affect the new generation even in a worse way as well. 

[killamch89]

2 hours ago, SpaceExplorer said:

That's the thing. A lot of parents today will just give the kid video games or whatever to shut it up and then later down the road blame the said video games because their child didn't end up as they wanted.

You right about millennial parents not taking responsibility for their kids - in fact, most of these millennial parents are kids themselves who also grew up with poor parenting so they simply repeat the cycle.

[killamch89]

2 hours ago, skyfire said:

I think the issue is that parenting from millennial will only make things worse. We are getting things lot quicker compared to the past generation. So we have attention span issue that affects the real life too. So if kids in next generation also have low attention span. That is going to affect the new generation even in a worse way as well. 

From observation, most millennial parents aren't mature enough mentally to take on the responsibility of parenting because they themselves are kids as well.

[The Blackangel]

When I was a kid it was right in the middle of the video game crash. I actually didn't even knw what a video game was because of it. I spent all my time outside. Climbing trees, playing with toys, and just running around. My first video game was a Colecovision that I got when I was probably 4. It was a hand-me-down from one of my grandmother's friends. I was amazed that there were things I could control on a TV. It blew my mind. I played Donkey Kong, Ladybug (basically PacMan), and another game but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. It was bliss. Now we have games that look like real life and act like real life. People think "My kid's a good egg. This will just entertain them before dinner." Which happens more and more, until eventually the kid is left to the game as a babysitter instead. Then 20 years later the kid is on trial for murder and the defense is playing video games, instead of absent, shitty parents. Video games are fine. I'm not attacking them. But the parents need to take an interest in their child if they want that child to be worth anything.

As a side note:
I swear to the Gods I wish I still had that Coleco.

[StaceyPowers]

17 hours ago, killamch89 said:

The buck stops with the parenting. I grew up playing GTA and RE and I was never in any way influenced by the content of such games because my parents taught me better. A game will only be just that - a piece of software for entertainment. It cannot be substituted for good parenting.

Exactly. The ability of the child to reason is important too. I never really saw a connection between video game "violence" and real-life violence--there's nothing harmful occurring on a screen. But some kids may not have the ability to make the distinction, and as a result, may behave problematically.

[killamch89]

3 hours ago, StaceyPowers said:

Exactly. The ability of the child to reason is important too. I never really saw a connection between video game "violence" and real-life violence--there's nothing harmful occurring on a screen. But some kids may not have the ability to make the distinction, and as a result, may behave problematically.

It doesn't help that some of these millennial parents are very childish in nature as well so they don't really know any better so they just keep making the situation worse. Then they try to blame everyone/everything for not being a good influence on their children.