Sonia M. Rompoti, MSc, Bsc

While in-person activities have greatly diminished during the COVID pandemic, kids have tried hard to find ways to remain connected with their peers, while also being socially distanced. This new situation provided the perfect ground for the video gaming era to receive a major boost, with parents hardly knowing what to do to pull their kids away from their computers and back to real life as restrictions are starting to ease.

 The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends that older kids have a mere two-hour online presence daily. Yet, surveys show that kids even aged 2-4 play for an average of 20 minutes, while 5-8 year olds play for an average of 40 minutes per day. This is added time on top of many schools, now keeping up with the times, offering online educational video games and activities, and even curricula based on video game design. 

Video gaming stems from a multi-billion industry, making their products incredibly realistic and sophisticated; especially the multiplayer genre adds a social component to the overall design, making it almost irresistible to kids currently being socially distanced. However, adults know that not all people online are a child’s friend, and thus worry even more about not-so-friendly people having even more ways to contact their children. 

But how does this new reality affect our children?

Research is clear: Video games and applications that are interactive and educational have a positive effect on children’s brain development, while violent and exclusively entertaining media have a negative impact on children’s brain development.

Studies are now showing that children repeatedly exposed to violence can become immune and numb to it, they imitate brutality more and are more aggressive towards their peers. Overall, the more realistic the game, the greater the impact it can have on children’s development. Kids are now becoming obsessed with who they can kill and in what way will get them even higher online scores. Some children have even chosen this as their primary source of dopamine increase in their brain. 

Too much time spent online mindlessly can lead to poor social skills, alienation from family bonds, lower grades, having aggressive behavior towards the self and others. 

On the other hand, educational games can help even young kids (preschoolers) learn how to code, learn to read, and do mathematics. A strong alliance with a specific ingame character can give even more boost for the child to learn hard concepts, such as addition and multiplication, even at a young age. A study showed that ‘exergames’ (games that combine exercise and learning) help kids improve fast and accurate decision-making skills.

Further, parent-child bonds can be strengthened, if they sit together to watch educational series or play online games (parents can ask questions or even praise their children for finding the correct answer). As a result, the American Academy of Pediatrics encourages parents to be more involved in their children’s online presence.

It is important to note here that most research has been done with preschoolers and adolescents, so very little is still known about the impact of prolonged online presence in middle schoolers (ages 6-12).

To finish, some quick tips for parents:

• Check the Entertainment Software Rating Board ratings to learn about a game’s content before agreeing to download it; every video game has a label (AO, M, T, E10+, E, RP) explaining the age group for which it is intended
• Promote educational videos and games, versus solely entertaining content
• Interact with the child during their time online (praise them, be curious, help them get excited about education at large)
• Try to find games with relatable characters, so they can form bonds and learn precious social skills in a fun way
• Find more exercise-related games to get the child moving, versus promoting a stationary lifestyle
• Set hard limits on the total time they can spend online, and at which hours of the day they can use their screen time (try to keep them as far away from their night routine)
• Finally, remember you are a role model for your child, so think long and hard about what they are seeing when they look at your online presence.

Overall, take this opportunity to teach your child how to make proper decisions about themselves, establish boundaries, learn what is best for them versus what is easy/fun, and keep the rules even when you are not present (if they go to a friend’s house). Please understand that, in the long run, your child having a healthy and safe online presence at a young age can prove to be a blessing in disguise, as the world and the economy are now marching towards a very real online environment at a quicker than ever pace.