Do Video Games Benefit Children? Video games are the fastest growing entertainment in the world, becoming more lifelike, complex and common in nature. Today, 91% of children between the ages of 2-17 play video games (NPD Group, 2011). Engaging in video games have several benefits such as, cognitive skills, social skills, motivation skills, and emotional skills. However, research shows that there may be long-term effects as well. The Debate of video games has been going on for roughly 35 years now. The controversy began in 1976 when the arcade game “Death Race” came out (based on the movie Death Race 2000). The game consisted of players running over “gremlins” (what was later found out to be pedestrians) while they yelled and sobbed. In 1992, one of the most controversial games “Mortal Combat” came to our screens with gory graphics such as severed heads, ripping out spines and hearts. It was one of the most popular game of all time. In 2007, “Bioshock” was criticized for allowing players to murder little girls that were turned into mutated monsters to get points. In 2011, “Bulletstorm” was introduced and said to be one of the worst games in the world. There’s an excess amount of profanity and is very gruesome as body parts splat all over the screen (Gross, CNN. 2013). Although there has been negative controversy about these games, research also shows the benefits and adverse effects of games in the same categories, (e.g., shooterames). Several training and research studies show that video games improve cognition and social development, shooter or action games in particular. Training studies recruit players that don’t play shooter games on a regular basis, and assign them to a shooter game or another type of video game for the same amount of time. Compared the participants that were not playing shooter games, the ones that were showed faster and more precise attention dispersal, advanced three-dimensional persistence in visual dispensation, and improved mental variation skills. (Bavelier, & C.S Green 2012). Over 60% of gamers play with a friend, family member, parents or spouse. A study was done were all of the partakers were asked to write down what they were thinking while playing the game. Partakers that were not playing a prosocial game didn’t write down prosocial thoughts compared to the partakers playing prosocial games (Greitemeyer, T., & Oswald, S. 2011). For example, Farmville, one of the biggest social networking games on Facebook getting over 5 million daily users and World of Warcraft, a made-up game set in a huge computer-generated world (Gill, 2012). In virtual communities, decisions need to be made on who to trust, who to reject and how to form and lead a group. That being said, gamers are rapidly learning prosocial behavior and social skills that may reflect on relationships outside of the gaming world (Gentile & Gentile, 2008; Gentile et al., 2009). Playing games that are specifically designed to reward effective cooperation, support and helping behaviors appear to help players obtain more prosocial skills (Ewoldsen et al., 2012). All of these studies show immediate long term benefits. Children develop beliefs about their intelligence and abilities, which could affect motivation performance and accomplishment. Children who are admired, develop a theory of intelligence; they believe intelligence is flexible, something that can be advanced through exertion and time. Video games are an ideal environment for gaining intelligence because it gives instant responses on the efforts the player has made (Dweck & Molden, 2005). Researchers at North Carolina State University, York University and the University Of Ontario Institute Of Technology determined that playing online games do not substitute offline social lives, but is intensifying it. A study shows that if children play violent video games more corporately instead of competitively, it increases behavior and prosocial skills out of the gaming world (Ewoldsen et al., 2012). Several studies have shown that playing a preferred video game helps increase mood and positive emotion. For example, studies show that playing puzzle games (e.g., Angry Birds or Bejeweled) can improve mood, help anxiety and stimulate relaxation (Russoniello et al., 2009). Research has shown that video games are real enough to make achieving goals matter and also safe enough to practice adjusting negative feelings because of these completed goals (Gottman, 1986). The emotional gain that gamers get while playing video games is still speculative and more research is to be done. Some of society may think that video games are beneficial, however, There were two tests done in a study to measure control, cheating and aggressive behavior. The research of Gabbiadini, Andrighetto, Volpato and Bushman (2013) consisted of high school students that were instructed to play a violent or non-violent game for 35 minutes. Control was measured by putting a bowl of candy next to the players, cheating was measure by answering questions and taking unearned raffle tickets and aggressive behavior was measured by being able to blast music into their competitor’s ears. The results of this study concluded that violent video games that were played for 35 minutes by students, experienced less self-control, cheating and aggressive actions. Research also shows children that play video games lack more in their academics. For example, poorer grades in English classes were reported by high school students because they spent more time playing video games or spending more money on video games (Harris & Williams, 1985). If the average child plays video games 8 hours a week, those 8 hours your child is not engaged in reading, homework or participating in extracurricular activities. Video games allow children to have challenging goals, a harmless make believe environment where they can practice controlling negative thoughts, feelings and problem solving skills, which all of these benefits could help with real world decisions. On the other hand, excessive violent video game play increases aggression, lack of self-control, acts of cheating and long or short term brain effects. When letting your children engage in video games, make sure you monitor your child, buy video games in your child’s age group, and observe your child’s behavior. All children should have different ways to participate in physical and social play and video games have one of many passages to explore.

References
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Ewoldsen, D. R., Eno, C. A., Okdie, B. M., Velez, J. A., Guadagno, R. E.,& DeCoster, J. (2012). Effect of playing violent video games cooper-atively or competitively on subsequent cooperative behavior. Cyber-psychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15, 277–280. doi:10.1089/cyber.2011.0308 Gabbiadini, A., Riva, P., Andrighetto, L., Volpato, C., & Bushman., J. B., (2013). Interactive Effect of Moral Disengagement and Violent Video Games on Self-Control, Cheating, and Aggression. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5, 451-458. doi:10.1177/1948550613509286.
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Gill, N. (2012). 10 most popular Facebook games in 2012 – Popular apps!! Retrieved from http://www.socialdon.com/blog/popular-faceb s-2012/ook-game
Greitemeyer, T., & Osswald, S. (2011). Playing Prosocial Video Games Increases the Accessibility of Prosocial Thoughts. Journal of Social Psychology, 151(2), 121.doi:10.1080/00224540903365588
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Jacobs, Tom (2014). Violent Video Games and Bad Behavior: The Evidence Mounts. Retrieved from http://www.psmag.com/navigation/books-and-culture/violent-video-games-bad- behavior-evidence-mounts-74372/
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