Does Playing Video Games Adversely Affect Children?
Like comic books of the yesteryears, video games today have become the most popular mode of entertainment among children. With the launch of gaming systems like Playstation, Xbox, Game Cube and Nintendo, more and more children are getting absorbed in the addictive world of video games. The advent of the Internet has brought to the fore online games, creating gaming communities that span over barriers of distance and time. A recent report has shown that almost 45% of heavy video game players belong to the 6 to 17 year old age group. With an increasing number of video games depicting death and destruction, this has become an area of concern, since young minds are more susceptible to violence. Games like Mortal Combat, Doom, Painkiller, Unreal Tournament and Half Life have gory scenes of bloodshed and violence, and are likely to have adverse effects on children. Many studies have related video games to abnormal behavior in children, such as aggression, depression and games addiction. Perh
