Are Xbox, PS3 and Wii really ‘crack’ for children?

Video games, and games consoles come under fire from all and sundry these days. From being blamed for school shootings, and the ills of society, they take a lot of blame. And now, it has got even worse, with a British columnist describing them as “crack for kids”.

Janice Turner, a writer for Times Online wrote an opinion piece regarding children’s addiction to multimedia, one of which was video games, and consoles such as the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360. The Xbox seemed to come in for the worst criticism, being cited in the obviously baited title “Xbox is crack for kids”.

It’s an interesting read, with some parts I even agree with. I mean, yes, children should get out of the house more, do more exercise, and generally lead a balance life. But surely video games can be a part of that balanced life?

Taking them out of the equation altogether will just lead to resentment from kids towards their parents, and isolation from their friends, who have all got the latest console, and are wondering why this one kid doesn’t even know what a joypad is.

Reading through the full article, which I urge you all to do, it’s obvious that Turner has fallen in to the trap which all so called media experts fall in to: namely not knowing or researching their subject of choice fully before opining endlessly on the evils of it.

This paragraph says more about Turner’s knowledge base on the subject than anything else:

“I refuse to buy them portable gaming consoles, Xboxes, GameCubes, PS2s. These are Satan’s Sudoku, crack cocaine of the brain. Even the crappiest cartoon or lamest soap teaches a child about character, plot, drama, humour, life.”

“Playing videogames, children are mentally imprisoned, wired into their evil creators’ brains. And they play them – beepety-beep – on journeys, over family meals, any minute in which they find themselves unamused.”

Dear Ms. Turner, first of all, you’re a generation out of date. Have you never heard of that console which has been making news headlines around the world lately. You know, that Nintendo one which kids and adults alike have been searching fruitlessly for, for the last twelve months? It’s called a Wii, and it’s consigned the Gamecube to the dustbin. No, well, what about the PS3, or the Xbox 360?

As for being “Satan’s Sudoku”, I really think you’ve overstepped the mark there, both in terms of language, and opinion. I’m not denying games are addictive, but to compare them to crack cocaine is as ludicrous as me comparing your writing skills to Shakespeare.

There is a case for parents being more hands on when it comes to regulating playing time for their children, but why go from that point of view, to calling all games, and the consoles they are played on, evil? That’s surely just a sign of a bad writer, with not much to say, or maybe even a bad parent.

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