Small Amount of Video Gaming May Be Beneficial for Children

A new study shows that children who regularly spend a small amount of time on video games may become better socialized and happier with their lives.

“I think that a little bit of gaming can give children an outlet,” says Scott Krakower, DO, child and adolescent psychiatrist at Zucker Hillside Hospital. “They can basically give children an outlet to be social. Today’s modern world runs on technology and I think if you’re isolated from it, I think that that could be a bad thing.”The Oxford University study showed that less than an hour a day of video gaming produced the benefits in children. But, on the flipside, too much technology and particularly video gaming can have deleterious effects.“We know now that video gaming has the potential for addiction, in fact so much so that there may be Internet gaming disorders in the future because of that,” Dr. Krakower says. “So too much gaming can lead to addiction and that in turn can lead to harmful results such as not coming out of the house or avoiding others.”

Dr. Krakower says parents should make structured time for their children to play with video games and that children should also partake in other activities and modes of play.

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