To play or not to play

SATYA MIRA

Anita Kapur complains, "My 14-year-old son comes back from school and immediately switches on the computer and plays crazy games. I ask him to go out and play with his friends but he does not step out of the house."

Kapur is one of the many mothers who are keen on having their children play and interact with others their age rather than sit in front of a computer.But there are others who think differently. Says Seema Moorty, mother of a teenager, "I think computer games which teach and let children enjoy themselves while they learn are not bad. They allow for a new and different way of learning which cannot have a negative effect."

Kapur and Moorty signify the two opposing points of view when it comes to children and computer games. To make matters worse, ongoing research on the subject across the world too ,is coming up with contradictory conclusions.

Two studies by psychologists Craig Anderson and Karen Dill, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, look at the effects of violent computer games in the lab and in real life. Their findings include the fact that students in both the groups became more aggressive and violent after they had just lost a computer game. Incidentally, these aggressive tendencies were found to be stronger in girls than in boys.

Another feature published in The Observer reports on a new study conducted by Ryuta Kawashima, a professor at the Tohoku University in Japan who specialises in brain imaging. This study concludes that being addicted to computer games can affect a child's overall development.

Kawashima used a new technique in computer imaging which records those areas of the brain which are used when a person is involved in any activity. He then compared brain activity in children playing computer games, with brain activity in children doing an exercise called the Kraepelin Test. This test involves adding single digit numbers continuously for 30 minutes.

The results: those playing computer games were using those parts of the brain which are associated with vision and movement, while those undergoing the Kraepelin Test had much greater activity throughout the left and right hemispheres of the frontal lobe. These areas of the brain are associated with learning, memory, emotions and impulse control.

Discussions are now underway to find out whether this experiment can be relied on totally. Moreover, questions are also being raised about comparing those who are playing computer games and those involved in the Kraepelin Test.

The arguments against using the Kraepelin Test are elementary - it is quite simple to add single digit numbers and it does not require much brainpower.

So what about more complex activities like making friends, interacting with others and learning to do things together?

Professor Kawashima is quoted by The Observer as saying that soon we will have a generation of children - who play computer games - which we have "never seen before". Kawashima adds that the implications of this are very serious for an increasingly violent society and these children will be doing more and more negative things if they are playing games and not engaged in other activities like reading aloud or learning arithmetic.

Understandably, the software industry disagrees with Kawashima's interpretation of his findings. They feel that the industry has been the target of ill-informed criticism and scare-mongering, and that computer games allow all age groups to bring about a balance of learning and leisure activities.

The computer games industry has its point of view; and academicians will continue to discuss and try and improve their experiments even as neurologists will try and improve their equipment. But all this research is placing parents in a tricky situation - do they let their children play games or do they stop them? Is it healthier to play outdoors or is it all right to sit in a room for hours concentrating on a game?

One message, however, is clear: It is important to limit children's computer games playing timeime. And there is a need for more research and studies on the impact that addiction to computer games can have on children. Until then, individual parents will have to decide whether computer games are good for their children or not, on their own.

Women's Feature Service

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