Mini-Addicts

Over on the Huffington Post, Rachel Mosteller is wondering if some parents are now raising mini-addicts - a worry raised by seeing a computer (and collection of games) being given on a fourth birthday. This leads to some reflection on an evident lack of moderation and parental guidance in the use of technology. For her own children, Rachel wants them to “learn to use these items in moderation while still enjoying the non-technical side of life.”

Sensible enough, and hardly controversial.

What got me though was the story related in one of the story’s comments:

I’m having that problem with my nephew. He’s 6 years old and tops the charts in Call Of Duty 4. His little hand is stretching across the keyboard to precisely pull off moves. The problem is that’s all the thinks about now. He hasn’t been going to sleep lately.

I don’t know where to begin.

Game Playing and Asperger’s

Should have blogged this last week…

Skewed coverage of academic report in the Dire Mail (sorry, Daily Mail) : Computer game addicts warned they could start behaving like autism sufferers. Of course the report warns no such thing, as discussed here at Spong: Daily Mail muddles cause and effect .

According to Spong, the original paper basically imagines a line ranging from ‘autistic’ to ‘not autistic’, and notes that game players (along with the likes of engineers!) are found closer to the autistic end of the line than non-gamers.

Byron Review on Internet and Gaming Risks

The Byron Review was published a couple of days ago. I would have blogged it at the time, but I’m busy…

You can get the report here: Safer Children in a Digital World: the report of the Byron Review

The report has been fairly well received by the media and the industry overall - if not welcomed in its entirety. What I found most interesting though was that the review comes not just in two the usual summary and full report versions, but a third version for children to read themselves is also available.

Online gaming and addiction

Some recent posts from Lisa Galarneau and discussion in Terranova, here and in this one which considers childrens’ MMOs. I’ve been thinking about this a little since my daughter got her Tamagotchi - and started visiting the (non-multiplayer) online ‘Tamagotchi Town’. She’s had the thing for a month and already seems to have forgotten what life was like before then.

I also finally got round to logging in to WoW - which I’ve avoided before as I know I don’t have the time to play it and because I know that I sometimes have difficulty controlling my own use of games once I get started - RPGs in particular, let alone MMO ones. One weekend later, and I’ve successfully proven to myself that I daren’t subscribe. I don’t want to turn into Cartman in that episode of Southpark.

Gaming and Addiction

‘Gaming Addiction’ has been raised a few times recently in some Second Life discussions I’ve participated in. When he visited the Teen Grid, James Paul Gee was asked about gaming addiction, and primarily focussed on the potential benefits of gaming in his answer. Then there was a question on the SLED mailing list asking whether getting students to work in Second Life was putting them at risk. This last raised some debate about gaming addiction, my contribution was this (some editing):