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Too much video gaming?

senseless

senseless

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 23, 2008
1,890
260
Pennsylvania, USA
A friend doesn't know what to do about his 14 year old son's gaming obsession. He's content to spend all his free time at WOW or Xbox Call Of Duty and others. Is this a normal OCD teen thing or should this be taken more seriously? Has the violence exposure been proven to be harmful? In all other respects, he's a good kid.
 
It depends on how long he is playing for. I played a lot of games as a kid but I still spent less time with them than my friends who would watch a lot of TV and films. I'd say anything more than 3-4 hours a day is pushing it.
 
hey man....don't worry...if movies don't spoil are kids then games don't as well!!
 
Why doesn't your friend just limit the amount of time a day that the kid can play video games? It seems as if parents today are afraid to tell their kids what to do.
 
As long as i doesn't negatively affect other aspects of his life(relationships, school etc) i think it is fine. And i think a 14 year old should be able to differ between the real world and the game. So he won't go around shooting anybody. All of those incidents, the culprits were psychological in nature and the game simply pushed them over the edge but it doesn't have any effect on the normal person.
 
themoonisdown09 said:
Why doesn't your friend just limit the amount of time a day that the kid can play video games? It seems as if parents today are afraid to tell their kids what to do.
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Exactly. Tell the kid he gets to spend x amount of time with the games, and also that he has to do some sort of school-sponsored extracurricular activity. My parents forced me to do that and it was the best thing for me.
 
There are parental controls on the Xbox that make it so the parent can limit the ratings (for games, videos etc) and hours.
If your friend is that worried, they should talk with their kid, come-up with a limit, and the parental controls should be enforced.
That said, there are professionals out there that get paid a decent amount of money just to play videos games and spend 10-12 hours a day doing so. Maybe he's just found his career path. Also, great friendships can be made through online gaming, much like through online forums. ;)
But yeah, there should still be a limit for a 14 year old kid.
 
OP, we kind of need more details to properly answer the question. does the kid play sports or is he overweight? does he do well in school or at least do his homework/study? not too sure if you have an answer to the second question since he isn't your son.

i got an Xbox 360 a few years ago and my parents never let me play during the school week because then i would focus more on school work. i hated it at first but now i don't even think about Xbox until the weekend and i don't even play that much, maybe a couple hours over the course of a weekend. and during the spring/summer i work out, then take the fall/winter off cause i hate my cold basement:p

in summary: you should manage the time you play video games to the time you spend on school work and hanging with friends and just not confining yourself to your room for many hours at a time.
 
I think a lot of kids spend a ton of gaming...its not a bad thing, and a lot of people love to do it all the time. I ran a video game club in high school, and lots of my friends were involved in it, and we had a great time.

That said, it can have negative affects....the parents just need to be able to say "no" at a certain point.

Also health concerns cam come up...again the parents need to get the kids out of the house. I love gaming, its a great time. But its not the only thing I do. The parents of this child need to urge their kid to try other things as well.

Gaming today is like watching movies, its very very popular. But it shouldn't be the only thing someone does.
 
I'm 15 and play a lot of video games, and I don't really think it affects you unless you let it. It's not hard to have a small group of friends, work out, and play a lot of video games, so long as that is not the only thing you do. I only had one problem, School. It was somewhat hard studying/doing homework and playing. It doesn't have to be though. So long as he gets all his school work done before he plays, it works out fine. That is the one thing my parents really had to get on me about, doing homework as soon as I got home. Different kids respond differently to that kind of stuff. I played at times up to five hours on a school day, and was offered a sponsorship to MLG, but declined it because of school.
 
leekohler said:
Exactly. Tell the kid he gets to spend x amount of time with the games, and also that he has to do some sort of school-sponsored extracurricular activity. My parents forced me to do that and it was the best thing for me.
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Very true. I want to say the 360 even has some pretty good parental controls built into it if I remember the options I have seen correctly when digging around on mine.

Those controls allow the parent to limit how many hours per day. Even limit what times per day they are allowed to play and day of the week.

It has some pretty nice controls when a parent could use it to say only 1-2 hours a day then it locks up. On weekends allow even more time. I have never tested them but I would not be surpised if a parent can provide a temporary override to it.

One you thing you have to remember is kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for and putting a foot down they will try to sneak around it. It is a lot harder to get around parental lock out than it is to wait until parent is gone or asleep. When you have to get around the lock outs you not only have to wait until the parents are gone but also have to get around them and make sure they are put back in place before they return.
 
Dad is more concerned with the lack of other interests like exercise or going out with friends and more creative things. Although he has school friends that he plays online with, is this really socializing?

The kid might play for 10 hours straight, if you let him. But, Dad might do the same thing on a Saturday watching TV. Not productive either, I suppose.

The Xbox timer lockout is a great suggestion. Thanks for that.
 
senseless said:
Dad is more concerned with the lack of other interests like exercise or going out with friends and more creative things. Although he has school friends that he plays online with, is this really socializing?

The kid might play for 10 hours straight, if you let him. But, Dad might do the same thing on a Saturday watching TV. Not productive either, I suppose.

The Xbox timer lockout is a great suggestion. Thanks for that.
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yeah the Xbox timer is probably the best suggestion.
and though it's no big deal i think that the Dad watching TV thing isn't really a good comparison because it's probably safe to say he's done his fair share of work to get to where he is today, having a job and a family and all.
 
DoFoT9 said:
let's just hope that the tissue box has rechargeable batteries :rolleyes: ;)
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Lol I used to play a lot of games as a kid my parents started to limit how long I could spent on the computer. No computer until we had are home work down on Saturday
mornings no computer until our bed rooms where tidied and vacumed. Sunday no computer at all we had to go outside and play
 
toolbox said:
Lol I used to play a lot of games as a kid my parents started to limit how long I could spent on the computer. No computer until we had are home work down on Saturday
mornings no computer until our bed rooms where tidied and vacumed. Sunday no computer at all we had to go outside and play
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hmm my parents eventually became strict, it didnt really change my behavioural patterns at all so they eventually "gave in" because i think they would rather that then me going out and getting into trouble.

i think that playing the games taught me some skills. perception, decision making, logic etc.
 
leekohler said:
Exactly. Tell the kid he gets to spend x amount of time with the games, and also that he has to do some sort of school-sponsored extracurricular activity. My parents forced me to do that and it was the best thing for me.
Click to expand...

Agreed, my parents forced me to play a high school sport so I picket football. I hated it the first couple weeks, but grew to love it. I think if I had stayed in the house all day I would end up fat and gross like my younger brother who decided to play golf, which practices twice a week, with really no physical activity (unless you count walking).

When my brother is not practicing, he stays inside all day (he's doing this now actually) and plays COD Modern Warfare 2 and eats snack foods. The golf season is only about 5 weeks here and the school team only practices in season, so he does this a lot!
 
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