Are you worried because your child is playing games all the time? Do games hinder children’s growth?

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I’m worried because my child is playing games all the time. This is a question that has been common since long ago.
Why are you consulting me? It was a bit strange, but it seems they are genuinely struggling and want to consult someone who knows games well, preferably from someone involved in the gaming industry to advise their child.

This is often consulted by mothers of children from lower elementary school to around high school.

In this article, I would like to share my thoughts on this consultation.

Worrying that your child is playing games all the time can vary greatly depending on the situation, but it can lead to poor grades.

Could it affect personality formation by becoming violent or introverted?

These are basically these two points.

I am neither an educator nor a researcher, so I will speak from my own subjective perspective, based on my own experience.

First of all, my view is that it’s perfectly normal for children, especially boys, to like games, and there’s nothing particularly wrong with that.It’s precisely because of that game industry that it exists and has a market.

Children generally enjoy cleverness to conquer the game, practice and improve, and share achievements with friends, so games tend to get hooked on those things.

If that’s the case, then just do that as a study… I think that’s the parents’ intention, but compared to studying, games are designed to make it easier to take on new challenges and quickly get results, so games are more enjoyable and provide a sense of accomplishment. Therefore, for children, games are more fun and enjoyable.

I believe that playing games doesn’t mean you can’t study. I think games can actually be a place to test various ways of thinking. So, I feel that playing games won’t make you lose your mind.
Various papers have published on this topic, and it is being demonstrated in the same direction as my own view, so if you’re interested, please try searching and researching.

However, that doesn’t mean we should encourage children to play games all the time. It’s true that playing games doesn’t at least improve school grades, and in fact, they tend to decline.

A drop in school test scores is not a good thing. The studies taught at school are important as a fundamental cultural foundation for life. Don’t neglect it.

So why does playing games lower school grades? Because games are designed to immerse children, which tends to cause them to spend less time studying only on games. It’s natural that your grades will drop when that happens, and it’s not that the game is bad, but simply because you don’t have enough study time.

To all the students watching this video, make sure to study properly.

Usually, I first tell the person seeking advice about this, and if your grades are actually dropping right now, please make sure to set aside study time and make time to play games. For high school students, it probably depends on you, but for elementary and middle school students, you need to establish good rules at home.

This issue applies not only to games, but also to highly addictive content such as social media and smartphones. Spending hours watching TikTok every day is just like overgaming—it’s a problem.

Another concern is whether playing games negatively affects children’s personality development. Although various papers have already been published, I also believe it is not very relevant.

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Indeed, recent games feature very realistic and brutal depictions. In such a situation, I fully understand the feeling that we don’t want our child to play games where you shoot people with a gun, and I think such a policy is possible.

However, the idea that children who play a lot of games will, for example, become violent, cold, or even criminals is a mistaken idea and has been repeatedly rejected academically.

I hope you can rest assured about this, but as mentioned earlier, overdoing games lowers the school’s motivation, and spending too much time on games can make face-to-face communication difficult or cause unhealthy health due to lack of exercise. As a result, introversion can easily happen indirectly.
So, I think it’s fine to love games, but I often tell you that it’s not good to play too much just games.

I think parents are very worried when their child is playing games all the time.
However, it’s natural for children to get hooked on games, and overly negative criticism can negatively affect the parent-child relationship. Instead, it’s important for each family to create other things that fit their interests and to set rules that both children and parents can agree with.
I hope you will take effective measures while not denying what your child likes.