As with many activities, the use of videogames can be beneficial or harmful depending on what use you make of them. In this sense we can make some recommendations.
Check time spent
Firstly it is important to limit the use of videogames, even fixing a specific space in the schedule of your children (especially during the summer holidays and Christmas). Some authors suggest not spending more than three or four hours a week to this activity. We can even use it as a positive reinforcement for other activities or educational goals: it can be very useful as a "reward" (when they finish their homework, helping at home, etc ...). It could be a good way to help children to use videogames.
Monitor the content of video games
It remains very important to control of content of the games: we must ensure at the time of purchase, that they are appropriate for the child's age. The first priority is to ensure they do not contain any bad content like sex, excessive violence, drugs, etc.
Strengthen family life
We cannot forget that the abuse of videogames can result from the absence of a suitable climate in family life. Videogames are used by children and especially teenagers to fill a void, when parents are seen as distant and alien. To avoid this, parents can begin participating in the games, using them as an incentive to encourage communication and contact with children, although this will take some time. This time we invest simply to "be" with our children will never be time wasted, but just the opposite. On the other hand, we must never consider the games as a substitute for family education and still less use them as a "babysitter." Finally, we must not forget above all to maintain an attitude of inclusive education for children. Videogames can be used to fulfill a particular facet of education, complementary to other activities such as art, sport or reading.
Detect high-risk situations
Parents should be alert for unsuitable children´s or adolescent behavior as a result of improper use of video games. Among the abnormalities that we observe may be the following:
Compulsive use of the console: for example, taking advantage of any free time, no matter how small, or going to use it as soon as they finish other tasks.
Changes in behavior (impulsivity, violence) and school performance.
Development of an exaggerated individualism.
Neglect of other activities or hobbies such as sports, reading, going out with friends.
Petty theft and subsequent denial of the problem when questioned.
At this point, and in the presence of other data that could indicate the existence of a serious problem in relation to videogames, it is advisable to seek advice from teachers, counselors or specialists in the field.
Character Education in media entertainment
Resources -
New Media (social networks, videogames, internet)
Who knew that video games could be such a big deal? Currently the United States Supreme Court is weighing arguments in favour of banning the sale of graphically violent video games to minors, but the case is not as straightforward as some of us might think. It boils down to the issue of whether these games are “free speech” as protected by the US Constitution, and if so, whether they are in the same class as sex magazines that were restricted 40 years ago because of the ethical and moral harm they could do young people. It is a question of making an exception to First Amendment rights.
Several states and local governments moved to restrict access to videos involving very graphic violence in the wake of school shootings such as the one at Columbine High School in Colorado. However, federal appeal courts have declared the proposed laws unconstitutional. Now the Supreme Court has agreed to look at a California law.
Law professor Gregory K Laughlin argues in favour of the bans, saying that graphic video violence poses as much as if not more of a moral threat to young people than “girlie magazines” did, and do. He criticises one appeal judge’s decision thus: In his opinion, Judge Posner noted that violence is an ageless theme of literature and the theater and one to which youth have been exposed from time immemorial. What he failed to do was make the common sense distinction between reading about Brutus slaying Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s play or seeing it acted on a stage or in a movie, and being a virtual assassin in an interactive video game. To compare the two is a category mistake. They simply are different in kind and not merely in degree.
More importantly, there is no more need to find some scientifically certain psychological harm to minors who play violent games to justify restricting their access to those games than there is to find scientific certain psychological harm to teens who view “girlie magazines.” The issue in the earlier case was not psychological harm, but impairment of the ethical and moral development of youth. Just as viewing soft core pornography might cause some young men to come to view women as no more than objects to satisfy their lusts, playing violent video games may cause some players to develop insensitivity toward their fellow human beings and their suffering.
However, last week Supreme Court judge Antonin Scalia also questioned the comparison between sexually obscene publications and violent games. A transcript published online reads in part:
"I--I am not just concerned with the vagueness," says Justice Scalia at one point. "I am concerned with the vagueness, but I am concerned with the First Amendment, which says Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech. And it was always understood that the freedom of speech did not include obscenity. It has never been understood that the freedom of speech did not include portrayals of violence."
"You are asking us to create a--a whole new prohibition which the American people never--never ratified when they ratified the First Amendment. They knew they were--you know, obscenity was--was bad, but--what's next after violence? Drinking? Smoking? Movies that show smoking can't be shown to children? Does--will that affect them? Of course, I suppose it will."
Justice Scalia continues, asking Morazzini whether the court should work "day by day" to determine if anything else should be exempted from First Amendment protection. "Why--why is this particular exception okay," he asks, "but the other ones that I just suggested as not okay?"
Justice Scalia is well-known for his stance against judicial activism, that is, judges finding things in the Constitution that were never intended, such as a right to abortion…
Making exceptions that restrict “free speech” could be just as troublesome.
And here is another thought: If 19- to 30-year-olds are buying and playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, how will it not get into the hands of younger people?
Can age restrictions protect them from the evidence that adults actually like a game “in which the player has sex with a prostitute, who he then kicks in the groin until blood spurts out and repeatedly hits in the head with a golf club” -- to quote Laughlin on GTA: Vice?
Isn’t parenting and character education the real remedy for trash?
Media Literacy Conference. London
Resources -
New Media (social networks, videogames, internet)
Friday 19th - Saturday 20th November 2010. The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London, UK
Media Literacy Conference will be the major gathering in London for teachers, teacher trainers, researchers, policy-makers and media professionals interested in teaching and learning about the media. The conference is jointly organised by the Media Education Association and the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media at the Institute of Education, London, in partnership with Ofcom.
Highlights will include:
The conference keynote speech given by Professor Henry Jenkins · A host of other expert speakers including Professor David Buckingham, Professor Tanya Byron & Dr Linda Papadopoulos discussing How children and young people relate to media in the 21st century · 26 workshops providing continuing professional development for teachers in all sectors of education from primary to post-16, some focusing on practical media production and others on approaches to critical understanding. · 18 research panels offering the latest evidence about media teaching and learning - these have attracted over 60 research papers from 23 different countries. · 5 Awarding Bodies will provide introductions to their latest media specifications. · The National Telemedia Council (NTC) from the USA will run a Media Café each day. · The presentation by the NTC of the Jessie McCanse Award for individual contributions to the field of media literacy over a sustained period of time. · The conference will close with a debate: “iPolitics? Political literacy in the New Media Age” with Peter Bazalgette, Liesbet van Zoonen, chaired by Andy Williamson
Una de las acusaciones más frecuentes que suelen hacerse a los videojuegos es que fomentan el aislamiento, la incomunicación, el estilo de vida individual. Para evaluar con cierta objetividad ese reproche, Alfonso Méndiz publica en su blog Cine con Valores una lectura de el artículo que acaba de publicar Miguel Soria titulado "Videojuegos: mejor en compañía" (Aceprensa, 27.VII.2010): a continuación presentamos la síntesis realizada por Alfonso Méndiz.
Si se observan detenidamente los videojuegos más vendidos y que más dan que hablar, la tendencia es clara: Wii Sports, Wii Fit/Plus, New Super Mario BROS. Wii, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2, las series Guitar Hero o SingStar, etc.; todos ellos no sólo admiten disfrutarlos en su esplendor con más de un jugador, sino que precisamente en ello basan su principal atractivo destacando que dicha opción está potenciada y mejorada.
Antes muchos acusaban a los videojuegos de promover el individualismo. Aunque no tengo nada en contra de la aventura en solitario, reconozco que, probablemente, parte de razón no les faltase. Sin embargo, hay que ser justos: había medidas para evitar esa marginación a la que hacían referencia. Y hoy más que nunca, esa posibilidad es una realidad llevada muy lejos: los famosos modos cooperativos, competiciones online, etc.
Cierto es que la opción para un jugador sigue existiendo, y, con ella, los consiguientes peligros. Pero recordemos que al incorporar por fin tantas y tan variadas opciones de disfrute para dos o más jugadores, es el usuario el que debe decantarse, y, por tanto, él tiene la responsabilidad de jugar o no con más personas.
Todos tenemos en ello una parte muy importante a realizar: los padres pueden ver jugar a sus hijos o jugar con ellos en familia, tutelando así una labor que necesita la misma supervisión que muchas otras en la vida de los niños. Los hijos, a su vez, pueden evitar jugar largos períodos de tiempo ininterrumpidos, compartir la partida con hermanos, padres, amigos o turnarse en el uso de los juegos. Esto es válido por igual tanto a los más pequeños como a los mayores. Recordemos que el susodicho individualismo es un riesgo, no una actitud inherente a los videojuegos. Es, por tanto, perfectamente (y debe ser) evitable.
Efectos beneficiosos del juego compartido
Diversos estudios han intentado demostrar, o al menos han conseguido comprobar, que jugar en compañía favorece las relaciones personales, la verdadera competitividad y las capacidades psicomotrices y mentales de aquellos que juegan con los videojuegos. Por supuesto, depende de la temática del juego, la edad de los que los juegan y multitud de circunstancias sociales de los jugadores. Pero en cualquier caso, normalmente suele ser mejor jugar en compañía a títulos que favorezcan esa competitividad de una forma sana y saludable, que se puede entender como la búsqueda de las mejores opciones: si se juega contra otro, saber cuándo se ha ganado y cuándo se ha perdido, aceptándolo y entendiendo que sólo es un juego; si se juega con otro, buscando las mejores formas de colaboración.
Es, por tanto, altamente recomendable disfrutar de los videojuegos en compañía: también aquí se cumple que dos (o más) mandos son mejores que uno.
Resources -
New Media (social networks, videogames, internet)
Con motivo del “Día de Internet” el Foro Generaciones Interactivas presentó la publicación on-line “Educar Hijos Interactivos” adaptada para Argentina, Chile, Colombia, México, Perú y Venezuela.
“Educar hij@s interactiv@s” es una obra de Fernando García y Xavier Bringué basada en los datos de “La Generación Interactiva en Iberoamérica”, publicada a finales de 2008. El libro plantea la realidad de las nuevas tecnologías, el alcance y las consecuencias de su penetración en la denominada Generación Interactiva, a lo largo de cuatro tipos de “pantallas”: Internet, como la pantalla que todo lo envuelve, el Chat, o la pantalla como medio de relación, los videojuegos como la pantalla oculta, y el celular, la pantalla permitida.
Si el s.XV fue testigo de la revolucionaria aparición de la imprenta, el XXI lo es de la espectacular proliferación de “pantallas”. Esta situación provoca nuevos interrogantes en el ámbito educativo familiar: ¿cómo superar la ventaja tecnológica que nos llevan nuestros hijos?, ¿serán distintas las relaciones en la futura “familia interactiva”? ¿cuáles son los riesgos y cuáles las oportunidades?, etc.
El libro parte de un principio básico: el hecho de disponer de nuevas herramientas, cada vez mejores, es una clara ventaja para la formación de los menores. El problema es cómo utilizarlas pedagógicamente. Para ello, se recomienda conocerlas y explorar su uso junto a los hijos. Ahora bien, se advierte que no hay recetas universales. Se ofrecen pautas, pero son los padres quienes deben, creativamente, encontrar soluciones a los casos concretos.
Who knew that video games could be such a big deal? Currently the United States Supreme Court is weighing arguments in favour of banning the sale of graphically violent video games to minors, but the case is not as straightforward as some of us might think. 
Media Literacy Conference will be the major gathering in London for teachers, teacher trainers, researchers, policy-makers and media professionals interested in teaching and learning about the media. The conference is jointly organised by the Media Education Association and the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media at the Institute of Education, London, in partnership with Ofcom.