How many hours do you spend playing video games each day? According to studies done, the average amount of time spent playing video games by children between the ages of eight and seventeen, is 2.5 hours. For someone who plays video games a lot, those numbers may seem small, but they add up fast. However, when one considers how much free time a child has in a day, this number doesn’t seem as absurd as it might have at first. Often parents aim to control children’s screen time with a screen limit (especially for video games) however these time limits are harming them more than they are helping them.
While at face value, time limits might seem like a good idea, in reality they have a lot of negatives that many wouldn’t think of at first. For example, in my opinion, putting a time limit on how long a child can play video games is setting them up for failure in the future, where they will want to play for so much longer since they couldn’t before. This tends to end in video game binging, as suddenly there is no barrier holding them back from playing video games. I have personally experienced this, as I used to have a strict time limit on video game time each night. However, due to the limit being in place for so long, once it was removed, I began to play later and later, sometimes even playing as late as six in the morning.
Instead of enforcing arbitrary time limits for children, the best solution is to incentivize video game time. For example, making the children do all their chores and homework before they play video games, and have them go to bed at a set time. If they know they will get something when they finish a task, it will make them more inclined to do so. Outside of that, if they have the free time, why set a limit on how long they can play video games for? Using the incentivized gaming time method will not only keep parents from having to enforce real time limits, but will also teach children good time management skills, as they are going to want the most video game time possible, so they will have to manage their other responsibilities in a timely manner to achieve such.
In addition to aiding in creating time management skills, the time spent on video games could also have many other benefits, such as learning to work as a team, learning problem solving skills, and how to work better under pressure. According to the article The virtual brain: 30 years of video-game play and cognitive abilities by Andrew Latham, Lucy Patson, and Lynette Tippett, time spent playing video games has a direct correlation to improvements in hand-eye coordination, reaction time, and spatial awareness.
Ultimately, time limits on video games are more harmful than beneficial to the youth playing video games. Instead, set limits in other ways, such as requirements to be completed each day before playing, so they can learn time management skills and other good habits.
