At what age can a child be allowed to play video games?

Nothing, he will learn, but for now let him develop motor skills :)

Yesterday I joked even better - I gave my son (2 years old) to play Tekken 5)))) The funny thing is that he was cool !!! And then he whined all day that he wanted to play more !!! Although I did not even hit the buttons and did not know that they had to be pressed)))) But the process itself !!!

Recently I had a friend of mine with my daughter (she is 2.5 years old) as a guest, I gave the child to play aitoy play, she didn’t force kungfu, but she liked the window washer. She really only rubbed one part of the screen, but she had a lot of fun and she also kept washing my TV in real life, I had to drag her away. :)

My child (son) is six years old.
Has been playing since about three or four months.
Ratchet & Clank gives preference, there are the second and third parts.
Neither my wife nor my wife's games fit - he says, it is not interesting.
He plays a little, his mother and I insisted - an hour a day, no more: I played for half an hour, then a break for fifteen minutes, I played again for half an hour, that's it, good.
In my opinion, this practice is just the right one. Not ideal, God forbid, but correct. If you give more to play, you may experience problems with your eyesight and psyche. Well, the second is unlikely ... but! The character of the future little man is formed up to six years old, and if some manners are not instilled in him before the onset of this age - everything, then write is gone, and it is not a fact that they will be grafted in the future.
And the race in three years .... hmm, I don't know, it's hard to judge.
It's too early, after all. The child's psyche will not understand.

According to my observations, everything depends on the child. Many times I observed that a 4-5 year old child really does not understand the connection between pressing a button and what is happening on the screen, he simply watches a picture, like a cartoon.
But here is a friend's daughter, her 5 years old, she confidently draws with a mouse in a graphic editor, that is, she sees the connection.
So the approach needs to be determined individually.
Children need to play!
First, fine motor skills are trained. If you miss this, then it is difficult to learn small movements - the necessary neural connections in the brain are not created.
Second, training in abstract thinking. For example, playing Prince of Persia, a child is forced to recreate and comprehend in his head such three-dimensional objects, which are unlikely to be comprehended in life.
On the other hand, zombifying a child with monotonous arcade jumping ropes is a really dangerous thing.
Therefore, parents need to carefully and carefully approach the process of the game. You should not forbid playing, for the forbidden fruit is sweet. You just need to present the game as part of real life, give the child the opportunity to get involved in other things. It is good to explain games from a technological point of view, so that the game does not look like a "black box" for the child and becomes a psychological cult.

It is better for a child to play plasticine up to 6-8 years old, where thinking develops his own thinking much better, and even better chess, and not spoil his eyesight at the computer from a young age and instill all sorts of cliches. And then - no matter what games to play, if you bring up a child normally and explain to him everything intelligibly the difference between virtual and real, no Manhunt or Postal will encourage him to take similar actions in everyday life.
As for the books - to each his own of course, but I personally have read books on the monitor in the last eight years, twenty times more than in 10 years of reading on paper.

IMHO children can be allowed to play from the age of 4, but it is better to limit the time spent at the computer with the console, etc. As for me, I started playing when I was 3 years old, I quickly realized what was happening and became very addicted to video games.

The later, the better! And just do video games are evil! : lol:

I started from 7, though they didn't let me play a lot, and in my childhood there were many more interesting things than games.

I started playing at this age from 7 years old

I started playing at the age of 5, when my grandparents sent me Dendy to Switzerland and the first game was Contra and some others (mostly I remember it only). I could play quite a bit after I do my homework and until 21 pm. But I played a little and Doom was on my computer then, but I spent whole days walking with friends than like a sucker at the screen staring. But with the advent of Nintendo 64, it became seriously interested in games because of Zilda, Mario, Turok. Can you imagine what a shock I had when I was 7 years old when I saw art and screenshots for Resident Evil 2 !!!!
I was so scared that even when I came to my friend and saw the box, I hid it away.

I think that in no case should it be forbidden to play. It will only make things worse. The child will be able to play with friends, stay overnight in computer clubs. It is necessary to create all the conditions so that the child does not want to play. Before a child gets acquainted with games, you need to find some interesting hobby for him, a hobby. It can be sports, some sections. There, the child will have a kind of circle of friends. In this circle, games will not be a constant topic of discussion. Children will be passionate about what they do. There will be no time for games. And what is the reason for addiction to games? A person does not want to exist in the real world, because in the virtual one he feels better. It is necessary for the child to be more interesting in the real world. That is, a school, some sections, a weekend trip somewhere to relax ... he will have other interests and games will not come to the fore. From what a person gets drunk or becomes a drug addict? From a bad life, from "nothing to do." But in no case should you forcefully impose any hobby on the child. You need to interest the child so that he himself has motivation. When the child already has some interests, his day will be broken by the clock, and he will be brought up so that first of all business, and then rest ... then you can buy a prefix or a computer (this is already a dispute of another branch :) ).

I myself started playing at the age of 7-8. I met one guy, he was 5 years older than me. Then I saw games for the first time, on Dendy again. Of course, I immediately persuaded my parents to buy me a console, promised to study well. He kept the promise until he bought a Pentium at age 12. Hooked specifically on the games. Played Blood, Age of Empries for weeks. In the NES days, it was different .... we got together with friends, chatted, played in turns. But the PC is a platform for one person, therefore, friends have disappeared - or rather, I pushed them away from myself. This period was devoted to games, which had a rather negative effect on me. Now I realized that the virtual world is he * nya and I play in my free time. For a long time I began to amaze the chatter on MSN. But here the reason is rather not in games, but in laziness. It is not always possible to force yourself to get down to business. I got so lazy during the holidays ...

The conclusion is this: make your child more interesting in the real world. Do not lie on the couch in front of the TV after work, watch out for the attention of children. : wink:

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about books ... why force you to read, there are more interesting methods: for example, audiobooks ... and your eyesight does not deteriorate. :)

[size = 75] Added on 05 Jan 2006, 1:14 am: [/ size]

Now I remember. A guy came to visit me, he was about five years old. I haven’t played games before. I showed him Need for Speed. I couldn't play. He rested against the wall and stung the gas until the car came out by itself and then crashed into the opposite wall. I tried to explain to him, but everything is sideways to him. I played somehow without emotion, did not say anything. I paid more attention to the surrounding events than to what was happening on the screen. But when I was about to leave, I told my mother that he wanted a computer for himself. Damn, maybe he's become a gamer now, maybe I'm to blame. :)

I do not think that games can negatively affect the development of a child at an early age; at 6-7 years old, a child cannot develop a strong dependence on anything at all. So at what age to let the child play games does not matter. Which ones too, let him play what he likes, my parents gave me Larry 7 for my seven-year birthday and nothing, I didn't grow up a maniac :)

Come on?!
I am the way to 7 years other bursting at 8:30 in the morning to play Nintendo 64
in some way bad childhood is already influencing
I have a general interest in igoam falls
the same thing every time you play and the game
bored with it all time

I have been playing since I was 7, at the beginning the simplest thing was Tetris, then Lifa (Dendy), I was constantly playing with my brother. Then he moved away from games and everything connected with a computer, and now I turned into a fierce adherent of games and electronics.

I will not allow my children (when they will, and it will be somewhere in 13 years) to play video games until 10-12 years old, and then I will slowly allow it. Thank God I'm not a gamemaniac-fuyuyuyuyu

Play should be given when he takes it himself, because he will not take too much.

[quote name = "Zaken"] I don't think that games can negatively affect the development of a child at an early age, at 6-7 years old a child cannot develop a strong addiction to anything at all. So at what age to let the child play games does not matter. Which is also, let him play in the fact that love, out on my seven years gave parents Larry 7 and Nitsche, a maniac is not increased:) [/ quote]

And I, too, Larry as a child playing, still very Tomb Raiden
(special version, where it I was naked) I liked it, I used it on a laptop (166 pentium with mmx technology (it seems that it was called that)), then in all sorts of erotic mosaics (fortunately there was a room, my parents did not often come to me), then I
played similar games on the first Sonya , then on a new computer ... well, after all, I didn't become a maniac either .. * ^ __ ^ *

Let him play for as long as he wants to, otherwise there will really be money to go to school for clubs, or drugs, bad acquaintances, and so on ..
Let him get enough of games to the point ^ ____ ^

I've been playing since I was 6. First there was my father's [b] Dandy [/ b]. Cruel games were also in bulk. Then [b] Genesis [/ b] ([b] Mega Drive 2 [/ b]) ... about Mortal Kombat 2 (7 years old) ... then [b] Play Station [/ b] - Tekken 3, Dead or Alive, Destruction Derby Raw ... one of the first games on [b] PC [/ b] (9 years old) was GTA 2 ... still one of my favorite parts of GTA ... then [b] Xbox [ / b] - Halo (I-II), Dead or Alive 3 ...

I've been playing for 8 years (now I'm 14), I'm in 9th grade, I'm in 4. It all depends on the psyche - someone has it the brains move out (in the literal sense of the word), someone does not. By the age of 6, I was already strongly developed (I already read English, although I did not understand what I was reading :)), because the games did not have a "bad" influence on my development.

Since the time when the child will buy the first console: scare:
IMHO