Fox News Investigates Toddlers Playing Videogames

A local Fox News anchor wanted to know if he should play games with his young son.

I have a kid. She's 9 months old now but I play games in her presence all the time, and she's just learning to watch what I'm doing. Based on how fast she's developing, I'm sure it won't be long until I'll be handing the controller over to her to take a whirl. I'm pretty sure there's no problem with that, but a Fox News anchor from Charlotte, NC decided to ask a child psychologist whether it was "ok" for him to play games with his son. Not surprisingly, the psychologist said as long as the child isn't obsessing over the game at the cost of all other activities, then there is nothing wrong with engaging with your child with videogames as just another medium.

"As long as your child is participating in a variety of activities," then there isn't really a problem, said Dr. Patrick O'Connor from Southeast Psych. "Kids are going to be excited about things that their parents are excited about, especially at that age. So if a child sees their parent only excited about video games that's pretty much what their scope of interest may be limited to."

"When our kids see us playing videogames they want to do it too and we think 'well ok it's fun let's try it out,'" he continued.

As with everything in life, games can be enjoyed in moderation, but it is important to be aware of how he or she is reacting.

"If your child is responding in a negative way to the games, that they are shutting down, not talking to others, being obsessive about it. You have to be aware of that. You have to be aware of that and absolutely give that weight and say maybe video games aren't for my kid," O'Connor said.

He also said there was no difference between letting your kid play Wii games or more mature fare. "A videogame is a videogame is a videogame."

You hear that Eddy? Let's boot up some Skyrim and kill some vampires. Or better yet, want to watch me smash bugs in Starcraft 2? I'm pretty sure my kid is going to sound like this girl.

Source: Fox Charlotte