Kat: You know I was reading the other day that maybe video games might not be so bad for children. What do you think about that?

Matt: I think it depends on what you're talking about is so bad for children, I think if you're talking about supposedly educational video games such as Sesame Street video games etc, I don't think that those help children in any way whatsoever. Sports games, I don't think that those are going to help kids learn how to play sports either. Violent video games, I think that's kind of a fine line, is it going to make children more violent or less violent?

 

Kat: What the article was actually about was that video games, especially violent video games, actually decrease crime instead of increasing it.

 

Matt: How come? That doesn't seem to make much sense?

 

Kat: At first I thought it didn't make a lot of sense either but it was saying that children that play a lot of video games stay inside and they get some of their aggressions out actually playing these games.

 

Matt: Do you think that the reason the crime goes down is because they get their aggression out or do you think it's because they're just staying indoors more often? Or did the article say either way or another?

 

Kat: Actually the actual article was saying that kids stay inside more, so they don't really have time to commit crimes.

 

Matt: In that sense then it doesn't matter if it's educational, it doesn't actually matter if they are playing violent video games or not I would think. It would just be any type of video game keeps them inside.

 

Kat: That's true.

 

Matt: I don't know. I think that I was always growing up playing video games and my mom would always try to kick me out of the house to go outside and play and sure it's good that video games keep kids from doing violent things on the streets but I don't think that video games should be the center of their life and keep them indoors all the time.

 

Kat: What do you think should be the maximum amount of hours that kids should be allowed to play?

 

Matt: More than an hour or two a day, I think the part the study doesn't look at is the long term effects that makes kids stay indoors all day and they become less social, so because they're less social they're going to end up having more pent up frustration in the long term when they become thirty and forty and they are not able to connect with other people.

 

Kat: I think that's a good point. Children should definitely not play more than one or two hours a day and they should not neglect their friends for it.