byIraPena
Kids online games are games that kids can play when they are connected to the Internet using either a computer or a video console [Examples: Playstation 2, Xbox]. Kids love games, and with kids getting net-savvier by the day they have latched on big-time to online games. If you compare today’s kids online games to how kids used to assemble together to play board games, you will be surprised to see how fast kids are growing and how rapidly they are maturing.
Kids Online Games: Devices And Games
Lanza del Vasto noted a deep connection between play and war, even before the games theory and nuclear war strategy became practically identified. In our society, everything, in fact, is a game. But if everything is a game, then everything leads to war. Play is aimless and yet multiplies obstacles so that the “aim,” which in fact does not exist, cannot be attained by the opponent. For instance, getting a ball in a hole. War is caused by similar aimless aims. Not by hunger, not by real need. War is a game of the powerful, or of whole collectivities devoted to self-assertion. It is “the great public vice that consists in playing with the lives of men.” War plays with life and death, and does so magnificently. Everybody becomes involved. Everybody has to live or die—so that other side may not get a ball in a hole.
—Thomas Merton (1915–1968)
Kids can play online games using – (i) A computer: In this case the games are most likely to be browser-based, simple, fun or educational type, involving sports (racing, baseball), knowledge (Hangman, Scrabble), arcades (Space Invaders, Mario), etc. Many kids cannot play massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) because there is a monthly subscription involved. However, companies such as Disney have started developing MMOGs for kids. (ii) A video console: Kids really freak out on a video console. They just love video console gaming because the learning curve is easy and there are not too many buttons to push (as in PC online games).
Pros And Cons Of Kids Online Games
Online games can keep kids entertained, and apart from that, improve their knowledge too if they play educational games. In fact, the University of Victoria is developing a game called "Let’s Face It" that teaches autistic kids to recognize faces. While playing MMOGs kids can learn real-world skill concepts such as commerce, barter, mining, chemistry, all of which can be useful in real life. Kids online games also teach them interactivity, and also how to talk to strangers and how to make friends.
As long as lightly all their livelong sessions,
Like a yardful of schoolboys out at recess
Before their plays and games were organized,
They yelling mix tag, hide-and-seek, hopscotch,
And leapfrog in each other’s way all’s well.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
The flipside is that if playing these games is not controlled then kids might get addicted to them and this addiction is dangerous – almost as dangerous as taking a banned substance or even as dangerous as smoking. If kids squat for a long time playing these games, they might get obese. Some browser-based games can be graphically violent and leave a deep impression on their psyche (e.g. some browser games may involve shooting a politician). While playing multiplayer games online, a kid might get in contact with a stranger who might be up to no good. Many video console games feature too much graphic violence and that is not nice for a kid at an impressionable age.
Conclusion
There is a silver lining to this dark image depending on how you look at kids online games: statistics show that 62% of the video console and 66% of the PC game market customers are over the age of 18 years. Also, stricter laws related to kids and online games are slowly being passed across the major game-playing nations. And sooner or later, the entire hullabaloo is likely to settle down.