Top Tips To Prevent Your Child From Becoming A Gaming Addict

Game consoles, tablets, computers, laptops, smartphones, TVs – anywhere there’s a screen, it’s likely your child will be able to find a game to play on it. In fact, a recent study found that 91% of children in the USA play video games in one form or another; and they’re almost as popular with girls as they are with boys.

Although some games are educational, many are for pure enjoyment. In moderation, this doesn’t pose any problems; but if children play games excessively and refuse to do anything else, they may be at risk of a gaming addiction. Here are some tips for parents to curb a potential gaming addiction:

• Only allow games to be played once children have taken care of other responsibilities properly, such as chores or homework.
• Don’t allow your children to play computer games for more than one to two hours per day, particularly during school term time.
• Just as it’s advisable to not let your TV become a babysitter – the same applies to video games. Make sure that there are a range of activities available to your children and encourage them to use their imaginations.
• Spend quality time with your children
• Make sure that every game played by your children has your stamp of approval so that you can ensure that it is age-appropriate
• If possible, use different devices for homework and for gaming. The homework device shouldn’t have any games, social media or apps installed (other than educational or resource programmes). This prevents children from accessing games when they are supposed to be doing their work.
• Use third party software to impose time limits on game and device usage to make sure that your children aren’t spending too much time on them
• Modern game consoles also have parental control settings that you can set to monitor and control gaming
• Keep computers in common areas of the house (not bedrooms) so that you can monitor their usage

Above all, make it clear you’re your children that accessing computer games is in earned privilege, not their automatic right. Set clear boundaries and be sure to enforce consequences when these boundaries are crossed.