Time kids spend playing video games matters more than game content

A new study has linked poor behavior in children to time spent playing video games, not the games played.

Children who play video games for more than three hours a day are more likely to be hyperactive, get involved in fights and not be interested in school, says the University of Oxford study.

It examined the effects of different types of games and time spent playing on children's social and academic behaviour. The researchers found that the time spent playing games could be linked with problem behaviour and this was the significant factor rather than the types of games played.

They could find no link between playing violent games and real-life aggression or a child's academic performance. They also found that low levels of play, under an hour a day, might actually benefit behaviour.

Lead author Andy Przybylski said that they can see links between some types of games and children's behaviour, as well as time spent playing. However, they cannot say that game play causes good or bad behaviour. They also know that the risks attached to game-playing are small.

A range of other factors in a child's life will influence their behaviour more as this research suggests that playing electronic games may be a statistically significant but minor factor in how children progress academically or in their emotional wellbeing.

Although some parents might believe that by playing strategy and puzzle games their child might boost their school grades or increase their social skills, the bad news is that the sociability and the grades of the children who played such games were found to be no higher than their non-playing peers.

The study finds that no game features typically encountered by young people could be linked with any negative patterns of behaviour; yet children who played some kinds of games were linked to some types of positive behaviour. Children who played video games with a cooperative and competitive element had significantly fewer emotional problems or problems with peers. Children who chose to play solitary games were found to do well academically and displayed fewer emotional problems or get involved in fights.

Co-author Allison Mishkin added that these results highlight that playing video games may just be another style of play that children engage with in the digital age, with the benefits felt from the act of playing rather than the medium itself being the significant factor.

The study appears in the journal, Psychology of Popular Media Culture.