Children and Games

Written by: Mir Aqa Itebar

Most of the bad effects of video games are blamed on the violence they contain. Children who play more violent video games are more likely to have increased aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and decreased prosocial helping. AEPO’s writer/producer has talked to some people about this issue.

Ramin, a resident of Kabul city says: “My small brother always plays computer games. I prevented him so many times and told him about the harms of computer games but he did not accept it. This habit affected his eyesight and also in his school lessons. He was in the first position in his class but now he has lost his position.”

Zarlasht, another resident of Kabul city, says: “I was playing ghost games and I was afraid in the dream. One day when I was alone at home, the wind was moving the curtain of my room and I was so afraid that I could not dare to close the window. I could not even go to the kitchen alone.”

A psychiatric, professor Munir Nisar talks about this issue: “those children who play computer games on the mobile phone might face some problems. As they play violent video games, they could not eat their foods on time and on the other hand these games have badly affect on their brain and behavior. If you take the computer or mobile phone from them, they would cry and they would not have a good attitude to their parents. They learn violence from the games and apply it in his/her real life.”

What do people think about the causes of this issue?

Ramin says: “When my brother faces with eye troubles, I took him to the doctor and the doctor said that he has lost his eyesight due to video games.”

Zarlasht says: “I and my brother have one computer, and as he had installed the game on the computer, I was also playing the same game.”

Professor Munir says: “Parents in foreign countries pay attention to the quality of video games but Afghan parents do not care about this issue. If the parents get informed before the purchasing of the games, they would never face such problems.”

What kind of games children could play?

Nafasgul, a resident of Nangarhar province says: “We have many children in our family. To keep them busy in leisure time, we have installed games related to their school lessons and we avoided violent games.”

Rahila, a resident of Kunar province says: “We have installed kids’ stories cartoon games in an iPad for our children and they play them together in leisure time.”