video games among Ghanaian children

WITH every passing year, video games are becoming increasingly popular among children in Ghana as a result of the lack of playgrounds in localities and in the country generally.

Video games, were first introduced in the 1970s and have now become an invariable source of fun and entertainment for children. This virtual world has become a place of fantasy, where they are rewarded for every game they win.

Nowadays, video games can be seen in many homes, with children having their individual video game consoles, computers and play stations. There are basically five varieties of video games including sports, general entertainment, fantasy violence, educational games and human violence.

In Ghana, many children are gradually engaging in the virtual world of video games to relax and have fun. Many of these children are being provided with game consoles, computers and sophisticated tools to engage the virtual world to have fun by parents, siblings and friends.

Those who do not have the money to afford the game consoles go to game centres in their localities to play against other players as a form of relaxation.

These new phenomena in the country, especially in the urban areas and metropolitan areas, can be attributed to the inadequate number of playgrounds for children.

There are few national playgrounds in the country. In Ghana, children are given the opportunity to search for open places in their neighbourhood to play and relax.

However, as the country gradually develops, children in the urban and metropolitan areas have inadequate access to playgrounds as most open places in these areas have been turned into an edifice for commercial activities or homes.

It is an acceptable fact that the impact of globalisation and technology has made it possible for information and new inventions to be available in most countries and video games or the virtual world is no exception.

Video games have some positive aspect to those who play them. it has been said that video games that have educational content have proved to have a positive effect on children. Such games make learning fun and entertaining. Even educational institutions encourage these kind of games where children learn problem solving skills while playing.

Research has it that all video games, including those that have violence needs enable the children to think about ways and methods to reach their goals. This teaches them the ability to plan and handle complex situations.

Some video games are interactive, where the child has to practice more and more in order to be the best. They go back to them again and again because it gives them a sense of achievement. Moreover, playing video games helps in the development of their perceptual, cognitive, skills and ability.

Children can gain knowledge from reading instructions within games allowing them to learn individually, making mistakes as they proceed through varying levels of ability.

The use of computer games allows children to work alone or in groups and maintains cognitive development. This aspect of learning is both fun and stimulating to children.

There is such a vast range of computer games available which can aid learning for school children, adult learners, disabled children, autistic children and in general people of all ages.

A tour through some suburbs of the Greater Accra Region which include New Town, Accra Central and Nima, where the virtual world is patronised showed how children were becoming more interested in video games.

In a chat, most of them indicated that they have lost interest in physical sports because they have no access to fields on which to play.

Most of these children were seen at game centres in their localities. The charges were between 20 pesewas and GH¢ 1 per a game depending on the type of game ordered.

The most popular of the games included Grandtheft Auto IV, Fifa 08 and 09, play evolution, Need for speed undercover, warcraft and nitendo .

However, most of these children were not well supervised since majority of them played the games out side the home. Some parents are busy and children tend to play for long hours, ignoring their studies. Some also play online.

An 11 year- old boy who gave his name as Kwesi, a resident of New Town, said in an interview that his parents bought a game console and a computer for him but playing alone was becoming boring therefore he goes to the video game centres to compete with other players.

According to him, “video games are great and I play them all the time. I play for hours in my room”. He said that he started engaging in the virtual world when he had his first computer.

He added that he got his games from friends and on the Internet, where there are free games to download. According to him he had played all the version of Fifa games with the exception of Fifa 99, 2000, 2003 and 2005. Although there are advantages of playing video games, there are equally negative effects on player. These include;

Aggressive Behaviour

Due to the competitive nature of video games, they can cause patterns of aggression in both adults and children.

For example, losing all your lives and getting ‘Game Over’ can cause intense feelings of frustration, as it means you have to start all over again. Also, forgetting to save your game will mean you have to start again from the beginning, and can cause a lot of anger and frustration because all of your time and effort has been wasted. This can also result in obsessive behaviour.

Stereotyping

Many video games portray gender stereotypes, which can influence the attitudes of the player and has the possibility to cause some of those attitudes to be of a sexist nature.

Almost all characters in video games are male. The roles that females take in video games are usually of either captured girlfriends or princesses that need to be rescued. It is feared that this creates a picture to children that these biases and stereotypes are an accepted part of culture. Thus the biases and stereotypes will be carried over into the real world.

Recently games such as Tomb Raider, in which the main character, Lara Croft, is a woman, however attempt to address the balance and although they are rare in comparison to male dominated games, they are a step towards rectifying the discrepancy that exists and a challenge to the presumption that the hero of a video game should be a male.

To decrease the negative effects of games on children, parental control is very essential. Parents need to keep a close eye on the sort of games their children play. When buying games for children, parents should check the age limit mentioned on the cover.

They should avoid buying games that have too much violence in them. The most important thing that parents must observe is the amount of time their children spend in front of the video game consoles. They should not allow their children to spend more than two hours playing games.

Video games are definitely fun and entertaining and are also good for relieving tension. However too much indulgence can lead to addiction to video games which can have physical as well as psychological effects on children.