Is it appropriate for my four-year-old daughter to play Minecraft?
Minecraft itself is harmless-- as long as you keep your child away from online servers. The game is fun, it's stimulating, and it really has no inappropriate content. Online gaming is likely not a good idea, as your four-year-old daughter presumably has not developed social skills.
Online gaming aside, the biggest problem is not Minecraft, but video games in general. I am a socially incompetent teenager who was addicted to video games until a couple of years ago, ever since I was 7. My problem was that video gaming took up lots of time I could have spent out interacting with friends IRL (at the very least, time spent away from the screen). And I have
seen far worse-- kids who play XBOX, PS3, Wii, all day. And when they don't get to play, they scream and yell and kick. I sometimes cried when my parents took away the computer. And that's not even the half of it; I have a teenage acquaintance who yells and cusses at his parents over the phone when they interrupt his video game.
Some people are more prone to video game addiction than others (I am one of those people). But don't take away video games entirely; I'll bet many kids nowadays also play video games, and taking that away from your child can be alienating.
Don't let your child miss out on video games, but don't let her get addicted like so many other children. Let her on the computer, but take it away if it becomes a problem. Punishment is hard, but addiction is hard to stop after it's already surfaced.
Online gaming aside, the biggest problem is not Minecraft, but video games in general. I am a socially incompetent teenager who was addicted to video games until a couple of years ago, ever since I was 7. My problem was that video gaming took up lots of time I could have spent out interacting with friends IRL (at the very least, time spent away from the screen). And I have
seen far worse-- kids who play XBOX, PS3, Wii, all day. And when they don't get to play, they scream and yell and kick. I sometimes cried when my parents took away the computer. And that's not even the half of it; I have a teenage acquaintance who yells and cusses at his parents over the phone when they interrupt his video game.
Some people are more prone to video game addiction than others (I am one of those people). But don't take away video games entirely; I'll bet many kids nowadays also play video games, and taking that away from your child can be alienating.
Don't let your child miss out on video games, but don't let her get addicted like so many other children. Let her on the computer, but take it away if it becomes a problem. Punishment is hard, but addiction is hard to stop after it's already surfaced.
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