A team of researchers from Norway has added more scientific weight to the argument that video games are perfectly fine for young children.
They looked at a group of game-playing children over the course of 12 years and found that, generally speaking, gaming was not associated with social development.
The research was a combined effort from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), NTNU Social Research, the University of California, Davis, and St. Olav’s Hospital in Norway. Together they monitored 873 Norwegian youngsters from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. They checked in with the kids every two years over the course of six years as the children grew from 6 to 12.
They found that for boys, there was no effect on their social development although they did note that girls who spent more time playing video games at age 10 developed weaker social skills two years later than girls who spent less time playing games. Read more