Good or bad for your kids? The experts view on six popular apps/games 

This Christmas again, it’s all about the phone, tablet and console. But many parents remain uncertain about whether these games are good for their kids. We asked three experts their opinion on some of the most popular apps and games on the market.

Clash of Clans

GOOD:

“It’s a strategic game. It encourages co-operation. Parents need have no great concern about its content.” (Mark Smyth, senior clinical psychologist).

BAD

: “The main concern with Clash of Clans — as is the case with playing all video games — is to regulate their play. How much time a day are you allowing your child to play? Are they playing late at night? Is it disturbing their sleep? Lack of sleep contributes to irritability, poor performance and other mental-health problems. If your children go to play outside, you’ll ask them to be back home by eight o’clock. The same reasoning applies with gaming online. It’s about imposing limits. Turn off the wifi, at times.” (Mark Smyth).

Candy Crush

BAD:

“It’s not a game for kids, but it’s enjoyed by kids. It’s a puzzle game. It is completely innocuous, although you can spend a lot of time on it, and you can spend a lot of money on it, as well. Parents need to realise that they’re not free. Children can rack up big bills, if parents just give out the passwords to their devices willy-nilly. I wouldn’t consider that it has any educational value, other than matching colours.” (Barry O’Neill, CEO, StoryToys).

BAD

: “Because the levels are quite short, it lends itself to being more stimulating, more addictive - ‘I got to this level. I want to move on’. There’s almost an adrenaline rush so kids get hooked quite quickly. Because it has mass appeal and it’s level-based, there’s a competitive element. Kids want to get to the next level quicker than their peers. There is a level of status involved in terms of identity with their peers. It’s about competing with their peers because this is what they’re talking about. Kids ask me what level I’m on and when I tell them they just laugh at me. They think it’s such a social faux pas not to be as high as they are: ‘you’re just an adult - what would you know’.” (Mark Smyth, Senior Clinical Psychologist)

Minecraft

GOOD: “Minecraft

is the most creative, constructive game for children to play. I have friends who sometimes say to me, ‘My kids are spending all their time on Minecraft

. What am I going to do?’ I say, ‘Go play it with them.’ It’s a great environment — what’s known as a sandbox game, children create their own games within Minecraf

t; they build worlds. It’s fantasy graphics. There is no sense of realism about it at all. My company develops kids’ games and Minecraft

is the one that we all look up to. It’s a tremendous game for kids.” (Barry O’Neill).

BAD:

“It’s huge with pre-teens. It tends to drift out of popularity once they get to about 12. Because

it’s seen as relatively benign - ‘ah, they’re not shooting people up; it’s just a bit of fun’ - parents are quite happy to let kids play it for extended periods, but then the kids get hooked on it. You get [bad] reactions on it then when you have to take it away - the child doesn’t like it, but it needs to be done, and children need to learn: It has to remain under parental control. Kids don’t have the ability to self-regulate - and we shouldn’t expect them to. They’re not set up emotionally or cognitively to decide: ‘Yes

, I’ve had enough.’ Parents get into a lot of conflict with their kids because they expect the kids to realise: ‘OK, I’ve had enough now.’ There

is no such thing for a child as: I’ve had enough. They will say things like ‘I played it last night until my eyes bled.’ (Mark Smyth)

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Little Big Planet

GOOD:

“It’s a PlayStation game and it’s a great game for kids, to encourage them to learn about how to build things. They can make their own games. They can make their own levels, their own constructions. They can share the games that they make, within the game, with their friends around the world. I would put a four-year-old or five-year-old in front of it — it’s just a fun game for kids of all ages, and adults, too. I play too much of it myself!” (Barry O’Neill).

Grand Theft Auto

BAD:

“It comes down to parents to decide whether it’s suitable for their children or not. Even if you download it, it has these PEGI icons, a classification system, that clearly show you that it has sexual content, bad language, extreme violence and violence against women. There are divergent views on Grand Theft Auto. Some people will make a call and say it’s clearly a game scenario and it’s not going to be interpreted as anything else by players. Others would say that it desensitises children to violence. Parents need to make a call. The reality is that a lot of teenagers are using it with their parents’ consent, but parents need to make sure they’re actively giving the consent and not just turning a blind eye to it.” (Simon Grehan, internet safety co-ordinator, Webwise).

NEUTRAL:

“It has violent content, but research shows that there is no solid evidence that playing violent video games makes the average person more violent. Studies have shown that aggressive thoughts, behaviours and feelings increase after playing violent games, but the effect lasts for just 4-9 minutes.” (Mark Smyth).

Angry Birds

GOOD: “It is a game that passes time. It’s enjoyable. I wouldn’t consider there to be bad points about it.” (Barry O’Neill).

GOOD:

“Good for problem-solving, spatial awareness, hand-eye coordination.” (Mark Smyth).

GOOD:

“ It requires children to work towards an objective by achieving short-term goals, a process called telescoping. If, for example, you want to play soccer for Ireland, the way you get there is to get fit, train, practise your skills. Video games are good at making children aware of this process. In other words, in order to rescue the princess, they realise you must first get the key from the troll and so on.” (Simon Grehan).