January 15th, 2006
Gaming is Bad for Children, at Least in This Case
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
A lot of reports have been written about video games being bad for children, with just as many dissenting opinions (so don’t flame me! 
). In this case however, there’s no doubt this child was harmed by a video game. Physically, not psychologically or emotionally, though.
Nicholas Lavin said that he played PlayStation constantly over the holidays at his home in San Diego and began to notice that his head would jerk back and forth. Lavin’s mother said her son began to twitch so badly that she took him to the family’s pediatrician. The doctor told her he was not allowed to play PlayStation anymore. Once he stopped playing PlayStation, the twitching stopped, according to the report. Source: Local6
We Say: A video segment attached to the story indicated he was playing more than 3 hours at a time (and who knows how many times per day), which is pretty long, especially at age 9. I have played City of Heroes before for up to 8 hours at one sitting (because of a long raid or something), and although I’ve never had twitches, I have had a sore back, neck and yes, mousing hand. 
Andcraig says:
Its funny. This has been an issue for as long as i’ve played video games, which is going on 16 years now (i’ll admit, i’m not so bad that i played when i was 1)
Nintendo has always had little packets in their game manuals that say basically…don’t play too long or you might have a seizure.
I’m pretty sure its standard operating procedure for all game manufacturers.
Not sure why they thought it wouldn’t happen this time.
January 15th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
Michael Santo says:
Andcraig, I’ll bet it’s the “won’t happen to me” syndrome. I’ll admit before I started to play City of Heroes I never, ever thought I would get a sore neck or anything playing a game no matter how long I played. And who reads those manuals anyway?
January 15th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
Stormy says:
It’s so good to not be alone in this. My son, age 8, plays his XBox with vigor! When I first started to notice the “unusual jerky movements” of his eyes, and the way his thumbs would not stop moving, I cut his gaming time down considerably. No, of course he wasn’t happy about it, but it really worried me, and I hadn’t read anything on this subject at all. I mean, common sense will tell you anything if you just pay attention to it. In the hopes that someone with the same problem will see this, limiting his gaming time has helped greatly.
Thanks for bringing this issue to light.
Stormy
January 15th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Lockergnome's Tech News Watch says:
Gaming is Bad for Children, at Least in This Case
Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes: A lot of reports have been written about video games being bad for children, with just as many dissenting opinions (so don’t flame me!). In this case however, there’s no doubt this child was harmed by a video game….
January 15th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
David says:
This is not true: “don’t play too long or you might have a seizure.” It will not happen to everyone who plays too long.
A small percentage of people who are epileptic or have other neurological issues are predisposed to afflictions from flashing lights. Video game screen action sometimes has a strobing effect that induces a seizure, or in this case, twitching - which is probably really a minor seizure.
January 15th, 2006 at 7:37 pm
Michael Santo says:
You’re right David, everyone is different. I even recall when Pokemon first came out (the series, not a game) there were reports of SOME watchers of the series (in Japan, they toned down the effects before releasing to the US later) having seizures. But just SOME.
January 15th, 2006 at 8:26 pm
bex says:
ok kids only get bad behaver because the perents give like 8 year olds 18 year olds games to shut them up coz the are too bussy in the oun like
i say if you cant look after the kid DONT HAVE ONE…..
October 17th, 2007 at 7:37 am
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June 1st, 2008 at 5:55 pm