SurveilStar Parental Control Software -- Protecting Kids from Video Game Addiction

Video game addiction is a real concern for parents, but there is a lot you can do to prevent this from occurring. Here the following are tips for parents on how to protect children from video game and screen addiction.

Statistics About Video Games Addiction:

1. almost 9 percent of child gamers are pathologically or clinically "addicted" to playing video games ;

2. 23 percent of youth say that they have felt "addicted to video games,"  ;

3.  one-third of males and a little more than one in 10 females reporting the sensation ;

4.  forty-four percent of the youth 8 to 18 also reported their friends are addicted to video games ;

5. the average child 8 to 12 plays 13 hours of video games per week ;

6.  teens age 13 to 18 year play 14 hours of video games per week ;

Tips for Preventing Children from Video Game Addiction

Here the following are all the parents can do for protecting your children from video game addiction:

1. Limit your child to 1 to 2 hours of total daily screen time

This recommendation includes TV and video games, with the total time spent playing video games being included in that 1 to 2 hour allotment. If you are having difficulty thinking about how your child will be entertained without more than two hours of screen time, you may need more help with parenting skills.

2. Stay updated with research into the effects of video games

At present, research into the effects of video games is in its infancy. Furthermore, research findings are inconclusive, and the video games industry are promoting their own research which, of course, indicate that video games are healthy and harmless.

3. Monitor and restrict your child's use of video games

Consider purchasing monitoring software (http://www.surveilstar.com/parental-control-software.html) monitoring software such as SurveilStar (http://www.surveilstar.com/features.html) that will tell you what sites your children have visited in a given time range. Video games that contain violent images, as well as in other media, may promote aggressive thoughts, feelings or behaviors in your child. Therefore, you should pay particular attention to violent content. Also be sure to set parental controls on the television and the computer to lessen the chances that your children will see any unfriendly content.