How much time?
Bob & Carol ask: What is an acceptable amount of time per day for a youth to play Call of Duty modern warfare per day or week. And regardless of Title what are the console/keyboard utilization limits per day/week?
Good question,
I don’t want to cop out but my main answer to both – because they’re pretty much the same question – is “As long as you are comfortable with.”
Re: Call of Duty Modern Warfare. I don’t believe children are like tea, in that they’re not immersed in a violent game and growing more and more rich and … hmm, I prefer coffee and… sorry… what I mean is, playing CoD for 3 hours today and 1 hour tomorrow isn’t that different than 1 hour every day.
Re: Keyboard time. You probably mean social networking. Look at this like the telephone of old, I know I was on it hours per day!
Now, what do I do? Generally Henry gets about 1.5 hours per day for gaming. Maggie gets the same for watching TV on YouTube or gaming. Both have DSs and usually play a bit before bed after homework and reading. Add in some family game time and we come to about 2 hours per day and maybe 18 per week total. I don’t differentiate between violent games or non-violent games (I don’t allow most M and T games in my house cause the kids are 9 and 6).
So, my answer is, 1-2 hours per day tops for both activities. One good idea is the give the option to choose how much time for each kind of entertainment. 1 hr of gaming = 1 hr of social networking. That way they have some empowerment to schedule and plan their own time.
TV time can figure into the above but my family is more flexible about that. Maybe an additional hour depending on the show.
Does that help?
Hope so.
GamerDad
January 14th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
I have an 8yr old son and almost 3yr old daughter. Dylan gets on average 1-2hrs of gaming a day on either his DS or computer. On weekends he can play Wii as well. We use game time as a bribe/reward for good behavior.
We also allow for “special circumstances.” For instance, if we have to go to the doctor, he can play his DS in the waiting room and stuff like that.
As for TV time, we don’t really limit that time wise, but we do monitor what both of them watch. And the only bedroom with a tv in the house is mine.
January 16th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
My boys are still young, but one hard and fast rule I know I’ll have (do have) is no computers in a kid’s room… only in public/family places… helps with all kinds of issues, especially time used, etc…
January 31st, 2010 at 5:56 pm
We use a weekly quota for all screen time; that way there is less sense of entitlement to daily access. As long as there is no outstanding homework or other responsibilities they can use it as they see fit. I’m hoping it gives them some practice at budgeting their time, sometimes it seems to work but we do have the occasional “but I didn’t know I wanted to watch this show!”.
We also use timers to keep track of the time. I have trouble keeping track of time when engrossed in a game, I think it’s unfair for me expect them to. (the Xbox family control timer is excellent for this)
A coworker does the same but with a twist, he has a collection of little plastic bears. Each bear is worth a given amount of screen time. His son gets his bears at the beginning of the week and trades them in like tokens for play time (or has them taken away if punishment is required). His son is younger than my kids so I think this works well for him. I was struck at how useful it can be to make a concept like time into a tangible object that his boy can easily grasp.
June 26th, 2016 at 7:32 pm
What are your thoughts on Battlefield 4? My son is 13.