How to prevent eight year-olds becoming console junkies

"DAD?"
"Yes son?
"Do you know my friend Harvey?"
"I do."
"Well, he has this Playstation racing game that is wicked. We played it today but there was something not nice on it."
"Oh?"
"Will I get into trouble if I say it?"
"No."
"Yeah, ok, Harvey pushed some buttons and it made the girl in the game take her t-shirt off."
"Really?!
"It was silly. He said it was a hidden thing. I just wanted to race the cars."
"Riiiight, ok. Son, we need to talk."

My son is eight and so is his friend. I wasn't exactly alarmed by this admission but was glad that I was told. And yes, he is still allowed to visit his friend, although he has been told to tell Harvey that I now know about the topless chicks. Apparently, they've kept their clothes on since.

More worrying, after I thought about it and did some checking, was that nearly everyone in my son's class has a console and that for most it is their main form of entertainment. A good-sized chunk of them also do no exercise. Zip. Nada. Apart from chasing in the yard, my son informs me that they don't like any sports. Asked ‘what do they like?' the answer is “playing on their Playstation or PSP or Xbox”. What else? The answer is ‘just that'. Remember, I'm talking about 8-years olds. These are mini-people that can save the universe from the Evil Empire but not tie their own shoelaces.

Earlier this week, a UK company launched a new product designed to make console kids exercise while the thumb-twiddle. The Step2Play device is designed to allow kids to exercise by stepping as they play. It's hooked up to the console and unless the required number of reps are met, it shuts off access to the console. I laughed when I read it first. I then thought, bloody hell, it has gotten to that stage. We all know about the addictive nature of consoles and there are millions of fat people out there today that can thank consoles and TV for their generous girth. But console exercise peripherals to get fat kids off their ass? Is it that bad?

My generation of thirty-somethings are the original console generation - Amiga, Sinclair, Commodore. All that ‘ye olde' technology, where breaking blocks or tackling fiddly, text-based adventures based on Lord of The Rings were the all the rage. By the time the PSOne arrived in 1995, I was too old and too hooked on PC games to be bothered with that childish toy with the awful graphics. I eventually got a PS2 for my son last year and I have to say I am guilty of using it more than him. This Christmas will see another console addition. I don't worry too much about my kids and the console because they have to get permission to use it and they are given a certain amount of time. They are generally OK with that and only moan a little. After all, if they complain they get beaten soundly and tossed in the coal hole.

I'd like to think that all parents should find it a simple enough affair to control their kids' use of consoles but, it's not that simple. I have the advantage of living is a rural area where their nearest friends are a few miles away. As such, I don't have to worry about what they'll get up to at their friend's house (yet) since they only get to spend time there once a week, or so. Having grown up in housing estates, I got away with so much that my parents never knew about, including six-hour sessions playing games. But at that time, I had only one friend that owned a console. The other 15 had footballs, bikes and hurling sticks for bashing cars with. As a result, I spent more time being active than inactive. Now though, almost every child has a console. By default, any visit my son makes to another's kids house involves time playing the console. Sometimes he admits to being bored because all some of them want to do for the four-hour visit is sit and play Star Wars or Need For Speed Underground 2.

It is quite a damning fact to realise that most young kids today prefer - or are allowed - to sit around playing consoles all day. I'm no prude and am a self-confessed games addict. Thanks to work and kids I no longer have the time to become as hooked on something as I once did. But whereas my addictions started in my twenties, today's generation of console junkies have just started school. Considering the proliferation of consoles among most of my children's' peers, rural living is the only thing preventing them from turning into fat, uncommunicative zombies. It's already happening to some of their friends and will only get worse. How sad is that? Outside everyone moving to remote, rain-lashed islands in the North Sea I have no solution beyond my lucky circumstances. I really don't see any hope at all for the rest. Feel free to let me know what you think. µ

L'INQ
www.gymkids.uk.com