Video games for kids
- your comments

What did you tell me about video games for kids? My survey asked you if you played video games with your children and whether you thought that video games were suitable for young kids.

For those of you who do play video games, you also told me which platform you use - whether your PC or a games console of some kind.

Many of you also added suggestions of video games kids can play, as well as your opinions about kids' video games in general.

My thanks to everyone who contributed. You can still take the survey here - we're building up a good picture of what's happening in the world of video games for kids - and what you think about it.

So - let's take a look at the results so far!

Do you play video games with your kids?

Of course, how much time you spend with your child playing these games can vary - younger children will need much more help, and older kids will also need you to walk them through a new game.

It is important, I feel, to let a child know right from the start that although these games can be played by yourself, they can also be enjoyed with other people.

This gets everyone into the habit of talking about what's happening with a game, what's good about it (or not) and discuss any interesting topics that arise from playing the game.

Find more tips about video games and children - how to use and play video games successfully with your kids.

Are kid friendly video games suitable for young kids?

The suitability of games for younger kids is crucial; you can check the ratings of each video game you buy, making sure that you choose EC or Early Childhood rated games for kids under 6 years and E or Everyone rated games for kids a little older and up.

Which video game platform do you use?

There are also many more video games for kids available that can be used on your home computer; there are still very few games that are rated Early Childhood for the console-based platforms - this could change in the future, of course.

Check out what's on offer on my early childhood video games for PC page.

What age did your kids start playing video games?

Five to eight year olds and above made up around 30% of the total.

This means that before the age of five, around 70% of your children were familiar with video games for kids.

What about those really tiny tots?

From my recent set of stats, it's interesting to see that 24 people out of 259 visitors who answered this question told us that their child started playing video games before the age of two. That's nearly 10% of you!

The charts above show data collected from 13th April to 24th October 2007, with 281 survey responses from site visitors.

What are your favorite video games for kids?

• Animal Crossing
• Spyro the Dragon
• Lego Star Wars
• Finding Nemo
• Winx Club
• Dora the Explorer
• Shrek
• Barbie
• Spider Man
• Scooby Doo
• Dogz, Catz...
• Little Einsteins
• Bob the Builder
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• I Spy
• Strawberry Shortcake
• Little Mermaid
• Spongebob
• Bratz
• Candyland

Your comments about kids' video games

Calming and bonding...

My kids love the games when they get to play them. We use them as travel behaviour incentives and just as a calming down thing once or twice a week. The family plays the Wii several nights a week, as a family we exercise and we bond while it's hot outside

Wow - that sounds great! Looks like this family has integrated video games play successfully into their routine, without it dominating their children's activities.

Hard to find good games

It is tough to find review/recommendations for games with the right content and skill level for small children.

It is indeed hard work finding suitable video games for kids, particularly the little ones - as I have found whilst researching this topic. I hope this growing section will help you to find good games that your small children will enjoy.

Video game aggression

My son seems to be very aggressive after playing video games, there don't seem to be many that don't involve killing stuff, and even at the age of 7 he screams and cries when it's time to switch off.

Violence in video games isn't for little kids; there may be various reasons why your kids get to play games that aren't suitable for their age, and I guess that having older brothers or sisters who also play video games could be one of them.

Stay tuned for tips on choosing and using video games for kids.

More games needed

I think they're good for little kids, I think they should make particular ones for them because 5 year olds can't play tiger woods pga tour 2007 can they ?

This reader echoed a number of comments expressing disappointment in the choice of video games for kids.

Two useful approaches

I'm not crazy about them, however they seem good for eye-hand coordination. Our son doesn't play them often, but when he does, I watch and make sure he understands everything going on, and explain anything confusing, or just any social aspects behind it when possible.

This is another great approach. And the following reader also gives a few tips on how being honest and open about video games with your kids can be very worthwhile:

Video games can help to increase hand-eye coordination, problem solving skill, and some games (DDR and the Wii) can help other areas. It can be dangerous too, but as a responsible parent that keeps tabs on the gaming world it isn't a problem yet. I've told my kids the dangers of different television shows, books, movies, websites and video games and helped them to understand why they are dangerous. I feel it is important to communicate this with them so they lose interest at an early age. Since there are a number of games that don't have this danger and a strong conviction can help to withstand things like desensitization to violence they don't seem to have much desire to play those games and just have fun with what they have.

Again, my thanks to all those who have contributed so far to this section about video games for kids.

Why not take the kids' video games survey yourself?