Children
now use the computer just like any other toy. Now that many
kids
computer games are available online, any child, with just
very little orientation, access these
computer games to play by themselves astonishing even
the parents at the amazing skills of their kids in the use
of the Internet. Every kid now whose parents make the home
computer available for his use is taking a very natural way
to its use just like fish takes to water.
Dads and moms lament the fact that
their kids know their way around the Internet much better
than them, especially in looking for the sites where the children’s
games are.
Kids usually look for all kinds of
games in the Web, and spend hours surfing and playing the
childrens
computer games they like in many websites. Due to this
new phenomenon, it is necessary now that the creators of these
games use the appropriate software to insure that the games
kids play are at the same time educational too. If these websites
now offering games to the kids are not conscious of this matter,
children will just be wasting hours in play without learning
anything constructive at all. That would certainly be a minus
sign for the Internet.
Since parents have no control over
the Internet on these problems, they might just as well prohibit
their kids from playing these games online that have no educational
content. It will be similar to a mom’s controlling the
TV viewing hours of the children during school days, so they
have time to study their lessons. If research is done now
on the contents of kids’ game online and the non-inclusion
of what could be software
educational for the kids is established, parents might
as well give similar prohibition on Internet viewing as what
they do with the TV set.
Especially “dangerous”
are the Japanese anime cartoons now found on the web. If you
listen to your kid talk about these types of cartoons and
games, you would wonder if your kid is not becoming a Japanese
speaker, since he tends to sound like one talking. The names
of the characters in the games are the original Japanese names
programmers have lifted from the cartoons created by Japanese
animation artists, and every child following these programs
tend to speak and sound like a Japanese.
Look at what happened to a grandpa
who asked his grandson what Japanese game he was playing on
the Net. The kid answered him in a strange language the old
US Army veteran of the war with Japan in the Pacific could
not understand at all.
The old man ended his talk with the
kid throwing up his arms in surrender, confused on who really
won in the war in the Pacific, whether it was really General
McArthur, or the Japanese commander, General Yamashita.
The old veteran also wondered if
the Japanese erred in using military weapons in trying to
seize all countries in the Pacific region then; maybe they
should have used Japanese anime cartoons instead, to win the
hearts of the children then who in turn will convince their
elders to surrender to the Japanese like what has happened
to his grandson.
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