Most American children now have access to home computers and are using them for everything from playing games to doing schoolwork to chatting with friends via e-mail to surfing the Web.
Although research on the effects of children’s use of home computers is still sketchy and ambiguous, some initial indications of positive and negative effects are beginning to emerge.
Displacement of other activities
When children use computers at home instead of watching television, it is generally viewed as positive; but when children use computers instead of participating in sports and other physical activities, it raises concerns about the possible effects on their physical and psychological well-being. Yet little research exists on how children’s growing use of computers may be displacing activities other than television viewing, and the few findings that exist are ambiguous. Some evidence indicates that children who use home computers may watch less television than nonusers, but other evidence suggests that television viewing remains the same or might even increase with the use of home computers.
Children in homes with computers also spent less time watching videotapes and more time doing schoolwork and reading magazines or newspapers, compared with children in homes without computers
Still others suggest that, because of the growing trend to link the content of various media – as exemplified by the ‘tie-ins’ between children’s television shows, computer games, and Web sites – computer use may not displace television, but may instead lead to an increase in television viewing. Furthermore, it appears that greater access to home computers may actually be increasing children’s total ‘screen time’, that is, time spent using a computer, playing video games, and watching television combined. As the combined amount of time children spend across these various media increases, the likelihood of displacing time spent on organized sports and other physical activities also increases, thus exacerbating the impact on children’s physical and psychological well-being.
