Studies: Games Have Positive Impact On SIck Kids

Maybe parents wouldn't be so quick to condemn videogames if they saw the impact the hobby can have on sick children.

According to a recent Reuters study, games have a positive impact on ill children in the hospital. Apparently, the studies indicate that the pain can be lessened by the engrossing hobby, and further give kids a sense of "normalcy" in the foreign environment of a hospital. The overall numbers are relatively small, but the results are definitive.

This is another in a string of studies over the past five years that have given gamers a chance to cheer after decades of negative press. More studies are currently being conducted, and while there has been a new link established between violent videogames and aggression in children and teenagers, more encouraging results continue to roll in. Let's hope the haters and naysayers don't ignore such results...

12/16/2006 Ben Dutka