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With the holidays having started, many parents will be relying on computers or games consoles to keep their sons and daughters entertained over the week-long break.听

The challenge will be to keep down the hours spent on the various screens.听

We recently bought our 13-year-old son one of the more grown-up consoles and will admit to some surprise at how powerful and flexible they have become. The biggest change is in networking. Nowadays, all these consoles are designed to connect to the web, and permit cooperative gaming.听

On the good side, that makes it possible for players to cooperate; to talk to their friends and to work together on a campaign or to achieve an objective.

On the downside, the console seems to have made his concentration worse. Except in one area - when does he next get to go on the console.

We can ask if he has done all his homework. The answer always seems to be yes, and I guess we should rejoice about that. At least until his teachers start reporting that the work is rushed and sloppy.

We can ask if he has prepared his books for the next day. The answer to that one seems to be, that he was always, just about to do it. The same, of course applies to jobs like laying the table; getting his dirty washing ready for the machine and so on.听

But it's not just the main games console. He takes his hand-held device everywhere. On the good side, we never get the 'Are we there yet?' question. On the bad side, the question we do get it 'Can I get out my console?'听 - at friends' houses, on the tube, during a concert, at church.听

If this scenario sounds familiar, one way of tacking it is to introduce some alternative activities. Why not suggest playing cards or some board games. Other distractions could be baking some cookies or helping to cook the family meal.听

I talked to a local sleep advisor recently. Most of our conversation was about babies and parents getting sleep. But as soon as I mentioned the games console generation, she became really fired up about how they are damaging sleep patterns.

As a trained psychologist, she went on about arousal states and brain waves and alpha rhythms, most of which went over my head, but the thing which struck home was that she actively stops her 17 year-old from playing on the console on school days. She will go in there and unplug the machine, saying the constant battles are worth it.听

I think this anecdotal type of evidence, is a common currency among teachers and concerned parents. But it's also there in hard research. In the 11 October issue of Pediatrics, Dr Angie Page of the University of Bristol reports that, 鈥淐hildren who spent more than two hours per day watching television or using a computer were at increased risk of high levels of psychological difficulties.鈥�

Research from Iowa, in America, showed that children who spent 听least 听time in front of a screen, had much lower blood pressure than their screen-addicted peers. (Archives of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine journal)

The kicker was the high blood pressure, that was not solely due to simply sitting down and not getting exercise; nor was it due to body morphology. It appeared to be due to the excess adrenalin and other hormones, produced as a result of playing games and watching TV.

So that sleep practitioner was right about high states of arousal.

The question really, is not what those games do to our children. I think most of us know the effects are not all positive. The question is how we control access to the consoles and encourage them to get outside and play for hours, rather than spend their lives playing the latest shoot 'em up.

I'm not sure there are any easy answers to that one, though.

David Shaw is a member of the 主播大秀 Parent Panel.

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