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"Radiografía Digital de Niños, Niñas y Adolescentes 2025" es la octava edición del estudio realizado por ClaroVTR en colaboración con Criteria, que analiza los hábitos digitales de los menores en Chile.

Edad de acceso a dispositivos móviles: en promedio, los NNA chilenos reciben su primer teléfono móvil a los 8,1 años. Los niños reportan iniciar el uso de dispositivos electrónicos antes de los 7 años (55%).

Uso de celulares propios: el 90% de los encuestados posee un celular propio, con una distribución del 82% entre niños de 8 a 12 años y del 97% entre adolescentes de 13 a 17 años.

Hiperconectividad: los NNA utilizan intensivamente Internet para actividades recreativas, dedicando gran parte de su tiempo en línea al ocio. ​

Actividades principales en redes sociales:

Ver videos: 94%​

Chatear con padres o amigos: 83%​

Ver fotos: 82%​

Uso de celulares en el ámbito educativo: el 58% de los padres prefiere que sus hijos no utilicen celulares en las salas de clases. Sin embargo, entre los padres de adolescentes, el 44% está de acuerdo con su uso solo para fines académicos.

Análisis grupo 13-17 años, respecto a la IA

La mayoría no se siente bien informado respecto a la IA ni tiene la confianza suficiente en ella. Tampoco el uso es intensivo.

El 50% declara utilizar la IA solo en actividades relacionadas con aprendizaje y conocimiento. Chat GPT es la app más utilizada, seguido por Google y Gemini.

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The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence while controlling for genetic differences in cognition and socioeconomic background, 2022

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The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence while controlling for genetic differences in cognition and socioeconomic background, 2022

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Características de la población:

Muestra: 9855 niños de EE. UU., con medidas de inteligencia en la línea base (edades 9-10) y después de dos años.

Actividades de pantalla: ver videos, socializar en RRSS y jugar videojuegos.

Medidas de inteligencia: incluyen tareas cognitivas como el reconocimiento de vocabulario, lectura oral, y aprendizaje verbal auditivo.

Resultados:

Relación negativa inicial: al inicio del estudio, ver videos y socializar estaban negativamente correlacionados con la inteligencia, mientras que jugar videojuegos no mostraba correlación.

Impacto positivo a largo plazo:

Jugar videojuegos: tuvo un impacto positivo significativo en la inteligencia después de dos años, consistente con beneficios cognitivos documentados en estudios experimentales (atención, funciones ejecutivas, memoria de trabajo, resolución de problemas, aprendizaje y resolución de problemas).

Ver videos: también mostró un impacto positivo en la inteligencia, aunque este resultado fue menos robusto y no significativo.

Socializar: no tuvo un efecto significativo en la inteligencia después de dos años.

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The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence while controlling for genetic differences in cognition and socioeconomic background - Scientific Reports

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Scientific Reports - The impact of digital media on children’s intelligence while controlling for genetic differences in cognition and socioeconomic background

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Análisis grupo 8 - 12 años:

La mayoría de los padres menciona que el primer dispositivo comprado corresponde a una tablet a los 7 años, seguido por el celular a los 9.

Con los años aumenta la tenencia de celulares en NNA.

La mayoría pasa más de 4 horas conectados, tanto en la semana como el fin de semana y este tiempo es usado en entretenimiento.

Las RRSS que más usan es Youtube, WSP y TikTok.

Existe un menor uso de juegos en líneas respecto a mediciones anteriores y el celular es el dispositivo más usado para esto. Los juegos preferidos son los de construcción.

La mayoría de los padres considera que la IA es más perjudicial que beneficiosa para sus hijos, creencia que se intensifica en los padres de niños y niñas más pequeños y en los de menor nivel socioeconómico.

Otras conclusiones del estudio:

En el ideal de los padres, el primer acercamiento a dispositivos electrónicos debiera ser a una avanzada edad, siendo los 10 años la edad óptima para ello.

Los padres prefieren que el uso de celulares e internet en horas escolares sea limitado y sólo con fines académicos.

En contraposición a lo anterior, los NNA declaran que el acceso que tienen a la tecnología se da desde temprana edad, observándose una tendencia positiva a que los padres entreguen cada vez más anticipadamente un celular propio a sus hijos.

7 de cada 10 NNA juega en línea todos o casi todos los días, principalmente a través de su teléfono móvil, siendo los juegos de construcción de mundos o ciudades los que más se prefieren.

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Encuesta aplicada por Gamificación Aprendizaje

Encuestados: 321​

Género: 151 mujeres, 162 hombres, 8 otro​

Edad promedio: 11 años​

Análisis grupo 6 - 8 años:

Corresponden a 75 encuestados.

Lo que más les gusta es jugar con amigos o con otros, los desafíos, obtener premios y el sistema de personalización, estos dos últimos puntos son fuertes en el grupo de 6 y 7 años.

Sus juegos preferidos son: Roblox, Minecraft, FreFire y Among Us.

El celular es la plataforma más usada para jugar.

Un durante la semana el 40% juega videojuegos hasta 2 horas, el fin de semana aumenta a 4 horas.

La mitad juega videojuegos con sus padres.

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Los videojuegos y el bienestar psicosocial de los niños: un estudio longitudinal, 2017

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Los videojuegos y el bienestar psicosocial de los niños: un estudio longitudinal, 2017

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Este estudio explora los efectos de los videojuegos (de tipo violentos, cooperativos y competitivos) en el desarrollo psicosocial de 194 niños holandeses entre los 7 y los 11 años durante 1 año.

Conclusiones:

Frecuencia de Juego: los niños que jugaban más de 8 horas a la semana mostraron un aumento de problemas emocionales como ansiedad y síntomas depresivos.

Juego Violento: no se relacionó con un aumento en problemas externos o una disminución en el comportamiento prosocial.

Juego Cooperativo: Nno se asoció con cambios en el comportamiento prosocial.

Juego Competitivo: al jugar por más de 8 horas a la semana, se asocia a una disminución en el comportamiento prosocial.

Los videojuegos no parecen causar daño en la mayoría de los dominios del desarrollo psicosocial de los niños. Los padres deben estar especialmente atentos a los posibles aumentos de los problemas internalizantes de los niños como resultado del uso de videojuegos.

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Abstract

The effects of video games on children's psychosocial development remain the focus of debate. At two timepoints, 1 year apart, 194 children (7.27-11.43 years old; male = 98) reported their gaming frequency, and their tendencies to play violent video games, and to game (a) cooperatively and (b) competitively; likewise, parents reported their children's psychosocial health. Gaming at time one was associated with increases in emotion problems. Violent gaming was not associated with psychosocial changes. Cooperative gaming was not associated with changes in prosocial behavior. Finally, competitive gaming was associated with decreases in prosocial behavior, but only among children who played video games with high frequency. Thus, gaming frequency was related to increases in internalizing but not externalizing, attention, or peer problems, violent gaming was not associated with increases in externalizing problems, and for children playing approximately 8 h or more per week, frequent competitive gaming may be a risk factor for decreasing prosocial behavior. We argue that replication is needed and that future research should better distinguish between different forms of gaming for more nuanced and generalizable insight.

Keywords: Psychosocial development, Video games, Prosocial behavior, Longitudinal

Introduction

Video games have rapidly become a universal aspect of child development (Lenhart et al. 2008), and their quick rise to prominence has stimulated scientific inquiry and public concern (Ferguson 2013). With researchers stressing that children may be particularly susceptible to the influence of video game playing (Bushman and Huesmann 2006; Lobel et al. 2014a), the effects of video games on children's psychosocial development remains highly debated. Video games have thus been widely studied as a potential cause for aggressive cognitions and behavior (Anderson et al. 2010; Carnagey and Anderson 2004), emotional problems such as depression (Tortolero et al. 2014), and hyperactivity and inattention (Gentile et al. 2012). In these lines of research, video games are seen as a compelling entertainment medium whose clever use of feedback loops and positive reinforcement schedules train unhealthy habits of mind (Gentile and Gentile 2008a, b).

Conversely, researchers have recently begun to look at video games as a domain for training healthy habits of mind (Adachi and Willoughby 2012; Granic et al. 2014). From this perspective, many video games reward communication and cooperation as well as resolving negative emotions such as frustration. Moreover, video games seem to provide a context for the fulfillment of self-deterministic needs, thereby positively contributing to psychological well-being (Ryan et al. 2006). The current paper adds to the discussion on gaming's positive and negative consequences with data from a longitudinal study that could address the relations between different forms of video game playing and the psychosocial development of children. Here, psychosocial development refers broadly to the psychological and social changes children undergo during development, including changes in patterns of internalizing and externalizing problems, attention, and how children relate to peers.

Psychosocial Development and Gaming

In a recent review we argued for the potential of video gaming to afford psychosocial benefits (Granic et al. 2014). This perspective focuses on gaming as a modern and meaningful form of play, and therefore as a context where children's developmental needs can be met (Fisher 1992; Verenikina et al. 2003). Just as traditional forms of play provide positive contexts for children's psychosocial development (Erikson 1977; Piaget 1962; Vygotsky 1978), so too video games seem to afford promise (Adachi and Willoughby 2012; Granic et al. 2014). This promise is in part due to the ubiquity of gaming; with between 90 and 97% of children playing video games (Lenhart et al. 2008), it seems that social development has partly migrated from physical playgrounds to digital ones. Moreover, video games have become-particularly in the past decade-a more social and emotionally rich entertainment medium. Thus, modern video games may provide a context for children to bond with others and learn the benefits of cooperation.

Yet despite the potential benefits of gaming for children's psychosocial development, scant empirical work has explored these options (Hromek and Roffey 2009; Przybylski and Wang 2016). Instead, there has been a predominant focus on the potential psychosocial dangers of gaming. A recent meta-analysis identified 101 studies that investigated the effects of playing (violent) video games on children's and adolescents' psychosocial health. Of these studies, nearly 70 of them assessed whether (violent) video games were related to externalizing problems (such as aggression). In contrast, prosocial behavior (e.g. Gentile et al. 2009) and internalizing problems (such as depression) were each assessed in about 20 studies (e.g. Parkes et al. 2013). Just 9 studies assessed the relation between gaming and attention problems (e.g. Bioulac et al. 2008) and even fewer investigated the relation between gaming and children's peer relationships (e.g. Przybylski 2014).

Several methodological shortcomings are also important to highlight. First, gaming research among children has predominantly been cross-sectional in nature-64 of the 101 studies identified in Ferguson ( 2015) were correlational. The major limitation of these studies is that they do not allow inferences about order. Moreover, many of these studies have not controlled for relevant background variables such as socio-economic status (SES) and gender. On the other hand, while experimental studies allow researchers to draw causal inferences, the real-world generalizability of such gaming studies remain debated. Regarding studies on externalizing problems in particular, researchers have questioned the ecological validity of the outcome measures used (see Anderson and Bushman 1997; Ritter and Eslea 2005) and the extent to which these studies used well-matched control conditions (see Przybylski et al. 2014). Beyond these issues, as most of these experimental studies were run in a single lab session, these experiments do not give enough insight into the long-term consequences of playing video games.

Regarding internalizing problems, studies that examine the link between gaming and emotional problems have predominantly focused on "problematic gamers." These are individuals who habitually play for very many hours and show other signs of dependency, such as avoiding social interactions or obligations in favor of gaming (van Rooij et al. 2011). Among adolescents, such gamers seem to have elevated depression symptoms compared to their peers (Messias et al. 2011). A recent, large scale, cross-sectional study among Canadian adolescents also indicated that video game play was positively associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety (Maras et al. 2015). These findings are consistent with the conclusions made in a review by Kuss and Griffiths ( 2012). These problems seem to emerge as a result of escapism; that is that problematic gamers seem drawn to gaming as an escape from real world problems. As a means of escape, gaming may offer temporary distraction, but without alleviating real world distress, excessive gaming may only exacerbate said problems. Still, the cross-sectional nature of past studies leaves open whether individuals with internalizing problems retreat to video games as an escape, or whether gaming acts as a precursor to these issues. Moreover, little is known about the relationship between gaming and internalizing problems in children due to the scarcity of research among this cohort.

Finally, hyperactivity and inattention has been investigated as a detrimental psychosocial outcome of gaming. This research is premised on the perception that video games are fast-paced and offer frequent rewards, thus potentially habituating children to a steady stream of novel, pleasurable stimuli. On the one hand, children with Attentional Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder have been shown to play more video games than their peers (Mazurek and Engelhardt 2013) and Gentile and colleagues ( 2012) argue that there may be a bidirectional effect between attentional problems and gaming. On the other hand, studies among adults show that action video games may confer cognitive benefits, including improvements in executive functioning (Green and Bavelier 2012). Due to these conflicting findings, and a lack of longitudinal research among children, the extent to which gaming may influence children's attention remains largely unknown.

Prosocial Behavior and Cooperative and Competitive Gaming

The potential influence of video games on social behavior seems particularly relevant. This is because, compared to the video games of just two decades ago, contemporary video games have become increasingly social in nature (Olson 2010). Researchers such as Greitemeyer and Ewoldsen have noted that just as some games predicate in-game progress on violence, other games predicate progress on prosocial behaviors (Ewoldsen et al. 2012; Greitemeyer and Osswald 2011). For instance, many games designed for multiple players feature cooperative game modes where players are encouraged to work together with others. A number of studies support the hypothesis that cooperative gaming may promote prosocial behavior (Dolgov et al. 2014; Ewoldsen et al. 2012) and may curb aggressive behaviors (Jerabeck and Ferguson 2013; Velez et al. 2014) (although many of these studies feature the sorts of methodological shortcomings mentioned above). In contrast to cooperative gaming, researchers have also investigated whether competitive gaming promotes aggression and discourages prosocial behavior (Eastin 2007). For instance, Adachi and colleagues performed a series of studies to test the relative extent to which violent content and competitive play each promote aggression (Adachi 2015). Using experimental and longitudinal designs, these studies indicated that in both the short- and long-term, competitive gaming may be a greater predictor of aggressive outcomes than violence alone. However, cooperative and competitive gaming have yet to be researched in the way these forms of play most commonly occur in the real world-in tandem. Thus, while researchers have tried to individually assess the effects of these forms of play, they often co-occur in the real-world of gaming most children participate. This is because many competitive video games not only allow cooperative modes, but the competition in these games is often team-based. However, no longitudinal studies to date have simultaneously investigated the influence of both cooperative and competitive video game playing; this is important as many video games designed for competitive play are also team-based, and therefore allow for cooperative play as well.

Design and Hypotheses

The present longitudinal study was designed to address the gaps in the literature described above. First, we focused on the potential psychosocial benefits that playing video games may have for children. Thus, in addition to assessing negative outcomes such as externalizing problems, internalizing problems, and hyperactivity and inattention, we also focused on peer relations, and prosocial behavior. Second, this study targeted an under-studied population, namely children between the ages of seven and eleven. Indeed, despite claims that children are especially vulnerable to the effects of video game playing (Bushman and Huesmann 2006), scant longitudinal research has targeted children. Children seem particularly susceptible to being influenced by video games because, unlike adults, they are still in the process of forming patterns for how they deal with social and emotional challenges. The behaviors and patterns of mind that are therefore promoted during video game may have a greater impact on them than on adults. Moreover, as children near adolescence, their peer network and relationships become increasingly important (Davies 2010). As a result, the social interactions they enact and rehearse during video game play may be of greater relevance for how they interact with their peers in the real world. Finally, our longitudinal design allowed us to simultaneously test for both gaming and selection effects; in the former, video game playing may precipitate psychosocial changes, whereas in the latter, children who already show psychosocial deficits may select video games as an outlet. Thus, our longitudinal design also allowed us to investigate the tandem development of video game playing and psychosocial health.

Five domains of children's psychosocial health were assessed at two timepoints-externalizing problems, internalizing problems, hyperactivity and inattention, peer problems, and prosocial behavior. Given the psychosocial benefits of play, we expected video game playing at the first time point to predict decreases in children's (H1) externalizing problems, (H2) internalizing problems, (H3) peer problems, and (H4) overall psychosocial problems by the second time point. Given the lack of consensus in the research, no predictions were made for the influence of gaming on hyperactivity and inattention, or on prosocial behavior, although exploratory analyses were conducted. We also explored the potential relationships between violent video game content and both externalizing problems and prosocial behavior. Finally, we also hypothesized that (H5a) cooperative gaming at the first time point would be associated with increases in prosocial behavior, whereas (H5b) competitive gaming at the first time point would be associated with decreases in prosocial behavior.

Method

Participants

Data were collected during home visits 1 year apart ( T1 and T2; days between visits: range 265-510, M = 392.22, SD = 59.05). Participants were recruited from a pool of 298 participants already participating in research which tracked children's psycho-social health (Stone et al. 2010). Parents were contacted via letters sent to their homes and follow-up phone invitations. At T1, the children's gender was evenly split (boys n = 98); 86.6% of parent reporters were female ( n = 168); with the exception of three adopted mothers and one adopted father, all parents were the child's biological parent; finally, 96.9% of parents were Dutch ( n = 188), with the others coming from Suriname ( n = 1) or nearby European countries ( n = 5). The study's procedures were approved by the Behavioural Science Institute's Ethical Review Board under the Radboud University, and informed consent forms were obtained from parents at both timepoints. Descriptive statistics for the sample at T1 and T2 are reported in Table 1 . Ten participants from T1 declined to participate at T2. Additionally, data from ten parent reports were missing at T2 because their data was not properly saved by the recording software. With the exception of five parents, all parent reports were provided by the same parent at T1 and T2. Among parents, education level was low for 6.7%, medium for 30.4%, and high for 60.3%1.

Table 1

Children

Parents

T1 ( n  = 194)

T1 ( n  = 194)

Range

M

SD

Range

M

SD

T2 ( n  = 184)

T2 ( n  = 174)

Range

M

SD

Range

M

SD

Procedure

Children provided self-reports during a face-to-face interview with an experimenter. Parents provided their survey responses via an online questionnaire. Families were rewarded a 20 and 30 Euro voucher check (per child) for their participation at T1 and T2 respectively.

Measures

Psychosocial health

Psychosocial health was measured by parent's reports on the Dutch version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ (Goodman 1997); Dutch version (van Widenfelt et al. 2003)). The SDQ uses a 3-point Likert scale (0-2 Not true to Very true) and is comprised of five sub-scales: (a) internalizing problems, (b) externalizing problems, (c) hyperactivity/inattention, (d) peer relationship problems, and (e) prosocial behavior. Consistent with Stone and colleagues ( 2010) reliability was calculated using ω; this reliability index has repeatedly been shown to yield more accurate estimates than α, particularly so when data are skewed, as is the case with SDQ (Stone et al. 2015; Zinbarg et al. 2005). All sub-scales showed acceptable to good reliability at T1 and T2: (a) internalizing problems (sample: Many worries, often seems worried; ω T1 = .83; ω T2 = .81); (b) externalizing problems (sample: Often fights with other children or bullies them; ω T1 = .75; ω T2 = .89); (c) hyperactivity/inattention (sample: Restless, overactive, cannot stay still for long; ω T1 = .88; ω T2 = .89); (d) peer problems (sample: Rather solitary, tends to play alone; ω T1 = .83; ω T2 = .68); and (e) prosocial behavior (sample: Shares readily with other children; ω T1 = .84; ω T2 = .78). All sub-scales consist of five items with sum scores being calculated for each sub-scale. The SDQ also includes a total difficulties score, calculated as the sum scores of all scales except for prosocial behavior ( ω T1 = .95; ω T2 = .95); this reflects children's general psychosocial health. Descriptive statistics for the SDQ measures are presented in Table 2 .

Gaming frequency

Children's frequency of video game playing was assessed by: (1) Parental reports for the number of hours their child plays on average per week; (2) child reports for the number of hours they had played video games during the past week; (3) children's ability to recall their gaming hours across a whole week was scaffolded by an additional measure of gaming frequency: in interviews, children looked over a calendar with the experimenter and indicated for each day over the past full week whether or not they had played a video game in the morning, afternoon, and evening. "Video games" were explicitly described to parents and children as any game that can be played on an electronic device, and several example games were listed.

Descriptive statistics for the frequency measures are presented in Table 3 . Both parent's and children's reported hours of gaming were Windorized with a cut-off at 3 SD above the mean ( T1: parent reports: M = 5.76, SD = 3.87, outliers n = 4; child reports: M = 4.86, SD = 4.25, outliers n = 6. T2: parent reports M = 6.83, SD = 5, outliers n = 2; child reports: M = 5.92, SD = 5.9, outliers n = 2). Children reported an average of 7.88 discrete play sessions per week (SD = 4.15) at T1 and 8.11 (SD = 4.78) at T2.

Moderate correlations were observed across the three frequency measures at each time point ( T1: r ≥ .47, p < .001; T2: r ≥ .41, p < .001). Moderate correlations were also observed within reporters across T1 and T2 (parental report: r = .566, p < .001; child report: hours r = .367, p < .001, calendar r = .485, p < .001). Game frequency was operationalized as child reports of hours gaming2. As psychosocial health was reported by parents, this means that our analyses were performed across reporters. This is preferred to analyses using only a single reporter as such analyses introduce a potential single source bias (Burk and Laursen 2010; Lobel et al. 2014a).

Violent gaming

Similar to the methods in Anderson and Dill ( 2000) and Prot et al. ( 2014), children were asked to report their favorite video game(s) from the past several weeks. At T1, Minecraft, Super Mario Bros., and Subway Surfer were the most popularly listed games/franchises, each being reported by 13 children. At T2, the most popular titles were more diverse with 46 children listing Minecraft, 21 listing a title from the Fifa franchise, and 18 listing Mario Party and Hay Day each. Violent gaming was computed as a dichotomous variable; children who listed a violent video game among their favorite games were assigned a 1, and those who did not were assigned a 0. Video games were classified as being violent when gameplay required players to harm other in-game characters.

Cooperative and competitive gaming

Whereas third-party review boards provide information about whether a game contains violent content, the extent to which games are played cooperatively or competitively is not. Violent content is therefore objectively observable based on a game's content and design, whereas competitive and cooperative play is more difficult to observe. Following Przybylski and Mishkin ( 2016), cooperative and competitive gaming were therefore individually assessed by children with a single item using a Likert scale (5-point scale: Never to Every time or almost every time). Experimenters clearly informed children what was meant by "cooperative" and "competitive" gaming: Children were asked to think about the times that they play video games, and to rate the frequency with which, when playing, they play a game where they have to "work together with others; that the game is cooperative" and "play against others; that the game is competitive".

Planned Analyses

All analyses were performed in R (R Core Team 2013). For preliminary analyses, paired-sample t-tests were used to determine whether children's psychosocial health and gaming frequency changed from T1 to T2, independent t-tests were used to determine whether there were gender differences on all variables at both timepoints, and correlations were calculated. To investigate our hypotheses, three sets of structural path models were estimated with the lavaan package (Rosseel 2012). In all models, full information maximum likelihood was used to account for missing values and the Hubert-White covariance adjustment (MLR in lavaan) was applied to standard errors in order to deal with the lack of normally distributed variables.

In the first models, cross-lagged panel models were estimated to test H1-H4; that is, whether gaming at T1 would be associated with changes from T1 to T2 on (H1) externalizing problems, (H2) internalizing problems, (H3) peer problems, and (H4) overall psychosocial health. Figure 1 presents a template model. These models allowed us to simultaneously test the effects of gaming on psychosocial health, and for the reverse, a selection effect of psychosocial health at T1 influencing gaming frequency. These same models were used to explore the relationship between gaming and changes in attention problems and in prosocial behavior. Our second and third models targeted those children who regularly played video games, defined as children who played for more than 1 h per week (95.9% of children, n = 186)3. We chose to segment out non-gamer children because our hypotheses specifically concern differences in gaming behavior; that is we intended to determine whether one pattern of gaming behavior could be beneficial or detrimental compared to other patterns of gaming behaviors. Therefore, for these children we explored (1) whether violent gaming was associated with changes in conduct problems and in prosocial behavior (Fig. 2 ), and we tested (2) whether: (H5a) playing cooperatively was associated with increases in prosocial behavior; and (H5b) playing competitively was associated with decreases in prosocial behavior (Fig. 3 ). All models were saturated (and therefore had zero degrees of freedom).

Results

Preliminary Analyses

Table 2 reports the means and standard deviations for the SDQ at T1 and T2. Peer problems and total difficulties decreased from T1 to T2 (peer: M T1 = 1.14 SDT1 = 1.63 vs. M T2 = 0.97 SDT2 = 1.27, t(173) = 2.09, p = .038; total difficulties: M T1 = 7.15 SDT1 = 5.33 vs. M T2 = 6.47 SDT2 = 4.99, t(173) = 2.29, p = .023). Regarding gaming frequency, while children did not report an increase in the number of discrete sessions per week that they played video games ( M T1 = 7.88 SDT1 = 4.15 vs. M T2 = 8.11 SDT2 = 4.78, t(182) = −1.18, p = 0.238), children's hours gaming per week increased according to both parents ( M T1 = 5.7 SDT1 = 3.63 vs. M T2 = 6.8 SDT2 = 4.9, t(173) = −4.15, p < .001) and children ( M T1 = 4.9 SDT1 = 4.07 vs. M T2 = 5.82 SDT2 = 5.48, t(182) = −2.61, p = .01). Table 4 reports the correlations between all predictor and predicted variables used for hypothesis testing, and Table 5 reports the correlations between the control variables used in these models (child's age, gender (1 = Male, 2 = Female), and parent's education level (1 = low, 2 = medium, 3 = high).

Table 4

T1-SDQ

T1-gaming

T2-SDQ

T2-gaming

T1

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

Table 5

T1-SDQ

T1-gaming

T2-SDQ

T2-gaming

Intern

Extern

Hyper

Peer

Pros

Total

Freq

Viol

Coop

Comp

Intern

Extern

Hyper

Peer

Pros

Total

Freq

Viol

Coop

Comp

Gender differences were observed at both time points for both the SDQ and gaming frequency (Table 6 ). Regarding the SDQ, parents reported boys, compared to girls, at T1 and T2 as having more hyperactivity problems, less prosocial behavior, and more overall difficulties. Parents also reported boys as having more conduct problems at T2 than girls, but this was not observed at T1. According to parents and children, boys played video games more frequently than girls at both T1 and T2. Finally, the popularity of violent video games increased from T1 ( n = 47) to T2 ( n = 64), t(177) = −2.69, p  = .008.

Table 6

Internalizing

Externalizing

Hyperactivity

T1

T2

T1

T2

T1

T2

M

SD

M

SD

M

SD

M

SD

M

SD

M

SD

Peer

Prosocial

Total difficulties

T1

T2

T1

T2

T111

T2

Gaming and Psychosocial Health

Figure 1 illustrates the cross-lagged panel models used to test whether gaming at T1 was associated with changes in psychosocial health. Contrary to our expectations, (H2) gaming frequency predicted an increase in internalizing problems from T1 to T2 ( β 4 = .137, p = .024). Also contrary to our expectations, gaming was unrelated to (H1) externalizing problems- β 4 = .092, p = .125; (H3) peer problems- β 4 = .040, p = .516; and (H4) total difficulties- β 4 = .039, p = .413. Regarding hyperactivity/inattention and regarding prosocial behavior, gaming frequency was not associated with changes in these variables;- β 4 = −.053, p = .255, and β 4 = −.022, p = .727 respectively. None of the psychosocial health measures at T1 were associated with changes in gaming from T1 to T2 ( β 3 range: 0-0.69, p .299-.944) thus no selection effects were observed. Stability paths for these models ranged from 0.54 to .79 with p ≤ .001 for β 1(SDQ across timepoints), and from 0.3 to .31 with p ≤ .001 for β 2(gaming frequency across timepoints), indicating that the SDQ and gaming frequency were relatively stable across time points, with gaming however showing more variability from T1 to T2.

Violent Gaming, Conduct Problems, and Prosocial Behavior

We next explored whether changes in conduct problems and in prosocial behavior would be associated with violent gaming among those children who played games at T1 (see Fig. 2 ). Violent gaming was therefore added as a direct effect- β 3-as was the interaction between gaming frequency (child report)4 and violent gaming- β 4. In both the conduct problems and the prosocial behavior models, no associations were observed for either violent gaming (conduct: β 3 = 0.017, p = .788; prosocial: β 3 = 0.091, p = .176) or the interaction term (conduct: β 4 = −0.122, p = .098; prosocial: β 4 = −0.081, p = .301)5.

Cooperative Gaming, Competitive Gaming, and Prosocial Behavior

Finally, we simultaneously investigated whether changes in prosocial behavior would be (H5a) positively associated with cooperative gaming and (H5b) negatively associated with competitive gaming among those children who played games at T1 (see Fig. 3 ). Cooperative and competitive gaming were added as direct effects- β 5 and β 7 respectively-and two interaction terms were added representing the interaction between gaming frequency (child report) ⁵ and (1) cooperative gaming and (2) competitive gaming- β 6 and β 8 respectively. Neither cooperative nor competitive gaming at T1 was associated with changes in prosocial behavior (cooperative: β 3 = .07, p = 0.402; competitive: β 5 = .021, p = 0.813); moreover no significant interaction was observed between cooperative gaming and gaming frequency on prosocial behavior ( β 4 = .075, p = 0.362). Yet, a significant interaction was observed between competitive gaming and hours gaming ( β 6 = −.181, p = 0.044). To interpret this interaction, simple slopes analyses were conducted, and the regions of significance were identified using the Johnson-Neyman Technique (Johnson and Fay 1950; Bauer and Curran 2005)6. Specifically, slopes for three levels of competitive gaming (−1, 0, and +1 SD; per Bauer and Curran 2005) were plotted-see Fig. 4 . The slopes for the lines reflecting low and mean levels of competitive gaming were not significant; low t = 0.93, p = .352, mean t = −.079, p = .433. The high competitive slope was significant, t = −2.01, p = .047. As marked by the vertical line in the figure, competitive gaming was therefore seen to negatively predict prosocial behavior at T2 only for those who played video games 0.92 standard deviation hours above the mean ( M = 4.9, SD = 4.07; thus, 8.82 h per week). Thus, hours gaming at T1 predicted less prosocial behavior at T2 only for those who both gamed more on average than their peers and who tended to play video games competitively.

Discussion

The goal of the present study was to provide insight into the potential influences of playing video games on children's psychosocial development. Despite the importance of this topic, few longitudinal studies have been conducted in this field. Moreover, the little research among pre-adolescent children has predominantly focused on gaming and children's externalizing problems. Moreover, while cooperative and competitive gaming have become a recent focus of attention, no studies have yet examined their potential influences while taking into consideration the naturalistic way they occur, that is, often in tandem. Thus, in contrast to past work, this study employed a longitudinal design, recruited pre-adolescent children, examined children's psychosocial across multiple domains, and simultaneously explored both cooperative and competitive gaming. Contrary to our expectations that gaming would predict improvements in children's externalizing, internalizing, peer, and overall psychosocial problems, gaming frequency was associated with increases in children's internalizing problems, and was not associated with other changes. We also explored the potential relationship between gaming and changes in hyperactivity and inattention, and in prosocial behavior; no relationships were observed. Importantly, no selection effects were observed as well; that is, psychosocial health at the study's first time point was not associated with changes in gaming frequency. Likewise, children's preference for violent video games was neither associated with changes in externalizing problems nor in prosocial behavior. Finally, while neither cooperative nor competitive gaming were associated with changes in prosocial behavior, frequent competitive gaming among children who played video games for approximately eight and a half hours or more per week was associated with declines in prosocial behavior.

For video games, their potential negative influence on children's conduct is perhaps the chief concern among the public and within the scientific community. Violent video games in particular are widely seen as having a deleterious influence on children's conduct, giving rise to aggressive behavior and discouraging prosocial behavior (Anderson et al. 2010). In this study, however, gaming as a general activity, and violent video gaming more specifically, were neither associated with a rise in children's externalizing problems nor with a decrease in prosocial behavior. Thus, violent gaming had no influence in this study. This outcome aligns this study with a minority of published work showing no effect of violent gaming on anti- or pro-social behavior. One potential reason for this may have to do with the study's sample; scant longitudinal studies have tested the influence of violent video games among pre-adolescent children.

This outcome may have also been influenced by our operationalizing violent gaming as a dichotomous variable. This method lumped together games that were low and high in violent content. Our procedure was motivated by the young age of our sample; we expected children to have difficulties rating the intensity and realism of gaming violence. Indeed, such ratings would likely have been either uninformative or a source of bias in our sample. This is because, of the 138 games listed by children in our sample, just seven titles were rated by the Pan European Game Information board as being unsuitable for children below the age of 16. The low prevalence of highly violent gaming in our sample may have therefore made it more difficult to observe an association between violent gaming and antisocial outcomes. On the other hand, the observed outcome may offer encouragement given that children who played games with age-appropriate levels of violence did not develop anti-social tendencies when compared to their peers who played non-violent games.

It is important to consider that there was a dramatic change in the prevalence of violent video game play at this study's second wave. By this study's second wave, the number of highly violent games listed by children tripled to 22, and the number of children listing a preference for violent video games increased by nearly 50%. One possibility for this shift is that violent content becomes increasingly of interest to children as they develop. Violent content could be an avenue for developing children to explore mature themes such as life-and-death. Another possibility is that because highly violent games are restricted to older audiences, these games may also be designed as more challenging and complex than many non-violent games. Violent games may therefore be attractive for child gamers looking for greater challenges to meet their growing abilities. Finally, children's interest in violent games may remain constant across development, however their access to violent games may change over the course of development. A crucial factor to consider is therefore parental mediation (Nikken and Jansz 2006). As children get older and gain more autonomy, parental involvement in what their children play may wane. Thus, contrary to our findings, violent gaming may be detrimental to children-however, the younger children in our sample may have also been protected from this risk by virtue of their lack of interest in, skill with, or access to violent games. These are important considerations for future research. Thus, the development of children's motives to play violent video games, the role of these motives, and the role of parental mediation are likely important mediating factors to consider when investigating the effects of violent gaming in children (Sweetser and Wyeth 2005).

Against our expectations, gaming frequency was associated with an increase in internalizing problems, such as anxiety and depressive symptoms. Notably, however, no selection effect was observed in our study, thus it was not the case that children experiencing heightened internalizing problems were more likely to play video games the following year. Internalizing problems seem like an important domain for future research particularly considering how gaming research has mostly focused on externalizing problems such as aggression. Importantly, this significant finding should also be interpreted with caution due to the small size of the observed relationship. Still, our finding is consistent with reports that excessive gaming relates to heightened levels of depressive symptoms among adolescents (Maras et al. 2015). Anxious and depressive symptoms emerge in children who feel a lack of control over their environment (Seligman 2007). One possibility is that frequent gaming at a young age trains children against dealing with real world adversity. Because game worlds provide clear rules and the ability to retry challenges the moment they seem too daunting, real world challenges may seem overwhelming to frequent child gamers. Several other processes may also be at work here, however. Video games are known to evoke negative emotions, and frustration in particular (Lobel et al. 2014b); negative arousal and feelings of incompetence experienced while gaming may transfer to afterwards. Second, for children, the quality of positive emotion experiences afforded by video games may be inferior to the positive emotion experiences afforded by other more traditional activities. Finally, playing video games may have been associated with other negative outcomes which themselves led to emotion problems. For instance, heightened video game play may lead to poor scholastic performance (Hastings et al. 2009) or social isolation (van den Eijnden et al. 2008). The observed association between gaming and internalizing problems may therefore be an indirect consequence of gaming being associated with other maladaptive behaviors. Future studies should therefore examine gaming's relation to how children perceive real world adversity; a more holistic approach that examines the interplay between frequent gaming and other socio-developmental processes also seems warranted.

Gaming was not associated with changes in hyperactivity and inattention. To our knowledge, this is just the second study to examine this hypothesis with a longitudinal design (see Gentile et al. 2012). With regards to attentional skills, it is possible that video games as a whole was too broad a predictor. Indeed, video games offer a wide variety of interactions and operate under a variety of reward schedules. Regarding hyperactivity and inattention, it seems relevant to distinguish video games based on the duration of play per session intended by the designer, and perhaps the speed and intensity of visual and auditory stimulation. Indeed, while some games are designed to be played in short bursts, others are designed for extensive sessions; and while some games bombard the player's senses and require rapid inputs, others take a slower pace and allow players to be idle for long periods (Fullerton 2014). Our study did not distinguish between different types of video games, largely because at the young age that we assessed children, there was very little variability in the types of games children played. But it may be that some game types may be detrimental (such as games which constantly offer short-term rewards), whereas others may be beneficial (such as action video games that vary these reward schedules), and that these effects may have cancelled each other out, even in our limited sample. Coding games based on their cognitive load and reward schedules poses several large challenges, for example: specific titles may be highly variable in their complexity because this may increase with player progress. We therefore recommend future research to conceptualize video games based on their attentional demands and their reward schedules and to draw new hypotheses based on these factors. Experimental designs seem particularly suitable; this is because researchers can work with designers to finely and objectively manipulate the specific features of game titles that may give rise to attentional deficits or improvements (e.g. Anguera et al. 2013).

Finally, habitually playing competitive video games was only associated with a decline in prosocial behavior among children who played video games competitively for about 8 or more hours per week. This was found when controlling for cooperative gaming, which often co-occurs with competitive gaming, and which has been found to promote prosocial behavior (Gentile et al. 2009). This pattern may be due to the fact that in multiplayer games competitive goals often seem to take precedence over cooperative goals. In these games cooperation is often merely a means to better compete against an opposing team; thus, the overarching goal of play in these games remains competition. Here again we stress the importance of replication and of developing and using measures that are sensitive to the variety of social dynamics across different games. Given that many existing multiplayer games allow players to choose roles with either greater focus on cooperation or competition (e.g. that of a medic or a striker), experimental studies could be of particular benefit.

This study's limitations are important to consider. First, as already discussed, this study examined the potential influence of video games in a broad sense. Modern video games encompass a highly diverse set of interactions (Granic et al. 2014), and even games within the same genre may engage players in diverse ways. We therefore stress the importance of more granular tests of specific forms of gaming. Second, to partly address this issue, this study also examined gaming more specifically in terms of social dynamics. To do so, we used unstandardized assessments, given there were no validated options. That is, our cooperative, and competitive gaming measures utilized single-item questions for their evaluation. While this is in line with other recent studies in this field (e.g. Przybylski and Mishkin 2016), validated measures are preferred. This limitation is noteworthy despite the fact that these questions were answered during an interview session with trained experimenters. Third, we collected data just 1 year apart from each other; this is a relatively short term for child development. Finally, a total of six models were run for relating gaming to the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, a further two models were run to examine violent gaming, and another model was run to examine changes in prosocial behavior. Given this multiple testing, and the relatively small size of the betas that were of significance, the findings in this study should be taken with some caution and should be replicated before strong conclusion can be made.

Conclusion

Video games did not seem to pose harm for most domains of children's psychosocial development. Parents should be particularly attentive to potential increases in children's internalizing problems as a result of video game playing. The deleterious effects of violent video game play remains a highly debated topic, with this study not lending support for the influence of violent gaming on externalizing problems or on prosocial behavior. While cooperative gaming seems unrelated to prosocial behavior in our sample, frequent gamers who also tend to play competitively may be at risk for behaving less prosocially. Finally, this field would benefit greatly from validated measures that quantify or categorize the types of social and emotional processes being activated by different games and game types, and that accurately measure the social environment of video game sessions.

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen.

Authors' Contributions

A. L. was the lead author, and therefore wrote and revised the manuscript. A. L. oversaw and performed data collection; this means that A. L. managed the researchers who collected data, and that he also collected data from participants. A. L. performed all the analyses described in the manuscript; this means that A. L. managed the data in this study, and authored and ran all scripts used to analyze the data. R. E. and I. G. conceived of the study; this means that they initiated this longitudinal research project. R. E. and I. G. participated in the study's design and coordination; this means that, together with A. L., R. E. and I. G. were involved in the selection of measures used in this study and in devising the data collection procedure. R. E. and I. G. gave instrumental feedback on the manuscript; as the thesis supervisors to A. L., R. E. and I. G. commented on and provided edits to this manuscript at multiple stages. L. S. was instrumental in the study's recruitment and design; this study was a direct follow-up to a previous study conducted by L. S., who was responsible for recruiting and retaining the participants of this study, which allowed for them to be recruited for this study. L. S. therefore also helped design this study, having laid the groundwork for some of the measures used here. L. S. was also actively involved in the writing of this manuscript, providing important feedback on the manuscript. W. B. provided expertise for data analysis and the interpretation of results. W. B. was A. L.'s direct contact for statistical support on this project. W. B. walked A. L. through the statistical background for the models used in this study, provided A. L. with the necessary information for installing and properly employing the R packages used for the analyses, double-checked the outcomes of the study's findings based on the models used, and provided input for the proper interpretation of the findings. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

The experimenters complied with the ethical standards for attaining and managing data from adult and minor participants as are monitored by the Behavioural Science Institute's Ethical Review Board. Participants were informed as to their rights as volunteer participants and were informed regarding who they could contact if they felt their rights had been breached. No complaints were filed.

Biographies

Adam Lobel

is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Geneva's Swiss Center for Affective Sciences. He attained his PhD at the Behavioural Science Institute, where he was affiliated when the research presented here was conducted. Adam's research interests are primarily focused on the effects of gaming on mental health and emotion regulation skills.

Professor Rutger C. M. E. Engels

is the president of the Trimbos Institute, and Professor at the Behavioural Science Institute. His research interests include developmental psychopathology, and in particular, smoking and drinking habits and addiction in adolescent populations.

Lisanne Stone

is a clinical psychologist at Pro Persona, and a former PhD at the Radboud University's Behavioural Science Institute. Her research interests include anxiety and depression in children, and the psychometric quality of measurements used to assess these internalizing problems.

William J. Burk

is an Assistant Professor at the Developmental Psychology at the Radboud University's Behavioural Science Institute. His research interests include the role of peers in alcohol use among adolescents, statistical modeling, and psychometrics.

Professor Isabela Granic

is the Chair of the Developmental Psychopathology Department at the Radboud University's Behavioural Science Institute and the head of that department's Games for Emotional and Mental Health Lab. He research interests include dynamic systems, and the effects of gaming on mental health.

Notes

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

The study's procedures were approved by the Behavioural Science Institute's Ethical Review Board under the Radboud University. Protocol number: ECG 26062012.

Informed Consent

Informed consent forms were attained from all participants at both of this study's time points. Parents provided consent for the collection and use of both their own data and that of their children.

Footnotes

¹ Secondary and higher education in the Netherlands is stratified. Here, low refers to individuals who completed the lowest level of secondary school, a vocational school track until the age of 16; medium refers to individuals who completed a more advanced vocational track until the age of 17; and high refers to individuals with a university-level education, having attained a Bachelor's degree or higher.

² Analyses using parent reported hours yielded the same pattern of results.

³The observed pattern of results remained the same when only including children who played for more than two (86.08%, n = 167) or more than 3 h (75.77%, n  = 147) per week.

⁴ The pattern of results remained the same when the interaction term was determined by parental reports of children's gaming.

⁵In coding games as being violent or not, violent games included titles ranging from mild cartoon violence such as Super Mario Bros.-and titles with more graphic violence-such as games from the Halo, Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto franchises. There was some discussion regarding Minecraft (frequency: T1 = 16; T2 = 45). In the reported analyses, Minecraft was not classified as a violent video game (despite the game allowing players to fend off "zombies"). We also re-ran the analyses with Minecraft coded as a violent video games: The pattern of results remained the same in the externalizing problems model, and in the prosocial behavior model a main effect of violent gaming was observed, such that violent gaming at T1 was associated with an increase in prosocial behavior.

⁶The Johnson-Neyman Technique was performed using resources provided by Preacher, Curran, & Bauer ( http://quantpsy.org/interact/mlr2.htm).

References

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Articles from Journal of Youth and Adolescence are provided here courtesy of Springer

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Video Gaming and Children's Psychosocial Wellbeing: A Longitudinal Study

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"Actualmente el uso de celulares en el aula es parte de la rutina".

Informe Kids Online Chile, reveló que el 58% de los niños y niñas obtienen su primer celular con internet antes de cumplr los 10 años.

9 de cada 10 niños y adolescentes posee un celular.

En marzo, el MINEDUC publicó el documento "Orientaciones para la regulación del uso de celulares y otros dispositivos móviles en establecimientos educacionales"

Exposición a las pantallas de no más de 1 hora en niños menores de 6 años.

Uso regulado y que atienda a necesidades pedagógicas.

Enseñar conductas responsables de las tecnologías.

Proyecto de ley en curso para prohibir el uso de celulares en los colegios, desde parvulo hasta 6°básico, y uso gradual desde 7°básico.

"las limitaciones del uso de los dispositivos, sobre todo en instancias de educación son correctas, tampoco podemos dejar de lado el hecho de que el mayor peligro a la hora de usar un smartphone no está en su hardware, sino en sus aplicaciones y los modos de uso que tengan."

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Una parte importante y no siempre reconocida del trabajo de un profesor es tener que saber lidiar contra la necesidad imperiosa de la sala de clases de distraerse.

En mis tiempos, como estudiante de los 90, las distracciones venían en forma de láminas intercambiables, juegos de cartas como el Magic, reproductores musicales y revistas juveniles. Ya en mi enseñanza media comenzaron a popularizarse los teléfonos celulares, pero en ese tiempo sí que eran solo para llamar y, a lo más, jugar al inmortal Snake.

Quizás el mayor intruso tecnológico del que tengo memoria fue cuando estuvieron de moda las mascotas virtuales, inspiradas muchas en el Tamagotchi japonés, el cual era una criatura digital que vivía dentro de un llavero, la cual requería ser alimentada, jugar con ella y otro tipo de cuidados durante el día para que no se enfermara. Por supuesto, eso significó que en el tiempo que estuvieron de moda, muchos niños estuvieron más pendientes del ruido de sus mascotas para evitar la enfermedad que de las clases mismas.

Pero ahora, el principal distractor de las aulas es uno aún más poderoso y presente. Hablamos de los smartphones, el dispositivo que pone en nuestras manos el acceso a un mundo de entretención incluyendo juegos, mensajería, videos, redes sociales y más.

Clases versus celulares: una batalla por la atención

El uso de los teléfonos inteligentes en nuestras salas de clase se ha vuelto prácticamente parte de la rutina escolar.

El estudio Kids Online, de la Universidad Católica, reveló el año pasado que el 58% de los niños y niñas obtienen su primer celular con Internet antes de cumplir 10 años de edad. Y en total, 9 de cada 10 niños y adolescentes en edad escolar poseen uno de estos equipos. Dispositivos que, quiérase o no, ya forman parte de nuestras vidas y cuyo uso si bien debe ser regulado, tampoco puede ser ignorado.

En marzo de este año, el Mineduc publicó un documento llamado "Orientaciones para la regulación del uso de celulares y otros dispositivos móviles en establecimientos educacionales", en el cual se aconseja no más de 60 minutos de exposición a las pantallas antes de los 6 años, y un uso regulado pero también atendiendo a la necesidad de utilizar las bondades del mundo digital como herramientas pedagógicas. Y por supuesto, también está la necesidad de enseñar conductas de uso responsable de las tecnologías que van desde la protección de la privacidad hasta el combate contra el bullying o el combate contra la desinformación.

Sin embargo, hay corrientes alrededor del mundo que apuntan a la prohibición de estos dispositivos, al menos a temprana edad. Sin ir más lejos esta semana en Chile se aprobó un proyecto de ley que prohíbe el uso de teléfonos celulares al interior de recintos educacionales para todos los alumnos desde la educación parvularia hasta sexto año de enseñanza básica, indicando además un uso gradual para alumnos de 7mo, 8vo básico y enseñanza media. Esta legislación va en línea con medidas similares que han sido implementadas en los estados de Florida, Indiana, Lousiana y Carolina del Sur, con variaciones que van desde la implementación de lockers para guardar teléfonos mientras se hacen clases hasta la prohibición de llevar este tipo de equipos a la escuela.

Y si bien toda la evidencia científica parece indicar que efectivamente se trata del camino correcto, no solo por aumentar la atención en los salones, sino que también por la reducción del bullying y de trastornos de ansiedad y similares gatillados por el uso constante de estas pantallas, cabe preguntarse si basta con una medida así o si hay algo más de fondo. Y la verdad es que sí.

Porque sacar los teléfonos de las aulas es solo un pequeño paso, pero aún insuficiente frente al despliegue que hay para captar al que hoy se considera el bien más preciado en la economía digital: nuestra atención.

La economía de la atención es el nombre que se le ha dado al momento que estamos viviendo ahora y que dice relación con entender al poder de la atención como un bien escaso del cual todos quieren formar parte. En el caso del colegio, son los profesores lidiando con juguetes, figuritas y celulares, pero a gran escala es la pelea por cuál red social miramos mientras vamos en el metro, qué servicio de streaming pagamos a fin de mes o a qué videojuego le dedicaremos horas de nuestro fin de semana.

Si el tiempo es oro, la atención es lo que permite a las compañías saber cuánto oro les pertenece y para ello han diseñado tácticas para que nos quedemos pegados en las aplicaciones, esperando dar con ese golpe de dopamina. Un ejemplo de esto es el scroll infinito implementado por aplicaciones como TikTok, Instagram o X y que explican en gran parte la condición adictiva que tienen.

El scroll infinito se refiere a la navegación prácticamente sin fin que uno vive dentro de estas aplicaciones. Siempre estarás a un movimiento, por lo general un deslizamiento hacia abajo para encontrar un nuevo video, una nueva foto o un nuevo link. El hecho de que sea literalmente un pozo sin fondo de contenido ayuda a generar un efecto de tragamonedas, donde nos acostumbramos a pasar mucho tiempo observando cosas a medias que no nos interesan con la esperanza de que llegue algo divertido que podamos compartir.

A esa conducta de estar horas frente a una aplicación sin darnos cuenta, en Estados Unidos le han puesto hasta nombre: el doomscrolling.

Otra manera de mantener nuestra atención ocurre cuando estamos viendo un video en YouTube, Netflix o alguna aplicación similar y es algo por lo que todos hemos pasado: empezamos a ver una serie, termina un capítulo y apenas empiezan los créditos, ya empieza la reproducción del siguiente. Y sin darnos cuenta, maratoneamos una serie o vimos más de lo que teníamos presupuestado. O un juego que recién bajaste, viene con misiones diarias que debes hacer para ganar experiencia, monedas o cualquier otro bien digital que te hace insertarlo en algún lugar de tu rutina.

Más atención es más tiempo en la aplicación y más tiempo en la aplicación es más dinero al llevar estos datos a los avisadores. Y es así como hoy todas las aplicaciones vienen con algún componente adictivo. Y no está pensado solo para afectar a los niños, aunque claro, mientras más temprano estén acostumbrados, mayor será su efectividad a largo plazo.

A lo que quiero llegar con esto es que si bien las limitaciones del uso de los dispositivos, sobre todo en instancias de educación son correctas, tampoco podemos dejar de lado el hecho de que el mayor peligro a la hora de usar un smartphone no está en su hardware, sino en sus aplicaciones y los modos de uso que tengan.

Lamentablemente muchas veces para regular esas conductas dependemos más de lo que pidan los países en donde están esas aplicaciones que la regulación que pueda haber en Chile. Por suerte hay proyectos en los que se busca eliminar prácticas como scroll infinito en aplicaciones, o al menos cuando sus usuarios sean menores de edad. También que el registro y utilización de las aplicaciones sean visadas por mayores de edad, además de fomentar educación para el uso de herramientas como la posibilidad de limitar el uso diario de las aplicaciones desde los propios sistemas operativos.

Mientras eso no pase, lo ideal es que, si bien la presencia física de los teléfonos en un salón de clases puede regularse, bajo ningún motivo debemos dejar de lado su presencia en el resto de nuestras vidas. Las herramientas digitales sí nos pueden ayudar a aprender y crear de mejor manera y hacer como que no existen solo porque nos van a distraer tampoco es el camino correcto.

Porque es solo entendiendo y transparentando estos diseños que de manera consciente han fabricado desde Silicon Valley para mantenernos atrapados, podremos contar con personas que logren tener una relación saludable con la tecnología y no se conviertan en el futuro en adultos regalando toda su atención al algoritmo.

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Clases versus celulares: una batalla por la atención - La Tercera

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Múltiples iniciativas legales alrededor del mundo, incluyendo Chile, apuntan a prohibir el uso de teléfonos inteligentes en las salas de clases. Pero en un mundo donde la atención es hoy el bien más preciado, simplemente no basta con tan solo regular las horas de acceso a la tecnología.

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Mineduc crea cartillas para que establecimientos aborden el uso de dispositivos digitales junto a las familias

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Mineduc crea cartillas para que establecimientos aborden el uso de dispositivos digitales junto a las familias

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Las orientaciones para el uso de dispositivos digitales incluyen un set de tres documentos con modelos de talleres para trabajar con madres, padres y cuidadores.

Los documentos entregan orientaciones para el uso de acuerdo con la edad, oportunidades y riesgos, y participación y ciudadanía digital.

Entre los 6 y 12 años, se destaca que es fundamental la colaboración entre la escuela y la familia para que los estudiantes aprendan a usar los dispositivos digitales, fomenten una mirada crítica frente a la información digital, monitoreen el uso de celulares e, idealmente, usen herramientas de control parental.

El 81% de los niños y niñas entre 8 y 12 años tiene un celular con acceso a internet, y que pasan entre 2 a 4 horas navegando en ellos. Por ello, se recomienda trabajar al mismo tiempo con mediación activa y mediación restrictiva.

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Con el objetivo de apoyar el trabajo de los establecimientos educacionales y las familias, el Ministerio de Educación presentó un set de cartillas para abordar el uso de los dispositivos digitales por parte de niños, niñas y adolescentes. Los documentos entregan orientaciones para el uso de acuerdo con la edad, oportunidades y riesgos, y participación y ciudadanía digital.

Las cartillas "Recomendaciones para trabajar con familias su rol mediador en el uso de dispositivos móviles" están dirigidas a equipos directivos, profesores y profesoras jefe y encargados de convivencia escolar e incluyen una propuesta de taller para trabajar distintos tópicos junto a apoderados y apoderadas.

El director del Centro de Innovación del Mineduc, Martín Cáceres, sostuvo que es importante abordar este tema con las familias ya que los estudios muestran que, pese a su relevancia "la mediación activa en muchos hogares está ausente. Esto se refiere a acompañar a los niños y niñas en el uso de herramientas digitales o en la interacción en entornos digitales. Algo tan básico como saber qué páginas están visitando, tener una conversación con ellos, guiarlos por el mundo digital ".

Según los resultados de la encuesta Kids Online Chile 2022, "el 40% de los hogares no hace mediación activa, eso quiere decir que niños y niñas están solos y solas a edades muy tempranas con acceso a internet. Y el 59% nunca o casi nunca realiza mediación restrictiva, que se refiere a poner reglas, poner horarios, poner límites. En base a estos datos, hemos desarrollado estas cartillas, para fortalecer el rol de las familias en la educación digital de niños, niñas y adolescentes" agregó el director del CIM.

Por su parte, la coordinadora (S) de Convivencia para la Ciudadanía del Mineduc, Alejandra Rodríguez, explicó que el objetivo de estas cartillas es propiciar el fortalecimiento de las competencias parentales y/o tutoriales de mediación para la inserción en el mundo digital de niños, niñas y adolescentes.

"Tienen un trasfondo profundamente pedagógico. La idea es que, desde la mediación que podemos hacer desde nuestros establecimientos educacionales, contribuyamos a que el uso de estos dispositivos móviles, que ya está presente en nuestra cotidianeidad, sean un aporte y no constituyan un obstáculo para el desarrollo de aprendizajes integrales", destacó, a la vez que invitó a los equipos directivos y docentes a trabajar los talleres que en ellas se proponen junto a sus apoderados.

Uso según edad

La cartilla "Recomendaciones para trabajar con familias su rol mediador en el uso de dispositivos móviles: orientaciones por rango etario" explica que antes de los 18 meses no es recomendable que los niños y niñas vean pantallas, mientras que, entre el año y medio y los dos años, la idea es que no tengan acceso a ellas por más de una hora y siempre con supervisión parental.

Entre los dos y cinco años, se sugiere que puedan acceder a contenido de calidad -con enfoque educativo, seguro, apropiado para su edad, inclusivo, diverso e interactivo-, por no más de 60 minutos al día.

Entre los 6 y 12 años, se destaca que es fundamental la colaboración entre la escuela y la familia para que los estudiantes aprendan a usar los dispositivos digitales, fomenten una mirada crítica frente a la información digital, monitoreen el uso de celulares e, idealmente, usen herramientas de control parental.

Para quienes tienen hijos entre los 13 y los 18 años, la idea es que se monitoree que el tiempo que pasan con los dispositivos sea balanceado en relación con los que pasan sin pantallas y que haya confianza, comunicación verbal y acompañamiento para abordar lo que ven en las redes o internet.

La cartilla "Recomendaciones para trabajar con familias su rol mediador en el uso de dispositivos móviles: oportunidades y riesgos", señala que diversos estudios muestran que el 81% de los niños y niñas entre 8 y 12 años tiene un celular con acceso a internet, y que pasan entre 2 a 4 horas navegando en ellos. Por ello, se recomienda trabajar al mismo tiempo con mediación activa y mediación restrictiva.

Por último, la cartilla "Recomendaciones para trabajar con familias su rol mediador en el uso de dispositivos móviles: participación y ciudadanía digital" se fundamenta en que en acceder y usar de forma segura las tecnologías es fundamental para la participación plena de las personas en el mundo actual, razón por la cual es central trabajar estos temas con niños, niñas y adolescentes.

Las cartillas están disponibles en https://ciudadaniadigital.mineduc.cl/recursos/docentes/

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Mineduc crea cartillas para que establecimientos aborden el uso de dispositivos digitales junto a las familias - Ministerio de educación

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Las guías para el uso de dispositivos digitales incluyen documentos con modelos de talleres para trabajar con madres, padres y cuidadores.

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Riesgos:

Problemas de sueño, lo que afectaría el desarrollo neurológico de niñas, niños y adolescentes.

Un estudio realizado en niñas y niños parvularios concluye que el aumento del uso de pantallas se asocia con dificultades en la atención.

Actitud sedentaria, que llevaría a otros riesgos de salud asociados.

Otros riesgos son aquellos asociados a la convivencia digital.

El informe del Programa de Evaluación de los Alumnos (PISA) 2022 ilustró como uno de los desafíos en aula, que el 30% de las y los estudiantes se distrae en clases de matemáticas debido al uso de dispositivos digitales. En Chile este porcentaje es de un 50%.

El mismo informe plantea que se debe distinguir el tipo y extensión del uso de estos dispositivos, indicando que estudiantes que pasan hasta 1 hora utilizando dispositivos digitales para realizar actividades pedagógicas obtienen 14 puntos más en matemáticas que aquellos que no lo hacen.

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Muestra: el 17 % de los niños y niñas de la muestra tiene entre 9 y 10 años, el 40 % entre 11 y 13 años, y el 42 % entre 14 y 17 años.

El acceso a dispositivos digitales y a Internet es alto entre los estudiantes, con un notable uso frecuente de teléfonos celulares para conectarse. Además, el uso de aplicaciones populares como WhatsApp, YouTube y TikTok, así como la participación en videojuegos, indican un interés y familiaridad significativos con la tecnología. Estos datos demuestran que la tecnología forma una parte integral de la vida diaria de los estudiantes chilenos, tanto para fines educativos como recreativos.

Datos: accede a la infografía para revisar los datos.