Computer games can be good for children

The generation gap reliably produces criticism based on ignorance and the shock of the new. Anything outside a person's experience is fair game, particularly when the person is a baffled parent. The music of Elvis and the Beatles was foreign to parents of the 1950s and '60s, so many labelled the music harmful. Today it is computer games that are frequently attacked.

But the view that "computer games steal childhood" is as absurd as the once commonly held notion that a gyrating rock star would create depraved sexual deviants.

We all want our children to enjoy a balanced range of activities. No one will argue that children shouldn't read books, play sport and invent imaginative creations out of blocks. It is time that electronic games are recognised as another form of entertainment that has the potential equally to aid a child's development as to harm it.

Jason Hill