Video Games and Children. By the end of that decade they had become a preferred childhood leisure activity, and adults responded with concern about the possible ill effects of the games on children. Early research on these effects was inconclusive. However, a resurgence in video game sales that began in the late 1980s after the introduction of the Nintendo system has renewed interest in examining the effects of video games. Some research suggests that playing video games may affect some children's physical functioning.
Effects range from triggering epileptic seizures to causing heart rate and blood pressure changes.
Serious adverse physical effects, however, are transient or limited to a small number of players. Proponents of video games suggest that they may be a friendly way of introducing children to computers, and may increase children's hand-eye coordination and attention to detail. In 1967, the average sixth-grader watched 2.8 hours of television per day. Data from 1983 indicated that sixth graders watched 4.7 hours of television per day, and spent some additional time playing video games. The adolescents were asked to identify their preference among five categories of video games.