Hello theguywhogames211! I was scrolling through my feed and your post in particular caught my eye. As a mother of a 7 year old boy, I am mostly ambivalent towards video games, so seeing how video games could save lives caught my attention in particular. My first reaction after reading your post was wow, the parents of Aiden Jackson must be in such disbelief that their son’s life was saved through a video game. I wonder if the parents tried to get in touch with the Dia Lathora, the other gamer. If it were my son in this situation, I feel like I would try to get in contact with the person on the other side and buy them dinner or something at the very least. However, I can’t help but think about a situation where an individual falsely assumes a gamer on the other end is undergoing a life threatening situation and calls the police.
I really love your explanation on how video games keep people connected. This reminds me of how I used to have a pen-pal in Japan when I used to go to Japanese school. Our means of communication were the infrequent monthly letters we would send each other. I can see how video games are a great way to not only build friendships, but create them as well! But for my son, I’m hesitant for him to create relationships through the internet though. For example, if he meets a predator online, how am I supposed to protect him? I remember I read an article a friend showed me where a child’s innocence and gullibility was taken advantage of by an online predator, and he was even able to find the child’s location and meet up with him in real life. Some real nightmare fuel! But on the other hand, I had a friend in highschool who met a med school student through a video game, and kept in touch with him until he got into college! Luckily enough he decided to pursue med school and was able to get advice from his friend he met online!
Not that I’m against video games, but I would rather have my son playing outside where I can see him. Not to forget the fact that it’s more healthy for him to be moving around outside too. But, I don’t want to be the mean “not cool” mom who doesn’t let their child play video games at all, so would you have any game recommendations for seven year olds to play? Possibly ones where they can play with only people they know in real life? Any help would be great!
P.S. I let my son play 30 minutes of video games on weekends and my son Jeremiah thanks you! He’s now playing this game called bloons tdm (or something like that) with his friends. Maybe when he’s older, I’ll let him play the other more interactive games like the ones you mentioned (League of Legends and Rainbow Six Siege).
Chicken Gorl 