In her first interview as head of a government review of video games’ effect on children, TV psychologist Tanya Byron tells David Smith that being a mother will help in her new role

Later, in her first interview about the review since her appointment last month, Byron made clear that, while she is not due to report to Brown until March, she already has strong opinions. She told The Observer why she believes portable games devices should be part of daily schooling, suggests a likely link between violent games and violent behaviour in certain cases, and stresses the need for parents and children to balance virtual world risks as they would real world dangers such as crossing a road or talking to strangers…

Her conversation is refreshingly free of jargon, and her insights are rooted in her own daily experience. ‘I’m a parent like everybody else and I strive to be a good parent,’ she says. ‘I’ll say to my son, “OK, this is the time now. By half past you’ve got to be back downstairs,” and most of the time he nails it, and most of the time I nail it, but some of the time I’m thinking, “Crikey, it’s quarter to, he’s still up there.” That’s the challenge of parenting.

‘He’s nine and tends to use the computer mostly when I’m in the room with him doing my own work, so we have more of a shared space with him. My older child, who’s now 12, keeps a diary, and in the way I wouldn’t read her diary I respect that she’s at the age where she understands more so she has more privacy. I also trust in our relationship that hopefully she can come and talk to me, and she does if she comes across stuff.’ …

‘Children seem to know quite a lot more than we think they do, and they know a lot about the technologies that they’re using. I was with a group of older kids recently in a school and most of them were saying if you’re 14 and you want to go and get drunk with your mates you’re an idiot, if you want to play these games that are just really gross you’re an idiot, if you don’t protect your profile on MySpace and you let anybody see your name and address you’re an idiot. So these are net and game savvy. But there are a lot that aren’t, and they’re more vulnerable because their parents don’t really understand the technologies either.’

‘Balance’ is possibly Byron’s favourite word, and the government can expect a nuanced report sensitive to both sides of an argument. That doesn’t mean it will be bland…

Source: Guardian Unlimited, UK
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,,2200641,00.html