“Kids today!” plus 1 more

Posted: 12 Jan 2011 08:48 AM PST

By Mary Drier
My, my. How times have changed!
The United States Congress is issuing directives for "kids to go out and play," and they have even been passing laws to make it happen.
According to published reports, today's children spend less time outdoors than any other generation before. Because of that, Congress is pushing the "moving outdoors nature act" to encourage Michigan and all states to reconnect children with nature.
The push is based on a Kaiser Foundation Study that shows children today spend about six hours a day parked in front of or playing with electronic equipment, and only about seven minutes outside. That seven minutes is spent mostly going to and from school.
There are even television commercials out now encouraging children to "go outside and play an hour a day." To top it all off, the commercial directs the children to go online to find games and how to play them outdoors. Then, the commercial goes on to caution them not to stay online too long.
Good grief!!!!
What the heck happened to kids using their imagination and pretending?
When my kids were growing up (it wasn't all that long ago), I had to fight to get them to come inside to eat at a table and get out of the sun or out of the cold for awhile.
Scraps of anything that I wanted to keep had to be kept under lock and key or chunks of wood. Pieces of PVC pipe would be turned into club -houses, swords or guns to fight Indians, aliens or bad guys.
My green and brown eye shadows were raided for camouflage so the kids could hide in the trees, weeds and brush.
My, my. How times have changed.
Kids can't ride across town without having a DVD to watch, a video game to play, texting or listening to music with their earphones.
That stark difference was recently underscored when my friend Fran's grandkids came up from the city for a long weekend, and there was no electricity at the house. Plus, after a few days, all of the batteries died in the gadgets they had and there was no way to charge them.
To try to keep them entertained, board games were pulled out of storage. They were unsure about dice and how they should be counted. They couldn't believe there were no moving parts or lights with the games. Only little pieces of different colored objects to move around the board according to numbers on cards or on the dice.
Counting and adding the dots on dominos without a calculator floored them. The list goes on and on.
"Go online to learn how to play an hour a day outside…"
My, my. How times have changed. It is unfortunate. Kids should still know how to be kids without batteries or electricity.
Mary Drier is a staff writer for the Tuscola County Advertiser. She can be reached at drier@tcadvertiser.com.

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Nintendo: No 3-D games for kids under 6

Posted: 30 Dec 2010 05:19 AM PST

Nintendo: No 3-D games for kids under 6

By Dow Jones Newswires-Wall Street Journal
Posted Dec. 30, 2010 at 6:20 a.m.

Nintendo Co. has issued a warning that children under the age of six shouldn't play 3-D games on its soon-to-be-released handheld game machine, as looking at 3-D images for a long period of time can have a harmful effect on the growth of young children's eyes.

The company posted the disclaimer at the bottom of its Japanese-language Web site promoting a three-day event in Japan where people can try its new Nintendo 3DS, due to launch Feb. 26 in Japan. It asks that 6-year-olds and those younger play games on the 3DS in 2-D mode.

"For children under the age of 6, looking at 3-D images for a long time could possibly have a negative impact on the growth of their eyes," Nintendo said on the Web site. It also warned that users should take breaks every 30 minutes when playing games in 3-D and stop playing immediately if feeling ill.

The Nintendo 3DS is the company's most-anticipated video game hardware product since the Wii home console in 2006. The new handheld device will allow users to play 3-D games without special glasses to create the illusion of depth.

The warning is similar to those made by other makers of 3-D consumer electronics products. Samsung Electronics Co., Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. all provide warnings on their Web sites about the possible risks of viewing 3-D images for children younger than 6 years old.

Most 3-D technologies create the illusion of depth on a flat screen by presenting different images to the left and right eye, typically using special glasses. But Nintendo is offering that effect with the display alone, a technology called autostereoscopic 3-D.

The 3DS comes with a slidebar to allow the user to adjust the level of 3-D effect on the games played on the machine.

Kids Games

Thursday, January 13, 2011