It is true that many parents are concerned about the impact of video games on children. They were so fearful that creates real confusion between real and virtual, that causes in children need to commit aggressive acts or that it would "kill" the imagination of young players.

In adolescence, particularly important phase of emotional development of children, however, that there is speech and the gaze of the parents remain the first reference. The idea of confusing real / virtual and must be excluded, especially any serious study not just now demonstrate that specific risk. The child sees the game as a "place".

It is true that, in essence, the game is a space for the emergence of aggressive impulses. But this should probably be seen as a way for children to endure the frustrations and tensions accumulated during the day. When a parent takes a careless glance at the screen, it may well be moved to attend what he called violence and transgression. But actually playing with her child, it is more likely that also includes what the game can bring to the child.
This difficulty in understanding the interests of the child for the game stems from a combination of various elements:

- Firstly, under what one might call "generation gap" identification process is much more difficult to establish for some parents.
- The parents themselves have a report "sacred" to the image, particularly through television, which prevents them from being mere receivers. There is something disturbing about seeing their children and "manipulate" in entertainment image in the Game
- Parents often forget their own games, which included children, too, this dose of Violence (cowboys and Indians to shoot with no less fury than in most games).

The negative view that some parents may have the game should probably be weighted. The game most often acting in revealing a preexisting reality.

What capacities are stimulated?

For over 15 years, Patricia Marks Greenfield, a professor of psychology at the University of California - Los Angeles, worked on the video game effects on the brain of the player. Among its findings, it is interesting to note that:

- The fact of playing a video game improves the ability to represent three-dimensional space.
- It also has an input result on improving intelligence deductive. The process whereby, from an observation, formulate hypotheses and define appropriate strategies are strengthened.
- Finally, the game is seen as a means to develop in the player management capacity and multiple tasks simultaneously.

More generally, the game breaks with the traditional mechanisms of pedagogy (the hypothetico-deductive) allowing to experiment and learn just by making mistakes.

We also see that the frequency of tests and tables, the game requires some perseverance and force the player to coercion if it is necessary to obtain a victory and the accompanying value.

This enhancement is especially desirable in children who are failing in school. The game allows them to reassure them to fight against these "alleged incompetence" and achieve successes that are lacking in their everyday life.
Finally, teenagers are quite fond of games allowing them to play another character and develop an avatar. This alter ego is a way to play with his identity to be another to face certain situations more calmly and to earn trust and who may be lacking in this period of development.
Is there a link between play and parental education?