Liz Atwood talks about the possibility that playing video games aren't too bad for her kids in this week's Tween Tuesday:

Like many parents, I worry my kids spend way too much time playing video games. I’ve tried to limit the amount of time they play, but it’s difficult. Unless I’m very vigilant, the time slips by and they can end up spending hours staring at the screen. But as much as I hate to admit it, maybe the games aren’t so bad.

A couple days ago, I went to our local video game store to buy a new game for my 9-year old. I struck up a conversation with the clerk at the counter and expressed my concern that the game my son wanted might be too violent or addictive. The young man told me he was playing a similar game when he was 9. “And see what happened to you!” I joked. To which he replied that he was finishing his last year in undergraduate school and he would be going to Johns Hopkins University for his PhD in clinical psychology.

And then comes the news that a 14-year-old Utah boy has created the most popular iPod app—a physics game that has been downloaded 2 million times. He even has created his own video game company. He started out designing his first web site when he was in third grade!

So while I’m not sure I have any budding game developers or doctoral students, the games might not be as harmful as I thought.