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.
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.
Pilot schemes in schools, which have seen hand-held devices such as the Nintendo DS used by pupils to practise mental arithmetic, will be applauded. Asked if she thinks these should become part of the daily curriculum, Byron says: 'Yes I do. These are the technologies that children are using and will continue to use more and more as they grow into the next workforce, the next thinking generation.
While their educational merits are seldom noted, video games tend to become news only when gory or violent content is blamed for copycat behaviour in the real world. Is there a causal link? Byron is no fan of censorship but admits it's 'the big question'. 'I think the fact that currently there exists no concrete evidence of harm does not mean evidence of no harm.
Byron's consultation with the games and internet industries will include a mission to America and a meeting with YouTube, the video sharing site, to discuss its policy for taking down inappropriate content. She has also thrown open the process to children themselves, with blogs on MySpace and Bebo .
'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. As visitors to her MySpace page now know, her star sign is Aries, also known as the ram.
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