“Bad” Play

A teenager plays a first-person shooter video game. A young girl plays with her Barbie and Ken dolls and has them go on a date that finishes with a sexualized kissing game. A preschooler watches a combat-based television program then starts running around the house kicking and punching. A group of adolescent girls and boys secretly play a Spin-the-Bottle-type kissing game. All of these play activities have been critiqued by social commentators, educators, and researchers interested in children's play because they are seen as examples of “bad” play. “Bad” play is generally seen as play that some adults consider to be harmful to children in one way or another. Generally “good” play is play that adults consider educational or therapeutic and that represents positive social values. On the other hand, “bad” play is play that is seen as encouraging negative social values like violence, consumerism, and sexuality, or play that puts people at physical risk of harm. Adults signal their disapproval of this play by encouraging parents and teachers to ban certain activities or to intervene to change to play that is seen as representing more positive social values. There is some debate as to whether adults should intervene too much in children's play even if it touches on topics that adults are uncomfortable with.

What is often called bad play (especially play that does not do children physical harm) has yet to be linked empirically to a child's developing problems later on. A useful discussion of this observation is play researcher Brian Sutton-Smith's article “Does Play Prepare the Future?” in which he argues against seeing play as directly causing problems in the future but indirectly supporting a child's developing for the future by helping a child thrive in the present. Sutton-Smith calls “bad” play that makes adults uncomfortable phantasmagorical play, in that it includes elements from children's fantasy worlds that are often violent or obscene. Consensus is that banning the play does not make it go away.

One of the most criticized aspects of play is media-based play, most commonly for excessive violence. Violent television programs and movies often become the source of content for children's play. Nancy Carlson-Paige and Diane Levin have written about how war play based on media is often imitative and excessively violent. They argue that although war play is common, today's play is different because of this influence. Based on this belief they feel that play should be mediated by adults to challenge the content of the media. Violent video games have also been criticized as leading to desensitizing children to violence. When it was discovered that the two shooters at Columbine High School were fans of these games, an effort was made to have them more carefully regulated. On the other hand, Vivian Paley and others have argued that children's media-based violent play is not only not bad, but actually beneficial for children in that they can take on the role of powerful superheroes. And defenders of video games point out that despite the proliferation of these games, crime rates have actually been going down.

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