How do I stop my kid from playing video games in class?

Cause and Effect

Why can’t you just ask your kid to stop playing video games during school or while they’re doing their homework? They should be able to see why it’s counterproductive right? Wrong!

Parts of your teenager’s brain are still developing. That means that their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that controls executive functions, is still under construction. Therefore their ability to self regulate is pretty limited. Skills like impulse control, ability to see cause and effect, etc, just aren’t there yet.

adult solutions may have to wait until adulthood

We get it, you want to be able to negotiate an adult solution with your teenager to get them to stop playing video games. The problem is, they’re probably not capable of doing that yet. Therefore you’ll likely have to invest in some sort of monitoring software or put some “bumpers” in place. 

By the time your kid goes off to college they’ll hopefully have a more developed prefrontal cortex, and therefore more capable of self monitoring. There’s more to talk about, and we get to it all in this Tips on Teens:

“My 14 year old son always plays online video games on his school computer, sometimes during class or while he does homework. We figured it out when we checked his browser history. We tried telling him to focus on finishing his homework and then he could have 30 minutes free time but it didn’t work. We could install a monitoring software on the computer, but we really hope he can control himself not to play online games during school or homework. Someday we won’t be able to control him when he goes to college.  What should we do now?”