Do Video Games Count as Play?

Some video games are play in every way that counts. Others are designed so the child is never quite the one in charge. A parent can learn to tell them apart in a few minutes.

This series has said plainly that it is not a war on video games. That leaves a practical question for anyone with a console or tablet in the house: when a child is playing a game, is that play, or is it something else wearing the word?

Run the game through the play test

The American Academy of Pediatrics, in its 2018 clinical report The Power of Play, describes play as intrinsically motivated, actively engaging, and ending in joyful discovery, and adds that it is voluntary and often has no outside goal.

Plenty of games pass most of that easily. A child chose to play, is fully engaged, and keeps discovering things. The part games fail most often is quieter: who decides what happens next, and who decides when it is over. On a playground, the child does. In some games, the design does.

The kinds that tend to pass

• Games where the child builds or changes the world. Open building and sandbox games let a child set their own goal, which is the closest a screen gets to a box of blocks.
• Games played side by side. Two siblings on one couch arguing over whose turn it is are practicing the same turn taking and negotiation as kids on a playground.
• Puzzles that let a child fail and try again. Getting stuck, changing approach and finally getting it is the ring stacking toy with better graphics.
• Games that spill off the screen. A child who draws their own levels on paper or acts out a game in the yard has turned it into play of their own.

The research case for games is real. A 2014 review in American Psychologist by Isabela Granic and colleagues argued that research on games had focused mostly on possible harms, and gathered evidence for cognitive, motivational, emotional and social benefits.

The kinds that tend to fail

The warning signs are design choices, not genres.

• The next thing starts on its own. If one round rolls straight into the next, the game has taken over the decision about when to stop.
• Rewards for coming back tomorrow. A reason to return that the child did not choose is the game setting the goal.
• Paid random items. The Entertainment Software Rating Board labels games that sell items as “In‑Game Purchases,” and adds “Includes Random Items” when a child pays without knowing exactly what they will get. Check the box or store listing before the child does.
• Fast, busy apps for small children. The AAP's 2016 policy statement Media and Young Minds advises avoiding fast‑paced programs and apps with lots of distracting content for young children.

A good game is still a sitting game.

What even a good game cannot give

Passing the play test does not make a game count as movement. The minutes still go on the sitting side of the day, not toward active play.

For the youngest children the guidance is firm. The AAP advises avoiding screen media other than video chatting for children younger than 18 months, and limiting children ages 2 to 5 to one hour a day of high‑quality programming, ideally watched or played with a grown‑up. The World Health Organization's 2019 guidelines for children under five do not recommend sedentary screen time for one‑year‑olds, and say no more than one hour for ages 2 to 4, with less being better.

For children 6 and older, the AAP's companion statement asks families to set consistent limits and make sure media does not take the place of sleep, physical activity and other things essential to health.

Where judging the game falls short

• The test grades the game, not the child. A well‑designed building game can still swallow every afternoon. The World Health Organization lists gaming disorder in its disease classification: impaired control, gaming taking priority over other interests and daily activities, and continuing despite harm, normally evident for at least 12 months. The WHO notes it affects only a small proportion of people who play. If that pattern sounds familiar, it is a question for a pediatrician, not a game swap.
• Ratings cover content, not pull. An age rating says what is in a game. It does not say whether the game is built to keep a child from putting it down. Only playing it tells you that.
• Some friendships live there. For an older child, a game may be where their friends are after school. Cutting it entirely can cut them off too, so the change is often fewer hours rather than none.

Three questions for any game

Play it with the child once, the way a grown‑up joins in anywhere else, and ask three things. Who decides when it ends? Does the child make or change anything? Is it asking for money, or for tomorrow? A game that leaves the child in charge on all three is play. One that does not is entertainment, which has its place, but is not the same thing.

The short answer

Some video games count as play, and none of them count as moving. Keep the ones where the child is in charge, watch for the ones built to decide for them, and make sure the rest of the week still has room for running, building and pretending face to face. That is Let's Get Kids Playing Again, with the controller included.

This is not medical advice. A pediatrician is the person to ask about your own child.