Students from elementary and middle schools across Shenzhen have started their winter vacations, which means they won’t be attending classes and are free to arrange their time off. A recent online survey showed that nearly six out of ten students plan to spend their vacation staying at home playing computer games.

But rather than gaming alone, students will usually call up their friends and invite them to join as teammates.

“My younger brother has 50 classmates and 30 of them play the same game,” a 10th grade student surnamed Wu told reporters, adding that online games have become a bridge that connects him and his younger brother.

But the trend has caused a headache for parents. A mother surnamed Lin said, “I asked my son what he planned to do during the vacation, and he told me that he would sleep as much as he could and play games as he pleases. I asked him why he doesn’t plan to hang out with his classmates and he said he would form a group with his classmates online and they would play games together.”

A recent report showed that an average of more than 29.1 percent of preschoolers (aged 3 to 6) spend 30 minutes or more on the Internet and 60.8 percent of 14-year-old teenagers spend 30 minutes or more on the Internet and 60 percent playing games.

To help students have a happy and productive vacation, experts offered some suggestions.

Professor Wu Yan from the Humanities Center of the South University of Science and Technology of China told parents that children playing games is by no means the reason for disharmony in families.

From the perspective of Wang Lamei, an association professor of School of Psychology and Society at Shenzhen University, gaming is a good thing for kids, but they should play games that will actually benefit them.

In Wang’s opinion, beneficial games cultivate children’s cognitive competence, compassion, skill sets and interpersonal communication.

A senior psychology teacher at Shenzhen Middle School Wang Xinhong suggested parents communicate with teenagers and respect them, but at the same time they should let their children know that there are “bottom lines.”

Jiang Zhenyu, a professor of Science Fiction at Beijing Normal University who played games in his childhood, shared his experience negotiating with his father about playing games. He suggested parents let kids know that “there are some things in life that should be given up.”

(Yang Mei)