Gaming consoles have been maturing for more than 20 years. When I was a kid, we thought the simple black and white blip-blip-blipping tennis game was fantastic and we would play it for hours! Young people today would be bored with it in minutes...

Today's gaming is beyond that which would be imaginable when I was young - many games are so photorealistic to be almost movie-quality, and the rendering of a synthetic environment, at such speed to correspond with our actions defies belief when you actually figure out what needs to happen to translate a flick of a console button into an action on-screen, in-game.

However, technology aside, there are some general issues we need to consider when we look at this with young people in mind.

Firstly - as with PCs and laptops (in fact, MANY electronic devices), we have the general issue of "addiction" - and this is most prevalent with gaming consoles, and is probably the issue of greatest concern...

My advice here is simply to be consistent and use it as an incentive - just like going online with friends or using the computer for anything other than school-work.

Set defined limits and stick to them rigidly, and - as I have similarly said before - be prepared to withdraw the privilege if its abused.

At the risk of repeating myself, its also useful to get involved yourself. Most consoles, unless we are talking about the cell phone sized gaming devices, have two player options where you will give yourself ample opportunity to be unceremoniously beaten at any game by the young people in your house. Let it happen, at worst you will be seen as a pretty cool parent who is hip enough to get stuck into a game, even if you never win.

As more sophisticated games and consoles emerge, however, use of consoles is diverging - for instance, the "Dance dance revolution" game and similar, which includes a tactile dance mat with instructions for different dance steps with different tunes and levels of complexity is a really cool way for you and your young people to have fun AND get fit.

You should expect to see more of this type of game emerge as consoles get more sophisticated and games get more involved.

The Nintendo wii, for example, is widely regarded as "the way games consoles should have been from the start", with tactile feedback and games that allow you to work on golf-swing and tennis-racquet technique, and the improvements from being able to work on these techniques have so far proved to be quite staggering.

Above all, with games consoles, I would suggest that they are in a common room of the house - as with home computers - to reduce the risk of "hermitism" amongst young people - locked away in their room playing games forever and never socialising or spending time with their family.

We also need to keep moderation in mind. It's all very well, letting your young person spend Saturday morning playing on his or her console, but make sure they mix the games up, and split it between, say, a dance-mat keep-fit style game and a shoot-em-up style game, and stick to a timeframe and do not waiver...

If you say it should go off at midday, go switch it off yourself if need be.

Before we get out of the whole topic of Digital Kids and young peoples use of technology, I want to finish with a look at Facebook and other social networking sites and how these are changing the way young people interact with the world around them.

Bob Mellor is a senior business technologist with more than 20 years experience in the IT industry. He is accredited by the British Computer Society as a Chartered IT Professional, and currently technology consulting manager at Bermuda Microsystems Group. His views do not reflect the views of The Royal Gazette or Bermuda Microsystems Group, and are based on his personal experiences and knowledge. He can be contacted on bob@bmg.bm