Hot Topic (11/1): Do violent video games cause behavior problems?

[Cafe GroupAdmin]

(CNN)

About 90 percent of U.S. kids ages 8 to 16 play video games, and they spend about 13 hours a week doing so (more if you're a boy). Now a new study suggests virtual violence in these games may make kids more aggressive in real life.

Kids shouldn't play games where hunting down and killing people is the goal, says one expert.

Kids in both the U.S. and Japan who reported playing lots of violent video games had more aggressive behavior months later than their peers who did not, according to the study, which appears in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics.

The researchers specifically tried to get to the root of the chicken-or-egg problem -- do children become more aggressive after playing video games or are aggressive kids more attracted to violent videos?

It's a murky -- and controversial -- issue. Many studies have linked violence in TV shows and video games to violent behavior. But when states have tried to keep under-18 kids from playing games rated "M" for mature, the proposed restrictions have often been challenged successfully in court.

In the new study, Dr. Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D., of Iowa State University in Ames, and his colleagues looked at how children and teen's video game habits at one time point related to their behavior three to six months later.

The study included three groups of kids: 181 Japanese students ages 12 to 15; 1,050 Japanese students aged 13 to 18; and 364 U.S. kids ages 9 to 12.

The U.S. children listed their three favorite games and how often they played them. In the younger Japanese group, the researchers looked at how often the children played five different violent video game genres (fighting action, shooting, adventure, among others); in the older group they gauged the violence in the kids' favorite game genres and the time they spent playing them each week.

Japanese children rated their own behavior in terms of physical aggression, such as hitting, kicking or getting into fights with other kids; the U.S. children rated themselves too, but the researchers took into account reports from their peers and teachers as well.

In every group, children who were exposed to more video game violence did become more aggressive over time than their peers who had less exposure. This was true even after the researchers took into account how aggressive the children were at the beginning of the study -- a strong predictor of future bad behavior.

The findings are "pretty good evidence" that violent video games do indeed cause aggressive behavior, says Dr. L. Rowell Huesmann, director of the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research in Ann Arbor. Read More

Do you agree? Do you think Violent video games cause behavioral issues? Do you go by the game ratings, for your kids age?

[mmtosam06]

lets blame the "media" how bout have the parents explain to their kids that that is all fake but be mindful that they're sick ppl who will commit crimes like this & feel no remorse & you will have some who do feel remorse but how bout parents being parents & buy age appropiate games seriously whats wrong with that  

[mamapotter]

Ditto!!

Quoting mmtosam06:

lets blame the "media" how bout have the parents explain to their kids that that is all fake but be mindful that they're sick ppl who will commit crimes like this & feel no remorse & you will have some who do feel remorse but how bout parents being parents & buy age appropiate games seriously whats wrong with that  

[athenax3]

I don't think anything "causes" violent behavior, I do however think that children particularly can be so disensitized to violence and compassion that they are more prone to accept violence if not commit it themselves.

[hsteele]

I agree with this. I also think that the amount of time someone is exposed to these kids of games can have an effect. Some kids on on these games constantly except for school and are talking about them at school. I think this could lead to problems. Parents need to make sure their kids do not spend all day on these games and actually go do something. I know that i used to play hack and slash video games when I was a kid and I do not think that I am a violent person. But I was limited on the amount of time I could play video games and was made to be outside more often than i was inside.

Quoting athenax3:

I don't think anything "causes" violent behavior, I do however think that children particularly can be so disensitized to violence and compassion that they are more prone to accept violence if not commit it themselves.

[momaof8]

I think it is just part of the pile of things you can do to screw up your kid. Isn't the world violent enough? Why do people let their kids play that crap anyway? If people stop buying it they will stop making it. Look at the crappy saw movies. When is the violence too much? We just don't buy or watch that crud.

[cherry41089]

no I don't

[Friday]

No, I don't.

If parents did their job and teach their kids that games/movies/tv/music are art and just pretend I don't believe this would be such a problem. My oldest has been exposed to some pretty raunchy stuff over the years but he knows it's all pretend and we don't act that way in real life and we have never had any behavior problems.

I think this is just one more excuse for people who don't want to take responsibility for their actions or children.

[rotPferd]

When we moved from Tx last year, my 12 yo dd used Zelda as a coping mechanism. It was Zelda this and Link that and it got annoying. I was worried about it at first and figured it was her choice of "comfort food" and something familiar to her. Moving was alot harder on her than I expected. Now she has made some friends and is involved in band and swimming. Now its Zelda who?

[izzybear0217]

Nope. I think parents need to watch and explained that the game and real life are 2 different things. I also think that the lack of family time sends kids looking for love and acceptance from somewhere else and it can lead to gangs or them getting into trouble trying to get that love and attention.

[VAmomto3]

My kids play age appropriate games. There are many kids they play with that are allowed to play "M" gmes. Those children are the ones that are always holding plastic guns to people or "killing" things with the toy guns. I dont think its neccesarily the games but the parents who allow their kids to play this way.

From what I have seen, the kids who are violent dont have much parenting. Kids who dont have much parenting are also more likely to have innapropriate movies. video games. toys, etc...