Do Violent Video Games Affect Your Kids?

Post Author: Bill Pratt

video games101 Do Violent Video Games Affect Your Kids?

An Iowa State University research team says “yes” and that they have the data to prove it. According to ISU:

Iowa State researchers, led by Distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Anderson, have collaborated on a new study that analyzes 130 research reports on more than 130,000 subjects proving exposure to violent video games makes more aggressive, less caring kids — regardless of their age, sex or culture.

Dr. Anderson, the lead researcher, goes on to draw the following conclusions from the research:

We can now say with utmost confidence that regardless of research method — that is experimental, correlational, or longitudinal — and regardless of the cultures tested in this study [East and West], you get the same effects. And the effects are that exposure to violent video games increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior in both short-term and long-term contexts. Such exposure also increases aggressive thinking and aggressive affect, and decreases prosocial behavior.

Now what does this practically mean? You’ll have to read the detailed report to find out, but my amateur take on it is that watching extreme violence all the time is bad for your child, and probably bad for you, as an adult, as well. If you have a child who is is already prone to aggression and anti-social behavior, violent video games are not going to help – they will hurt. This seems obvious, but I guess the ISU research team wanted to publish the “final word” on it, although there is never the final word on anything scientific.

At least this study gives parents some more ammunition in dealing with their kid’s video game playing.

Tags: Craig Anderson, ISU, research on violent video games, video games

This entry was posted by Bill Pratt on Wednesday, March 24th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Morality. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Bill Pratt

Comments

http://www.calvaryle.org Steve Wright

To me, there is a big difference between the violence found in something like Grand Theft Auto, and the violence of a military game like Call of Duty. I wonder if the research differentiates between the two.

I have seen those over the years say the Bible was a bad influence on kids because of all the violence within it. Again, there is a difference between the Bible and the random horror, murder movie.
Bill Pratt

Steve,
Good question. I would assume the report answers that question somewhere in it, but we would have to dig. It seems to me that the context of violence is important, as you mentioned. Games where wanton, random violence is glorified would seem to have a different effect than games where violence occurs, but it is in the context of some pursuit of good.
Paul Lack

I would just like to say as a gamer I do not think that violence in video games can harm you that a movie. I have been playing them from about the age of 8, and they have not effected me one bit. I do understand that some children will try and do what they see on there TV screen, but everything they see should be controlled by there parents.

Many people go on about Grand Theft Auto being so bad, however it’s know worse than the a Mafia movie.

I just want people to understand it’s not the video game that’s bad, they are are made for a specific audience (adults) and if a parent doesn’t know what there child is playing they are not doing there job right.
http://www.google.com/ Cameron Heath

I like it. Bill, do you have kids that have a gaming system, and do you have kids who play violent games?
http://www.google.com/ Cameron Heath

thanks Bill
http://www.google.com/ Cameron Heath

Im also having to do an editorial paper due in a few weeks, son thanks Bill!
ayisha

thank you very much Bill for this post, im a year9 student sturdying for a debate on weather violent video games should be banned and you post about the reseach really helped me, i just wish there were examples of how people turned violent from too much video games

Tough Questions Answered

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