Violent Video Games Healthy For Kids?

The Journal of Adolescent Health has published a study which claims to have found that playing violent video games doesn’t not lead to violent behaviour in teenagers. Will the campaigning soccer mom’s and meddling politicians take any notice? I don’t think its likely do you?

During the study researchers looked at more than 1,200 12-14 year olds who were regular gamers. Cheryl Olson SC.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital said:

“We found that most boys 12-14 years old are playing mature-rated video games, so this idea that ‘M’ rated games cause shootings or major violence just doesn’t hold water.”

Moreover the research seems to turn the idea of the solitary gamer on its head, with many of the participants plying games either in the same room as their friends or over the Internet. Olson went on to say:

“We don’t know whether playing to get anger out is a good thing or a bad thing for any individual child, but we suspect that it might be healthy for a lot of kids.”

Of course any kind of stress relief is healthy, and especially in an educational climate where kids are driven to achieve good results at school, and told that the price of failure is a ruined life. That’s a heavy burden to lay on anyone and if teenagers can find some release for their tension through virtual destruction is that not better than them going out and doing it for real. Olson’s final message to parents about video games and their children is this:

“It’s not going to ruin them, they’re not going to go out and pick up a gun. Violent video game play is typical and normal for kids nowadays. That doesn’t mean that parents have to like it, but they shouldn’t panic about it.”

Ah but there’s the rub, politicians seem to thrive on creating panic over non-issues. Fear motivates people to vote, parents fear video games because they don’t understand them, and the politicians and campaign groups play on that fear by promising to do something about it. They have no intention of doing anything, and infact there isn’t an awful lot that they can do. All we as gamers can do is wait it out until there are sufficient numbers of parents and politicians who grew up with video games and understand what they’re about. The publication of this report isn’t going to change anyone’s minds, those whose minds need changing ahve decided that video games are evil and nothing is going to dissuade them of this fact.
(From Gamerush.)

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