Opinion: Do video games make kids violent, stupid and sick?
Suddenly, video games are blamed for a long list of social ills
November 30, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Video games have occasionally served as a convenient scapegoat for whatever ails youth. But just this week, the normal trickle of blame has become a torrent, with loud proclamations from many quarters that computer games are making kids violent, stupid and sick.
Researchers at the University of Michigan published a study in the Journal of Adolescent Health this week that found "exposure to virtual violence increases the risk that children and adults will behave aggressively."
New Zealand's national manager of police youth services, Superintendent Bill Harrison, said this week that youth violence has "jumped" in the past two or three years worldwide, which he says coincides with the rise of advanced console games like the Xbox. His point is that better quality video games increase the realism of violence, which does a better job of desensitizing kids to the real thing.
The German Society for Scientific Person-Centered Psychotherapy this week publicly advocated a total ban on violent computer games.
The claimed link between games and violence is a direct result of the content of some games, which enables kids to spend hours in a fantasy world where they're rewarded for attacking, maiming or killing other virtual characters. However, the addictive quality of computer games, which can take time away from other activities like reading and exercise, are also blamed for causing problems.
In the International Reading Literacy Study league table for children's reading skills, England has dropped from third place in 2001 to 19th in 2006, and video games get much of the blame.
Video games are also blamed for obesity because they keep kids indoors and inactive.