New Study 'Strongly Suggests' Reducing Youth Exposure to Violent Videogames

Multi-national research reveals Japanese and Americans are equally affected.

By Kyle Stallock, 11/03/2008
A new study in this month's Pediatrics journal (via Reuters) "confirms" a link between violent videogames and aggressive behavior.

Various researchers from Iowa State University in Ames, the National Institute on Media and the Family in Minneapolis, and Ochanomizu University, Keio University, the University of Tsukuba, and Takasaki City University of Economics in Japan, observed hundreds of students from nine to fifteen years of age in both the United States and Japan at two points in time separated by three to six months. They tested "whether high exposure to violent videogames increases physical aggression over time in both high- (United States) and low- (Japan) violence cultures." The summarized results are as follows:

"Habitual violent videogame play early in the school year predicted later aggression, even after controlling for gender and previous aggressiveness in each sample. Those who played a lot of violent videogames became relatively more physically aggressive. Multisample structure equation modeling revealed that this longitudinal effect was of a similar magnitude in the United States and Japan for similar-aged youth and was smaller (but still significant) in the sample that included older youth."

In the report, the researchers feel this information "adds two critical pieces of evidence on the issue of the potential aggression-enhancing effects of violent videogames." First, they say it "confirms that habitually playing violent videogames leads to increases in physical aggression some months later in children and adolescents, relative to those who do not play violent videogames." Second, they feel that "the power of violent videogames to affect children's developmental trajectories in a harmful way" is illustrated by both cultures yielding "significant longitudinal effects of approximately the same magnitude."

In conclusion, they say, "The research strongly suggests reducing the exposure of youth to this risk factor." While this new information is sure to become a favorite hymn of any anti-videogame evangelist, let's remember an excerpt from Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do, whose authors also recently administered a two-year $1.5-million U.S. Department of Justice-funded multifacted study of violent videogames and children.

"Focusing on such easy but minor targets as violent videogames causes parents, social activisits, and public-policy makers to ignore the much more powerful and significant causes of youth violence that have already been well established, including a range of social, behavioral, economic, biological, and mental-health factors."

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Whther it's true or not, I doubt VGs are the number 1 cause of violence and money will be better spent in many many other areas that need a lot more improvement.

repeated post if thats what you say

This again? I still call bullshit, the most violent folks I know of never touched no videogames... Many who spend a lot of time engrossed in videogames are antisocial, which is a disorder that can (and often) leads to aggression or relationship aversion of some kind. They'd see the same traits in other antisocial individuals that spent their alone time doing completely different things.
I'm not saying that everyone is immune to violent input of the graphic kind, but many are seeing the links because they want to when in reality it could tied to a slew of other factors instead/as well.
Bullying, domestic violence, antisocial or other disorders are the most common backgrounds for aggressive behaviour and I somehow think that this study took measure of none of those, focusing solely on the fact that they played videogames.
Maybe some kids with violent tendencies play games to escape a dreadful reality? Like watching movies, reading comics or books or listening to mood music. (No, not everyone who does these things is a miserable sulk, but it is a common factor among many depressed people)

Rap music, movies, videogames and many other things have been blamed for a few societal problems, especially the ones related to violence. However, if you look at human history, you'll see that kids and people of today are quite a bit more sensitive to and a lot more against violence than they were before. We don't watch public hangings and beheadings anymore and stabbings occurr very rarely in petty quarrels out on town as a general rule.
The human race is a violent one, but go out in the world and explore and then tell me whether the people with or without videogames are more violent (I suggest places like Africa, South and West Asia, Central and South America and a few parts of Eastern Europe to begin with).

Violence happens for a multitude of reasons but only once every three blue moons does it happen on account of videogames. In my very honest opinion. Why don't parents step up and take responsibility and teach their kids other than hate and stop accusing the world of corrupting them in their own homes where mom and dad rules (or are supposed to).

I wouldn't say that it is bullshit, but these studies are never as conclusive as they pretend to be ...

As a child I remember that after watching cartoons like TMNT or GI Joe my friends and I would act out the behavior we saw in the show which was (generally) pretty violent. There were several cases where someone would get hurt but nothing that was all that bad. There is nothing I have seen which would indicate that the link between short term increases in violence lead to a longer term trend.

At the same time, it is likely that an individual who has socially unacceptable tendancies will seek out a way to express these behaviors in a more socially acceptable way. For someone who has a very violent nature it is highly likey that they would take part in violent sports or play violent videogames ... The problem is that these people still have a very violent nature and (given the correct situation) they will probably act out in a very violent way.

The last problem is something I have seen growing in society for awhile ... Young children (as young as 3 or 4) are spending more time in front of a TV or videogame system than they are with real people and are not developing basic social skills to be able to cope with society. These people are (probably) far more likely to act out violently when they are put into a situation which they are not equiped to handle.

Basically, I think there is reason to believe that there is a correlation between videogame playing and violent behavior but (outside of short term behavior between young chidren) I'm not sure that videogames cause violent behavior. At the same time, in most cases, decent parenting would be able to identify and solve a problem long before it became a problem.

There are certain high school massacres in the US which were blamed on video games. Apparently the shooters at Columbine played Goldeneye a lot!

I know that I get very angry if things don't go my way in an online game. But that anger dies when I switch the game off.

Its not games dude, its Banksy. Inspires absolute hate filled rage at the establishment, and im studying journalism lol

I was playing MGS3 a few days ago, and my brother was there. I missed a shot with a Sniper Rifle and he was like" Oh man, you're slippin bro"

In an effort to prove him wrong, I re-aimed the SVD and shot the guy in the head in a split-second. After I did that, I had to pause for a second. I barely even set to take aim at the guy and I hit him in the "pivotal place". I realized how bad videogames could be in a way when things like that occur.

I've done the same thing in Gears of War, split-second Sniper shots and for like 2 seconds I got jumpy.

However, when these games are turned off, there isn't a single violent thing about me. It's like EA Sports, only "in the game".

It doesn't raise aggression more than movies are music... or poor eduction..

This sh*t is as old as the videogaming industry (I remember my mom complaining about it in the eighties already).

Very nice example about American hypocrisy: Tons of guns in the street but blames the video games.

It doesn't raise aggression more than movies and music... or poor eduction..

This sh*t is as old as the videogaming industry (I remember my mom complaining about it in the eighties already).

Very nice example about American hypocrisy: Tons of guns in the street but blames the video games.