Given the right circumstances, exposure to violence, whether in media or in the games our children play, can cause children to behave more violently. Or so says new research.
The study, published in the Pediatric journal, followed two groups of kids, one in the US and the other in Japan. They looked at the content of the games played, how often they were played and any violent or aggressive behaviors noted throughout the school year. In both countries, the children who were exposed to the violent content were more likely to get into a fight at school, even 5 or 6 months later. Still, conditions must be right for the child to react in this way. Here is a quote from the Washington Post article that I found to be a bit reassuring:
A healthy, normal, nonviolent child or adolescent who has no other risk factors for high aggression or violence is not going to become a school shooter simply because they play five hours or 10 hours a week of these violent video games," he said.
Extreme forms of violence, Anderson said, "almost always occur when there is a convergence of multiple risk factors."
A U.S. surgeon general report in 2001 identified an array of those risk factors, including gang involvement, antisocial parents and peers, substance abuse, poverty and media violence. Males are more at risk.
The new study noted that video games are played in 90 percent of American homes with children ages 8 to 16 and that the U.S. average playing time of four hours a week in the late 1980s is now up to 13 hours a week, with boys averaging 16 to 18 hours a week.