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Kids 'Unaffected By Game Violence' Says Study

Posted by Zonk on from the could-have-told-you-that dept.

Via Game|Life, an article in the Syndey Morning Herald discusses a new study indicating most children are unaffected by videogame violence. Though the study did indicate that children already predisposed to violence or neurotic behavior were over-stimulated by these games, most children showed no difference in behavior as a result of game play. "The study monitored the behavior of children from 10 schools in eastern and southern metropolitan Melbourne before and after playing the violent video game Quake II for 20 minutes, Swinburne's Professor Grant Devilly said. Prof Devilly said only children predisposed to aggression and more reactive to their environments changed their behavior after playing and of those only some showed more aggression."

11 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. there might be a difference by otacon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Q2 is not realistic when compared to new versions of Grand Theft Auto or anything from the current generation, or last gen for that matter...I wonder if brutal street slayings show any difference versus unrealistic circa 1997 FPS's

    --
    In a world of acronyms, the words are the real victims.
    1. Re:there might be a difference by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Considering the games I've been playing since I was 10, and if it had only a percent impact in my real life, I'd be considered a mass murderer and war criminal by now. Currently I'm holding the title of Commisaire (or however it may be spelled) in BF2142. I'd wager I might have killed about 10,000 virtual people by now, a lot of them using mines, slitting a few throats with a knife in cold blood, and employing other very nasty means to transfer people from life to death that would not be looked at nicely in Den Hague.

      I enjoy looking through a scope, I enjoy the challenge against an enemy sniper, and I find great pleasure in the joy of being the one to pull the trigger first and plant that virtual bullet exactly and deadly between his eyes, in which I look directly just the split second before I end his virtual life. I even find some cruel pleasure in watching an enemy sneak up, thinking himself unseen and switching to his knife for an easy kill, and just before he's in range I cap him with my handgun.

      I enjoy rattling down a box of MG ammo through some corridor, actually hoping someone would be foolish enough to step in. Or throwing down a grenade onto a helpless enemy that has only the choice of staying down and eating my grenade or standing up and getting his head capped by the sniper buddy upstairs. I know he is going to die, and I enjoy it tremedously.

      I run around tanks and plant that high speed AT-bullet into his rear, knowing exactly that the virtual human inside is finding a very cruel death. Going down in a tank is NOT a pretty way to die!

      We're talking very realistic physics (ok, as realistic as hovercrafts and -tanks can get), very detailed textures that let you actually see the face of your enemy and that make, almost force, you to realize that you are indeed killing virtual humans.

      Still I never even lifted my fist against anyone in RL. I try my best to avoid physical fights and usually leave when the 'battle' starts to escape the intellectual level. I own no real weapons and I have no drive to get one. At best, their mechanic is interesting, but not their function. Using weapons in RL is no fun.

      It's dangerous.

      And people who don't get that difference have more serious problems than computer games. Honestly.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:there might be a difference by Jherek+Carnelian · · Score: 2, Interesting

      At the same time, any research that could possibly change the childs disposition towards the negative is also not going to get approved.

      The fact of the matter is, it is a proven statistic that the vast majority of children playing violent video games or watching violent movies act out scenes from within them and become desensitized to the 'message'.
      How can it be a "proven statistic" if any research about it can't get approved? How was it proven then?
  2. Re:Can I get a ... by twistedsymphony · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Whoa why the hostility?

    With all the BS legislation trying to censor video games I think we could use all the studies we can get. While it's obvious to gamers that games don't change child behavior, it's not so apparent to the rest of the world. If they wont listen to reason maybe they'll at least listen to some guy in a lab coat with clipboard.

    --
    Collector's Edition
  3. I wonder... by beef623 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder what they would find if they did a study to see what type of person was the most violent inside a video game? I bet it wouldn't be the people who are violent in the real world.

    Thoughts?

  4. A WHOLE 20 Minutes?! by nagora · · Score: 4, Interesting
    We can all sleep safer in our beds tonight knowing that teaching kids that violence is a form of entertainment doesn't make them into psycho-killers in 20 minutes flat.

    Fuck a doodle-do. Quality work there.

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  5. Re:Can I get a ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Let's not go overboard. All this study shows is that 20 minutes of Quake won't turn you into Charles Manson.

    A year's worth may be something else.

  6. only 20 mins? by Red+Flayer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A Swinburne University of Technology study of 120 children aged 11 to 15 revealed children prone to worrying, neurotic behaviour and predisposed to aggression were likely to be more aggressive after playing violent video games.

    OK, so only a small minority of children are negatively affected by a 20-minute session of playing Q2. Does that negative effect wear off if they play for 2 hours? Any endocrine effects need to be examined over a longer timeline.

    Isn't it possible we accurately label games so that parents of kids who fall into the risk category can make appropriate decisions more easily when buying a game? Would that hurt anyone?

    Oops... flames commence in 3... 2... 1...
    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  7. I know I have posted this before... by Pojut · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...but I post it anytime there is something about violence and videogames on teh /.

    ----

    I decided to finally write this down in response to some people asking me why I enjoy immeasurably violent video games and movies. This explanation is written using the game "Manhunt" as it's primary example, mainly because of it's subject matter (which can best be described as a "snuff video game"). PLEASE read it in it's entirety before responding, it's easy to think i'm making an uninformed point without reading the whole thing; I explain EVERY viewpoint I express.

    Think about this, folks.

    This "game" is not about sneakin' around, trying to see what the biggest mess you can make is. It's about much more than that. This game is in direct relation to the JTHM (Johnny the Homicidal Maniac by Jhonen Vasquez, for the uninitiated...) in all of us, the little black beast that we keep to ourselves.

    Ever say "I wish he were dead", or "he makes me so angry I want to kill him"? Of course you have. Everyone has. This game is the digital manifestation of those thoughts. It's not about suffocating some guy, or creating the pink mist... This game does one thing and one thing only: it asks you a question. A very simple question to state, and frankly a very simple question to answer:

    Is your black beast fictional or real?

    Do you have a little playground for the demon inside of you, someplace it can go and harmlessly let out it's frustrations and rage? Or are you so jaded and blind that you cannot discern the difference between reality and fantasy?

    Frankly, if you enjoy this game (along with ANY violent video game or movie, regardless of it's subject or presentation) you are not sick. You are normal. You are provided an outlet for the most primal emotions that you, as a human, have. Your most carnal instincts. If you don't like this game because the graphics suck, or the control is wonky, fine. BUT. If you despise this game because you say it's "too violent" and "unneccessary", and "too realistic", and whatever else, guess what: YOU are the sick one. That's not to say that you can't see it as being gross, or that you don't like it because you supposidly don't like violence (then why do you slow down to look at car accidents, hmm?) What it means is that if you say that violent things such as this push sane and "normal" people into being murderers in real life...well, I'm sorry, but you are wrong.

    The first step anyone takes to becomming a murderer in real life is not being able to tell the difference between reality and fantasy. Manhunt is fantasy. Does that mean something similar has not happend/could not happen? No. But your experience and memories of it happening are. It's a video game. It is designed to be a playground for your little black beast.

    If you take it as being anything more serious than that...well, turn yourself in now.

    You have to allow the little monster to come out every now and then and release it's frustrations. If you don't, you risk becomming a quivering mass of nervous and dangerous flesh. What better place to do this than in a simulated environment with simulated violence where the only things harmed are your eyes for staring at the screen?

    --
    Living With a Nerd
  8. Feeding the monster. . . by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Hm.

    If you feed the little monster, the little monster grows.

    My own 'little monster' gets smaller all the time, because I don't want any monster inside me at all. That's the description of the life mission I follow. --To hunt down all darkness and annihilate it within the self. If I can walk into a room and interact with anybody, shine brightly, comfortably and with grace so that every person I touch also finds a way to glow, then I am approaching the best version of myself. If I have a little monster whispering anger to me, then this mission in my life is hampered. The more time and energy I feed to the little monster, the more powerful and comfortable it becomes in its position in my psyche.

    Put another way. . . The brain trains itself to fire synapses efficiently. If you spend a lot of time accessing certain types of thought and behavior, the brain re-wires itself to accommodate the firing of those synapses, which in turn makes it easier and faster for the brain to access such thoughts and behaviors. It makes such patterns easy and comfortable. If, however, you retrain your brain in different directions, then the brain rewires itself accordingly. The structure of the brain is always in motion; this is how we grow and learn.

    In a very real sense, your focus determines your reality.

    As well. . , I also subscribe to the belief that what you focus on becomes real in a far more literal sense. If you focus on negative energies, on mass destruction and painless murders, then these forces will find their way into your life in some manner. How many troops in Iraq were weaned on Quake?

    This is not about judgment or guilt. About calling some people, "Sick". It's about what sort of reality you want to live in, what sort of energies you want to attract. I am now able to spend most of my life quite happily. I face my challenges largely without anger, without secretly wanting to harm anybody. This is a fairly significant change from only a few years ago. I find the people around me nowadays are very positive and compassionate. Is this a direct result of my stopping watching TV and playing video games? Perhaps. In any case, I certainly believe that it is all inter-related.

    I remember when I used to have a much bigger little monster than I do today.

    Just some thoughts.


    -FL

  9. Out of the mouths of babes... by Frodrick · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I learned this 15 years ago when I turned my then-four-year-old son loose on an early copy of Wolfenstein 3D.

    After a long session of him gleefully shooting everything that moved (In god mode, of course), I decided to test the idea that violent games produced violent children. "Wouldn't it be nice if you could shoot people like that in real life?" I asked.

    He looked at me, utterly shocked. "No! Why would I want to do that?"

    "You enjoyed shooting people in Wolfenstein, didn't you?" I offered, "Why not for real?"

    I swear, my 4 year old son looked at me with pity in his eyes. "It's only a game , Dad!

    After that I decided not to worry about kids playing violent video games any more. They are a lot more aware than most folks realize... and a lot smarter than most anti-games crusaders!