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Violent Games 'Almost' As Dangerous as Smoking

Posted by Zonk on from the just-wow dept.

Via Voodoo Extreme, a Reuters report on some very 'interesting' research into violent games. A study out of the University of Michigan has apparently found that 'exposure to violent electronic media' is almost as dangerous to our society as smoking. "'The research clearly shows that exposure to virtual violence increases the risk that both children and adults will behave aggressively,' said Huesmann, adding it could have a particularly detrimental effect on the well-being of youngsters. Although not every child exposed to violence in the media will become aggressive, he said it does not diminish the need for greater control on the part of parents and society of what children are exposed to in films, video games and television programs."

8 of 545 comments (clear)

  1. Get thee away from me by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Get that PSP away from me, I don't want any of your second-hand fragging to endanger my health!"

    Yeah. I don't think I'll be hearing that one. Well, maybe from Jack Thompson, but not normal humans.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    1. Re:Get thee away from me by DahGhostfacedFiddlah · · Score: 5, Funny

      Look, not to piss away your carefully-crafted logic here, but have you paused to consider that maybe the lung cancer was caused by violent video games, and it's just a coincidence that they were also smokers?

      Dumbass.

      --
      Last post!
    2. Re:Get thee away from me by 0123456 · · Score: 5, Informative

      "So let us imagine what the difference between the UK and the US could be. Oh yes the fact that you let every loony and criminal arm themselves to the teeth with cheap firearms."

      Murder rates in the UK and USA were roughly equal a century ago when 'every loony and criminal' could buy any gun they wanted over the counter in Britain with no questions asked (though they did have to pay a $2 tax if they wanted to legally carry it in public). Armed crime rates with guns are much higher today in the UK than when 'every loony and criminal' could buy any gun they wanted over the counter with no questions asked, and while the British murder rate hasn't risen much since then the murder rate in America is far higher than it was; murders exploded as Prohibition increased the power of organised crime and, while it's dropped since, rates never returned to earlier levels.

      Britons just don't kill each other much; per-capita, Americans kill each other more with knives than Britons kill each other by any means. Meanwhile, gun crime in Britain is growing rapidly as criminals have few problems getting hold of guns to prey on a disarmed population.

    3. Re:Get thee away from me by Jarjarthejedi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      (don't waste your breath saying some joke about violence being nature) Oh! Violence isn't natural? Geez...those predators have been doing things wrong for a long time, how 'bout you go tell them that?

      Natural is a word with no well-defined meaning, it's a completely relative term. If you try to define it as anything that is done naturally by creatures then that includes every act ever performed, as humans are creatures too, and trying to define them out of the picture means it's no longer that which is done in nature, but that which is done in nature by creatures other than humans. Well you know what? School's unnatural then, name one animal that sends it's young off to another parent to learn math? Math's unnatural too, and so is Physics and, well, just about everything else. No matter how you define natural you'll end up either stating that most of human behavior is unnatural, or it's all natural (if you try to say 'done by a significant number' then you have to define significant, and you'll end up either defining perfectly normal behavior as unnatural or all behavior as natural).

      Violence is just as natural as Sex. There, I said it, bring on the hating. Plenty of predators kill other creatures, even if they have no intention to eat the carcass. There's little difference between that and human violence, or at least human violence isn't anymore unnatural than that.
      --
      There are two kinds of fool One says 'This is old therefore good' Another says 'This is new therefore better'- Dean Ing
  2. Worth noting... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is worth noting that the "research" here consists of basing new views on long-term effects on old research in short-term effects. In other words, no actual new data has come in, and the data cannot be used to support the conclusions. Besides, it comes from known anti-gamers, often shown to be greatly biased in their "research".

  3. My take by B3ryllium · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem isn't the violent games, or the violent TV shows, or even the violent peer-groups.

    The problem is, quite simply, absent and detached parents.

  4. So what they're saying... by Lendrick · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...is that violent video games kill 440,000 Americans every year?

    Because wow, I'd have quit playing video games long ago if I knew that they had a 1 in 2 chance of killing me.

    I suppose the other (albeit less likely) possibility is that this respectable and unbiased researcher may have accidentally used hyperbole in an accidental attempt to drum up fear in support of his findings... And in all fairness, he technically says that smoking is a "slightly larger" danger, so maybe violent media only turns 45% of its viewers into murderers.

  5. Violent behavior. by junkmail · · Score: 5, Interesting

    We didn't make it to the top of the food chain after millions of years of evolution by being non-violent. We are the result of millions of years worth of selectively breeding the best bad-asses of each generation. The only thing that fools people into thinking non-violence is good is that part of becoming the world's baddest-ass species was learning team violence (us vs. the prey, us vs. them). Seems to me that these games are just sensitizing us to behavior that is always there, just below the surface. Also seems to me that any aggressive team sports would have the same effect (football, basketball, hockey, politics).