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Another Study Attacks Violent Video Games, Claims To Be "Conclusive"
Killer Orca is one of many to tell us about a new study on the effects of violent video games on kids. The latest meta-study that analyzed research from 130 different reports claims to have "conclusively proven" that violent video games make more aggressive, less caring kids. "The team used meta-analytic procedures — the statistical methods used to analyze and combine results from previous, related literature -- to test the effects of violent video game play on the behaviors, thoughts, and feelings of the individuals, ranging from elementary school-aged children to college undergraduates. [...] Anderson says the new study may be his last meta-analysis on violent video games because of its definitive findings."
Some friends of my kids recently got the LEGO Star Wars video game. The day my kids got home, they started picking up everything that could be imagined as a sword and starting chasing each other around the house swinging away. It could be something as small as an empty paper towel tube or a banana to a tennis racket, wood spoons or even an umbrella.
Let's just say I called up the parent and told her I didn't want my kids playing star wars games at their house, just like my kids aren't allowed "to play guns."
May I also point out this and this. The first is a more responsibly done metastudy, the second focuses on what I've been speaking of: there are multiple possible reactions to "violent" games (in this case, Quake II) dependent on preexisting personality conditions.