Connection games and violence exaggerated
OPINION
Finally we are getting unbiased scientific studies about the connection between games and violence. And the message is clear: GTA players will not become murderers in real life.
One example that rises well above the sensationalist flock is a new study from the University of Harvard by L. Kutner and C.K. Olson, called Grand Theft Childhood. The book was published only a month ago and, despite its rather marketing-oriented subtitle: "The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do" (you don't usually expect to see such "sexy" and popular titles on scientific studies - but this is probably the effect of the publisher trying to increase sales), it still has some pretty good stuff to say about the topic.
What separates Kutner and Olson's study from the vast majority of studies into the area of games and violence is the fact that Kutner and Olson took a very balanced approach to gaming: they did not study only the extreme examples of violent games and their goal is not to try to stamp games as either good or bad. Rather, they shed all political sensationalist preconceptions and studied the area from a clear table. And this is what they say:
"Much of what we found surprised us. The data were both encouraging and, at times, disturbing. The more we analyzed our own data and looked at other research, the more we realized that we -- parents, politicians, researchers and child advocates -- probably worry too much about the wrong things and too little about more subtle issues and complex effects that are much more likely to affect our children.
"It's clear that the "big fears" bandied about in the press -- that violent video games make children significantly more violent in the real world; that children will engage in the illegal, immoral, sexist and violent acts they see in some of these games -- are not supported by the current research, at least in such a simplistic form. That should make sense to anyone who thinks about it. After all, millions of children and adults play these games, yet the world has not been reduced to chaos and anarchy."
In essence, games were found to be a natural part of young children's and teenagers' lives and the study results did not show correlation between gaming and violence. In addition, the children seemed to have learned their parents' values very well: they were worried about the amount of cursing in games. The children were also able to differentiate reality from the games and even if violence appeared realistic in a game, the children did not believe that they could actually go out and mimic the actions of the game characters. To children, playing games is about having fun, relaxing, excitement and challenges - and being with their friends.
The last point "being with their friends" is something that made the researchers aware of a new risk group. One risk group are boys who play more than 15 hours a week and only the most violent games (the public opinion is right about something at least). These boys were, however, not likely to go out to kill people, but they were more likely to engage in bullying behaviour towards other children.
However, the second risk group are the boys who do not play at all. Evidently, gaming is already such a big part of the culture of young men that those who are left outside this social activity may often have risky emotional lives. A case in fact could be the murderer at Virginia Tech - Seung-Hui Cho was considered strange by his peers because he never played video games while everyone else did.
It should be noted, however, that Kutner and Olson's study does support the idea that obsessive gaming may be a sign of something being wrong with a child. But it is a symptom of something else being wrong in the children's lives and not a cause to their other behaviour. The same way that adults may start drinking when they are stressed, children may start playing more and more games. But, in this case, it is not the obsessive gaming that should be treated, but the reasons that have led the child to this behaviour.