Are video games, porn ruining teens?

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/23/health/living-well/demise-of-guys/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

This is just a continuation of the theme “video games are bad.”


Considering that video games have been around (on a widespread scale) since 1970 (who can forget Pong?) and that porn has been around since the dawn of time (I mean, the Victorians were into some seriously weird fetishes), if the two were actually destroying male cognitive or social abilities we would have seen some sign of that prior to the release of this book (which is also interesting, the author decided to publish an independent book rather than submit his “study” or conclusions to a scientific paper).


In fact, actual studies conducted in older individuals (and published in peer reviewed journals) show that video games can have a positive effect on cognitive abilities and issues like resource management (you’ve only got so much space in your RPG backpack, so you’ve got to figure out which items are actually important) - http://news.illinois.edu/news/08/1211gamers.html


The author is referencing studies which show a link between video games and aggressive behavior in young-adult males. In fact, multiple studies have been conducted on this hypothesis (by the The Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health, The Journal of Adolescent Health, and The British Medical Journal, to name but a few) which have shown no conclusive link actually exists.


In 1999 US Surgeon General David Satcher to said, "We clearly associate media violence to aggressive behavior. But the impact was very small compared to other things. Some may not be happy with that, but that’s where the science is."


In Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do, researchers/authors Lawrence Kutner, PhD, and Cheryl K. Olson, ScD, refute claims of violent behavior increase caused by violent video games. The researchers' study shows that adolescents that don't play video games at all are most at-risk for violent behavior (but without statistical significance), claiming that video game play is part of an adolescent boy's normal social setting. However, they do not completely deny violent (M-rated) video games' negative influences on pre-teens and teenagers


On the social development front, from Wikipedia:


Over two hundred studies have been published which examine the effects of violence in entertainment media and which at least partially focus on violence in video games in particular. Some psychological studies have shown a correlation between children playing violent video games and suffering psychological effects, although many other studies find no such link causation.


In 2004 the American Psychological Association summarized the issue as "Psychological research confirms that violent video games can increase children's aggression, but that parents moderate the negative effects." A more recent press release by the APA in 2010 summarized recent research findings as "Bad effects depend on certain personality traits; games can offer learning opportunities for others".Craig Anderson has conducted meta-analysis of previous studies and claimed they have demonstrated five effects: "increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal; and decreased pro-social (helping) behavior". Nevertheless, other studies have explicitly denied that such a connection exists, most notably Anderson and Ford (1986), Winkel et al. (1987), Scott (1995), Ballard and Lineberger (1999), and Jonathan Freedman (2002). More recently, Block and Crain (2007) claim that in a critical paper by Anderson (and his co-author, Bushman), data was improperly calculated and produced fallacious results. Other meta-analyses by other groups, such as by Ferguson and Kilburn (2009) and Sherry (2007) have repudiated any links between video game violence and aggression, as have recent reviews by the Australian Government (2010) and the US Supreme Court (June, 2011).


After conducting a two-year study of more than 1,200 Middle School children about their attitudes towards video games, Harvard Medical School researchers Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson found that playing video games did not have a particularly negative effect on the researched group.


***

At the end of the day, sitting in front of a computer for 24 (or 48 or even 50 hours) without eating anything is never going to be good. But to say that video games are destroying cognitive development is just plain wrong based on the scope of the evidence.

People need to wake up and smell the coffee. There are lots of reasons for different people from different walks of life to become violent or have violent tendencies. Aspects could include childhood upbringing (around domestic violence), bullying, fighting as sport/ self defense/ military/ law enforcement trained..many options. for people to narrow it down to video games is nonsense. check out some of the old board games like Cluedo( early version of CSI).


Porn..lets go there. Don't state the victorains are to blame ...go back to the Romans' era and Greek who were fascinated by the human naked form. X thousand years later, we still are fascinated. It is natural. Ok there is some freaky stuff out there but it is only freaky to those who don't practice (beastiality, necrophilia and paedophilia are just nasty and shouldn't be practised, unlawful!).


Anyway glad some serious institutions have put their name onto these negative violence link with video game reports.


I am a gamer, probably 20-30hrs a week, 41yr old educator who games with my students, army friends, businessmen and family online.


It is a stress reliever AND REALLY GOOD FUN!!

Like anything I think the issue is moderation...


I personally would not allow my kid to 'game' because it is no doubt fun - and the kids will not want to do other more useful things like read, or be physically active... and it will make my job of encouraging other activities much more difficult ... but that's me...




Porn... I cannot think that watching hard core porn is not having a major impact on children... it dehumanizes and without a doubt influences the way men view women... unfortunately difficult if not impossible to limit exposure...

Yes, people love to jump onto the "I don't do that so it must be at fault" band wagon. As Bluedon pointed out there are a number of different reasons for different things happening to people.


Years ago, before the video game violence became the champion of the anti-fun lobby, it was all about horror movies (see James Bulger murder).


Let's be perfectly honest, statistics prove that over 90% if criminals have at some stage in their lives drunk water. This cannot be a coincidence....


As for video games being bad, again it comes down to doing things in moderation. If you do anything excessively there is always going to be a downside, but done right there is a benefit to doing these things. Playing video games has been linked to a number of benefits (as pre scrugby's post), which get neatly overlooked by those that just blindly accept that it must be bad because somebody told them it was.


Aggressive behaviour has also been noticed by people who play sports, go to the gym, drive cars, drink coffee. Should we therefore be looking at a way of stopping all those things?

Many Canadian kids are failing to make the grade when it comes to reaching physical activity targets, with too few hours devoted to active play and too much free time fixated on TV, computer and game screens.


More... http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canadian-kids-get-failing-grade-in-physical-activity-report/article2446286/