Children & Video Games

The Frag Dolls' Calyber has released a new blog entry, regarding children and a study involving tests administered to students after some had played a violent videogame (Wolfenstein) and some had played a non-violent videogame (Myst).

From the blog:

My Ben’s attractive white DS Lite with an Xbox360 sticker plastered on the top accompanies him everywhere he goes. Sitting on the couch at a family get-together he drew a small crowd of bright-eyed children, who watched with eagerness and excitement as he rounded corners and shot turtle shells at Wario. After watching for a while he let each of them have a go at Mario Kart and Animal Crossing. My sister-in-laws didn’t mind their children playing the DS, but it made me wonder how many parents have ill feelings towards video games.

To put my wondering mind at ease I did what I always do when a question arises, I ate some chocolate chip cookies and ran around the block twice … then I did a Google search to discover what the general feelings toward children and video games are. My findings surprised me as they have claimed to have proven that violent video game play is positively related to increased aggressive behavior. Studies done by psychologists Craig Anderson and Karen Dilly went as follows: Two separate groups of college students played a video game, the first group played Wolfenstein 3D (a violent game) and the second group played Myst (a non-violent game). "Following the video game play the students took some tests and participated in a 'Competitive reaction time task' where they were told that they were playing against another student. They were told that they could blast the other student with a noise if they won, and that they could vary the intensity and duration of the blast."

Read Calyber's full blog entry over at the Frag Dolls website.