Study Questions Impact Of Violent Games On Children

A new study from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia has concluded that video games will only have an adverse effect on children who already have a tendency towards aggression. As reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, the study involved one hundred and twenty children aged between eleven and fifteen years of age, taken from ten different schools in the Melbourne area. For the majority of those involved in the research, no discernible difference in behavior was observed after playing violent video games. The primary game used to observe the behavior was the decade old first person shoot ‘em-up Quake II, with children playing the game for twenty minute periods at a time. Swinburne professor Grant Devilly indicated that only those children prone to worrying or neurotic behavior and predisposed to aggression were observed to become more aggressive after playing violent video games – although even then, not in all cases. However, some who were relaxed before playing did become aggressive afterwards. "They were a little bit more aggressive anyway in their interaction with life," said Devilly. "The majority of people did not increase in aggression at all and we're not the first people to find that." The study also found that hyperactive children became less aggressive after playing the game. "You've got to basically read your own kid. If you have a quite hyper kid they will come down after playing a bit, but for the rest of kids, the vast majority, it makes no difference at all in their general aggression rate," said Devilly. Referring to assertions that violent video games can have an adverse effect on all children, Devilly stated, "It's the only message parents have ever received and it's just not accurate”.