Violent Video
Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy.
Craig A. Anderson, Douglas A. Gentile, and Katherine E. Buckley. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. 190. $29.95, cloth. ISBN: 0-19-530983-9.
TEL:800-451-7556 • FAX: 919-677-1303
Violent video games are successfully marketed to, and easily obtained by,
children and adolescents. Even the U.S. government distributes one such game,
America’s Army, through both the Internet and its recruiting offices.
This book examines research to discover whether there is any scientific evidence
to support the claims that violent games contribute to aggressive and violent
behavior.
The authors first present an overview of empirical research on the effects
of violent video games, and then add to this literature three new studies
that fill the most important gaps in the research. They update the traditional
General Aggression Model to focus on both developmental processes and how
media-violence exposure can increase the likelihood of aggressive and violent
behavior in both short- and long-term contexts.
The book also reviews the history of these games’ explosive growth,
and explores the public policy options for controlling their distribution.
The authors describe the reaction of the games industry to scientific findings
that exposure to violent video games and other forms of media violence constitutes
a significant risk factor for later aggressive and violent behavior. They
argue that society should begin a more productive debate about whether to
reduce the high rates of exposure to media violence, and delineate the public
policy options that are likely be most effective.
The authors begin the book by referring to a 2000 Federal Bureau of Investigation
report about this country’s recent history of school shootings: “…
this report noted that the high-risk student ‘spends inordinate amounts
of time playing video games with violent themes, and seems more interested
in the violent images than in the game itself. On the Internet, the student
regularly searches for Web sites involving violence, weapons, and other disturbing
subjects.’”
The report apparently does not define what an “inordinate” amount
of time is. The authors refer to a 1996 study finding that fourth-grade girls
played video games 4.5 hours a week on average, and fourth-grade boys played
them an average of 7.1 hours a week.
They also report that, “In a recent survey of over 600 eighth- and ninth-grade
students, children averaged 9 hours per week of video game play overall, with
boys averaging 13 hours per week and girls averaging 5 hours per week….
In the present research …, it appears that the amount may still be increasing.”
At what point, one wonders, does the amount of time spent playing video games
become inordinate? The fourth-graders (59% of the girls and 73% of the boys)
in the 1996 study also revealed that most of their favorite games were violent.
Are we to assume that all of these students are high-risk students?
The authors are careful not to overstate what the research shows about possible
links between violent video games and aggressive behavior. They write, “Frequent
associations with violent crimes do not, in themselves, constitute strong
scientific evidence that exposure to violent video games is a contributing
causal factor in violent behavior. Nevertheless, the scientific debate about
whether exposure to media [including television, films, video games, music,
and even comic books] violence causes increases in aggressive behavior is
over … and should have been over 30 years ago.”
So, the authors say the evidence is in. Students’ level of exposure
to violent video games is directly related to a variety of forms of aggression
ranging from verbal aggression to outright violence. Not only that, they report,
“It appears that not only does repeated exposure to violent video games
increase aggressive behavior, but it also decreases empathic helpful behavior.”
They conclude, “The present studies suggest that media violence is a
risk factor that essentially adds to the effects of other known risk factors
for aggressive and violent behavior.”
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