“Concern is spreading among parents and mental-health professionals that the exploding popularity of computer and video games has a deeper dark side than simple couch-potatohood,” reports U.S. News [Hat tip Joanne Jacobs]. “According to the Media Research Lab at Iowa State University, about 8.5 percent of 8-to-18-year-old gamers can be considered pathologically addicted, and nearly one quarter of young people—more males than females—admit they’ve felt addicted.”
A more nuanced take on video games is offered by Cheryl Olson, a psychiatry lecturer at Harvard Medical School, and the author of “Grand Theft Childhood.” Olson, who has conducted research on video games and their impact on children, says in an interview with the Australian website The Age, “that games can be both healthy and problematic, but in ways that are hard to convey in a few sound bites on the news.”
“For most young teens, video and computer games are a routine part of life, like TV, recorded music and books,” Olson says. “The average teen boy routinely plays video games with violent content; a not inconsiderable number of girls do, too. Teens often play violent games to cope with feelings such as stress and anger; they also play for creative reasons and to learn new things. It’s not normal for teens (especially boys) to play video games alone all the time.”
Her research notes that young teens who play any Mature-rated (age 17+) game on a routine basis are at higher risk than teens who play other types of games for behaving aggressively (for example, beating up someone, damaging property for fun) or having school problems (for example, poor grades, getting in trouble with a teacher) at least once over the course of a year. They are also more likely to report being threatened by someone with a weapon. The risk of problems increases if young teens play mostly mature-rated or violent games. “These relationships between violent game play and behavior/school problems are statistically significant correlations, very unlikely to occur by chance,” Olson observes. “But correlations don’t tell us about cause and effect. For example, children with aggressive personalities may play more violent games, or children who get poor grades may express their frustration by playing violent games.”
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