Study: Kids Unaffected by Violent Games

According to a new study, violent video games only influence the behavior of children who already show aggressive or violent tendencies. This directly refutes other recent studies that have linked the playing of violent video games with increased negativity and violence in kids. Kind of makes you wonder if anybody knows what they're talking about, doesn't it?

The study, conducted by the Swinburne University of Technology, which examined 120 children aged 11 to 15 years old, had the kids play Quake II for twenty minutes. The neurotic kids were wound up and aggressive after playing, but the more even-keeled kids came out the same way they went in. Sounds shockingly like common sense to me, but, then, I don't have a PhD after my name, so what do I know? Interestingly, hyperactive children were more calm after playing. Professor Grant Devilly had this advice:

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.

Whaaaat? Suggesting that parents actually pay attention to their kids? Tsk, tsk...you won't go far suggesting that kind of craziness, Grant!

Most kids 'unaffected' by violent games [Sydney Morning Herald]