ELECTRONIC GAMES—A Summary of the Risks

• Playing violent computer and video games may encourage aggressive behavior.
• Electronic games can make you more than a spectator of violence; they are designed to make you feel like a participant.
• For the impressionable, games may blur the distinction between reality and fantasy.
• Like an addiction, game playing can lead to neglect of important obligations and relationships.
• Games can consume time that children should spend on other important activities, such as studying, interacting with others, and playing creatively.
• Prolonged staring at the screen can cause eyestrain.
• Lack of exercise, a possible result of game playing, can lead to obesity.
• Games can rob you of money and time.

THIS example of a certain computer game situation, quoted from the article “Computer Violence: Are Your Kids at Risk?” by Stephen Barr, raises the question in our title. There are over 5,000 different computer and video games on the market. A segment of them are considered to be both educational and harmlessly entertaining.

One such game teaches geography; and another, how to fly an airplane. Others train the player in logical thinking and problem solving. There are even games that are intended to have a therapeutic effect on the player. For example, one is designed to help those with a reading disorder. Some games may also help young people to become more computer literate, which is increasingly important in this technology-driven era.

Experts Point Out the Dark Side

“A segment of games features antisocial themes of violence, sex and crude language,” says David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family. “Unfortunately, it’s a segment that seems particularly popular with kids ages eight to 15.”

One study in the United States showed that almost 80 percent of the video games young people preferred contained violence. Rick Dyer, president of Virtual Image Productions, says: “These are not just games anymore. These are learning machines. We’re teaching kids in the most incredible manner what it’s like to pull the trigger. . . . What they’re not learning are the real-life consequences.”

In the game Carmageddon, for example, the player will have driven over and killed up to 33,000 people by the time all levels are completed. A description of the sequel to the game says: “Your victims not only squish under your tires and splatter blood on the windshield, they also get on their knees and beg for mercy, or commit suicide. If you like, you can also dismember them.”

Is all this simulated violence harmful? Approximately 3,000 different studies have been conducted on this subject. Many have suggested that there is a connection between violence in games and increased aggressiveness in the players. Incidents of violence among youths are often seen as evidence of a connection.

Some specialists downplay the influence of the games, saying that other factors must be taken into consideration, such as the possibility that kids who already have violent tendencies are choosing such games. But could it be that violent games still play a contributing role? It seems unrealistic to insist that people are not influenced by what they see. If that were true, why would the corporate world spend billions of dollars annually for television advertising?

“The Skill and the Will to Kill”

Military psychologist David Grossman, author of the book On Killing, claims that violence in computer games trains children in the same way that military training teaches soldiers to overcome their inborn resistance to killing. For example, the military discovered that it was possible to break down this reluctance in a large percentage of people in the infantry simply by replacing the normal bull’s-eye targets with man-shaped targets during shooting practice. In a similar fashion, claims Grossman, violent games teach children “the skill and the will to kill.”

According to research appearing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, video- and computer-game violence may be even more dangerous than violence shown on television or in films, since the player identifies himself with the characters carrying out the violence. Television can make us spectators of violence; computer games can make us feel like participants. Furthermore, a movie may take a child only a couple of hours to watch, but a child may spend up to 100 hours mastering a typical video game.

Some countries have implemented a classification system designed to point out that brutally violent games are only for adults. But such a system is useful only to the extent that it is enforced. One study in the United States showed that 66 percent of the parents surveyed were not even familiar with the rating system. The director of the Entertainment Software Rating Board says that the system is not primarily designed to prevent children from getting certain games. He explains: “Our role is not to dictate taste. We give parents the tools to determine what they do or don’t want for their children.”