That's why, there is a label there that says that children shouldn't play that game. Geesh, up to when the parents and older brothers and friends will start taking care of what their kids/younger friends/younger brothers are playing?... Every kid that grows in a bad or harsh enviroment, will grow up with issues, and that's no brainer. The thing is... who is going to take responsability for that?, the parents of course...

Seems like the graph at the bottom of the report showed the correlation between the activities, not how bad the result was. So basically it said that if you smoke you are more likely to get lung cancer. If you play or watch violent media, you are more likely to be aggressive. Certainly not "if you play or watch violent media you are almost as bad off as getting lung cancer."

Why is it no one leads a crusade against violent Hollywood movies? I had an easier time getting a hold of violent R rated moves as a kid then I did getting M rate games, but no one ever talks about that. Politicians are morons that are completely out of touch with current day to day life or line there pockets with Hollywoods dollars to look the other way.

From those numbers that means 100% of the content on television is violent. 60 40, no? Last time I watched TV I didn't see violence 100% of the time.

Everyone is out to blame TV and Video games but never take responsibility of what takes place in their own home.

Let's not forget that we have Tipper Gore to thank for warning labels and a rating system. Not only should parents monitor what their children view and play, stores that sell video games should be liable for selling mature games to children.

..
"YES! we are far more violent today than in the past... clearly our easy access to media is to blame for our social-condition. No way could the countless generations of instinctive primal behavior and chemical makeup of our brains have anything to do with what interests our species. Its got to be Grand Theft Auto and the A-Team.

In fact just yesterday I attended an extremely partial court proceeding in which three accused witches were burned alive on the stake, a homeless man was hung for stealing fruit, and a little later I stoned a few prostitutes in the town square with the help of all my neighbors. I had a disagreement with one of those neighbor which lead to a challenge of honor. We decided to settle it as men. I shot him at high noon. Luckily I made it back to church on time to attend the mandatory prayer services for fear of being called a heretic and persecution. You know, the way life was before mass media.

Thank God we don't live in a world were people are able to simulate conflict in a virtualized world for entertainment and where no one actually gets hurt. What interest would we as a people have in watching a film in which during the course of the plot a storyteller chooses to play on our primal instincts to evoke emotions. Fear, love, lust, anger, pity, disgust. No... let's take the high-moral route and preach what we can't practice. Can we somehow wrap in "study" with science? That would be super. Perhaps we could employ some double-standard when it comes to the morality of sexuality as well. We all know nipples are the gateways towards damnation...

Simple rule: If inappropriate for you or your children, then regulate YOURSELVES by all means. Hear, see, and speak no evil on your own accord and don't try to impose your values on to others.

Forgive the rant...but what a waste."

My feelings exactly. Now townsfolk, let us seek the witches and burn them alive or let's get the crusades going! I'm sure the newspapers in the middle ages were pretty controversial (although brother and sisters having kids in royalty was I believe commonplace..)

So that explains why I've been in 50 fights and I like to beat up puppies and kittens... oh wait, that's right, I'm a passivist who doesn't believe in war!! So much for that study.. and for the record, I've been playing games since I was 4 - started with The Legend of Zelda.

Postal 2 is one of my favorite games, and I've yet to experience fsat heartbeats, sweating, and tension while on my computer playing games.. I only get those symptoms when I'm online ;-)

This is really one of the more stupid things I've heard in a long time. "Johnny, lets go smoke under the bridge. While we're under there, we can bring your moms laptop around, and kill things. Maybe one day, we might even be killers our selves?" Or how about this, What in the world makes them thing that viewing fictional images is anywhere near as damaging as inhaling tar and carcinagens into your lungs.. People need to realize it's not games and TV that are bluring the lines of social reiality, it's the total lack of any kind of moral beliefs or faith in most households.

This is such bull. How much did this research cost? A couple million spent to determine that violent video games and tv are bad for kids. Wow, I thought we already knew this.
The money would have been better spent doing stem cell research for a cure for cancer

They're not saying that 100% of televised content is violent. That 40% extreme violence falls under the 60% violent content.

I have to say, TheCapulet, I would believe the study long before I would believe the lack of faith being the cause of "bluring the lines of social reiality". And I don't believe the study one tiny bit.

The solution has never been in an ignorance cage.

Now days, we only accept silver bullets as solutions to all of our problems. We all want solutions over night. Health is a problem, ban smoking. Violence is a problem, limit drinking. Public schools have a problem, use affirmative action.

What is wrong with becoming desensitized to blood and gore? Maybe they will become doctors and nurses.

Video games can improve your health and visual skills. Video games are good for kids in challenging them to think and can even be more intellectually stimulating than school. Video games are good in the workplace, as they encourage brain stimulation during breaks and can also encourage teamwork. Video games can help make people better strategic business thinkers or better stock traders.

This is a perfect example of wasted tax revenue. Why don't these idiots get a real job and stop living off the tax payers backs. We should have someone conduct a study on these articles that cause brain degradation! And push an agenda.
Next they'll say we should ban water, because people might drown! This just in... walking on a staircase can raise your risk of falling down a staircase significantly!

Riding an amusement park ride will cause the symtoms they've named too... Maybe we should just ban fun to eliminate all risks associated with it!

look at congo, I don't think soldiers are playing video games in between rape sessions (don't worry, they are executed on the spot when found out), or iraq, I bet those insurgents play america's army, or sudan, Mugabe must've played simcity and let godzilla and the aliens roam free..

Dude it says ` violent and @ extreme violent. You don't add them together, Einstein! The @ extreme violent are obviously part of the ` violent. Wow, you're dumb.

On another note, this research proves nothing. Just a catchy tag line comparing video games and TV to AIDS and smoking. A sensationalist tactic that proves these guys are harldy performing true research and just grabbing attention.

is the Madden series counted as violent? And if so, why should we stop at banning the game? Why not just ban football altogether?

You cant have a discussion about the effects of violent video games without asking these kinds of questions.. What violent video games did Hitler play that made him want to exterminate all the Jews he could round up? What violent video games caused Jack the Ripper to slice and dice all those people? Is it violent video games or is it all George Bush's fault?

Millions of people play these games and because 1 person who *maybe* played them kills someone its obviously the video games fault.

You missed half the point, pal. The report from UofM isn't just about games with labels and denying access due to a T for Teen label on a game (which still has a huge allowance for violence and yet little for sex) - it's about TV (including public TV) too.
The truth is, it's not just the parents responsibility because kids aren't raised in a vacuum with just their parents. They are raised in a community, and in the US an extended community wherein everyone who permits this type of activity into the home is responsible.

No parent can police their children 100% because it is not a healthy way to raise children. Additionally, TV is part of american culture, how many are in each home on average? You have to just turn it off forever to prevent it.

I agree that it is no surprise that violence is bad for you and really bad for society, but I disagree that it is no surprise that it is so bad it ranks up there with smoking.

You can try to blame parents for school shootings all you like but the truth is the consequences affect everyone.

In most of Africa they don't have tv or video games yet the continent is constantly embroiled in conflict. or in the wild west you could get shot if you did something stupid.

Am I only one who finds it completely impossible to compare these two problems (if they even exist at all)? That's like saying "Riding a horse is as bad for your kid as looking at pornography!"

Also, the whole idea that video games are causing people to be violent is ridiculous. Violence by young people as been dropping at a steady (and steep) rate since the release of "Doom" - the original violent video game. If anything, video games are lessening violent actions by kids.

There was an FBI study that said most kids who committed violent acts also play violent video games. Ignorant people like Jack Thompson took that to mean violent video games caused the kids to be violent. But isn't it just a little more likely that the kid had violent tendencies to begin with, and that's why he played violent video games?

seems like mostly bs..maybe some kids react poorly 2 it but I would think it was rare. I played anygame I wanted growing up..mostly shooters. and I was never in a single fight. I could always tell fantasy from reality and was instilled with morals from my parents that couldn't be broken by a video game. What you see in the real world more likely have this effect...violent neihborhoods, us bombing and invading, killing others for no reason.
I knew where fantasy ended and reality began and I think most kids do 2

I don't inhale when I play video games!

Man is a violent species. Period. We don't get to go out and kill for our food or fight other tribes to survive from day to day. While we would like to kid ourselves into thinking we are "civilized", a couple hundred years of technology and industrialization does not a civilized species make.

Our brains were developed over thousands of years and our instinctual capability for violence will not be undone in a few hundred years.

If parents, teachers and cops were still allowed to crack some smart-mouthed brat when he/she acted up, children would learn there are consequences for their behavior.

Currently parents (primarily) do not hold their children accountable and also do not allow others to hold them accountable. Little billy and Suzie do no wrong in their eyes.

While their may be strong correlations in this study pointing to video games, over the same time frame we have had violent video games we have also seen our children grow up in the "T=ball" generation where everyone gets on base, no one keeps score, no criticism is made in red ink because some brats feelings may get hurt.

The problem isn't too much violence, it is not enough. Start knocking these brats heads together when they screw up and they won't be so out of control.

Everybody knows that when you play a violent video game that is the equivalent to smoking six packs a day because of all the tar and carcinogens in videogames these days...

I once smoked a cig while playing a video game. I almost died.

Hey, there have been countless studies to support this one. Just google it. I guess we need to ban or regulate ice cream too. I don't know, I guess these games do encourage violence. The fact that I'm non-violent must just be a fluke. We all know that Hitler, Stalin, Ghengis Khan, and Napoleon were big video game fanatics.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/gvc.htm#Violence

According to the US department of Justice, violent crimes in the states have fallen since 1993, youth crimes were down, all this stuff has gotten better. Video games are more popular than ever. Maybe there's a corolation there? Of course, that's only the U.S. I wasn't sure where to look for the EU or other countries.

The whole study this article references is just theoretical, it isn't a statement of fact. Just more fodder for political opportunits.

"the best studies have shown"
"most of these games are violent"
because by definition of their teen rating they are:
"described as having violent content"

Gimme a break, you read a few paragraphs into this, and they start using opinion and not facts. This fouls up any conclusion that they reach. I'm not saying studies like this are not worth the time, but stick to facts.

I can safely say that, as video games have gotten more violent over the last 19 years, I have become much less violent. Strange, but it can be concidered a part of growing up.

As far as tendancies toward violence goes, Madden is the only video game that has made me want to go hurt someone. After listening to him taunt me when I'm down by 87 points, I want to hunt down John Madden and bust his knees with a hammer! GTA, now there's a relaxing game...

if more parents would spend time with their kids and not try to use the tv and/or game console as a babysitter then things would ot be so bad.

I just played COD4 for an hour online so according to this study that is nearly as bad for my body as smoking nearly a full pack of cigarettes.

Driving is bad for you as well, more people die from driving than cigarettes maybe we should stop kids from driving. Just another form of protection that we need...

I laugh at crap like this.

So make sure there's plenty of fiber in your diet.

...

Wow...Hey I have a better idea how about someone does a study on how these retarded studys on the results of violence in the media wastes tax payers money and provide absolutely no concrete evidence of anything and furthermore DO NOTHING. Yea good for you. You big bunch of morons just spent millions on a study that proves nothing other than the fact that seeing violence desensitizes people. Im pretty sure 90% of the population KNOWS THIS ALREADY. Hmm I wonder how desensitized people were in the medieval ages when people were slaughtered constatly and stonned and hung and huge battles raged all the time. Thanks for wasting out money to tell us what most of us already know and for those who dont know im sure that they dont give a sh!t. So lets do a study on how useless and stupid these studies are and maybe get these losers a real job.

If you read the summary what they are comparing is the *correlation* between two items and in this case the correlation between violent video games and aggresive behavior. Hence the logic: if you smoke, you are more likely to get lung cancer.... and ergo... if you play violent video games, you are more likely to act violently. Not a difficult conclusion to make.

I do notice that the correlation chart shown in the study has "homework and achedemic acheivement" listed as a threat to public health.

Quoted from the study:
"In summary, exposure to electronic media violence increases the risk of both children and adults behaving aggressively in the short-run and of children behaving aggressively in the long-run."

What it does not say: "video games cause lung cancer."

OMG, this report has some valid points to it, but if your human you know Desensitizing doesn't only come form Video games or even TV. I am acuallty quite relaxed playing violet video games. It's when I am driving in a car when I really feel violet from all of the arigant a-holes driving around. Talk about stress, blood pressure OMFG it is nuts. Video cards are childs play compared to a day in our Public schools or a day at my work. Give me a fing break, you idiots! Go report on something useful.

My 2 cents have a nice day and stop driving like an idiot please!

I have to say, this is probably one of the most ridiculous things I have read all day. Enough said.

I play Games since I was 2 years old(now Im 20) and I do not see any marks of desensitizing on me. If you got presumption in your genes, nothing can change it. And in the computer games, can man try things that he could never do in real life, so then he does not feel need to do it in real life

Fact is that crime has fallen in the last 20 years. Isn't that around the same time video games first started becoming marketed to the home???

Violent video games never make kids more aggressive the only bad effects by video games is kids are less active. If anything I thing video games are good for kids because they can relieve stress I remember I a came home from school stressed. i would pick up a controller and forget about it. I think kids bad behavior comes mostly from the parents. If parents could pay more attention on their kids and not worry about violent video games and TV. Kids won’t be having this problem. i think video games help keep kids off the streets and from doing drugs. I remember when all my friends started smoking in high school I would just come home and play on the computer and i forgot about my friends sure i was a huge computer geek but i never did any drugs or drank. I think parents need to see that there the biggest influence a kids life not video games. When I have kids I’m going to get them any game they want and ill even play it with them.

One word basically describes the level of articles on your site these days. And by that I mean, your articles specifically are very hard to digest.

Here is something that should be challenging. When writing anything with the words 'reaserchers' and 'study', at least give a reference that is respected. A scientific article from any leading journal would be fine, not some desk-jockey who took the science classes for non-science majors. You show no facts in your articles and that makes you look like a bad journalist.

Toms Hardware is just another site of journalists, no more. You would write anything that generates traffic.

[We haven't written about Paris Hilton or Britney Spears... yet. -Rick]

Are our children these days obese and lazy or aggressive and violent? I am so confused. I was just starting to get behind the idea that our children have gotten fat and docile off of all the media we throw at them and now this comes along...

If they are aggressive and violent then they would be getting plenty of exercise what with all that aggression and fighting, but if that were the case then they wouldn't be lazy.

Also if the generation first raised on video games has resulted in one of the lowest violent crime rates in history then how can they logically come to these conclusions? Oh! I know! Because they want a scapegoat for a problem that doesn't exist so they can look good on a camera.

I have been playing games since the Atari VCS2600 console (Space invaders, Defender, etc...) I got my first machine (a C64 in June 1991) and my brother and I have had various consoles and computer ever since. I don't think games have taught me to be violent. I have found them a good safety valve and a good way to work out stress, when I am have been really wound up. But generally they have been an interest and hobby.

Also I would like to point out the team aspect of multiplayer online games. Try playing Battlefield 2 online with a bunch of friends... All using microphones to communicate! It's such a cool way to game and adds so much to the game. Currently I am trying to beat the final boss at the end of "Half Life 2 Episode 1" (I've only got 1 rocket left!!!) and playing "Team Fortress 2" and "Battlefield 2" online.

Some of the games that were amazing and left my jaw on the floor?.. Doom 2 in 1994 (I had never played anything like it before), Civ 2 (play through 6,000 years of history!), Grand Theft Auto (I was disgusted when I saw the advertising for the game... But then playing the game completely changed my mind), Portal (OMG! The whole game is sooooo well crafted, it leads you through, then twists the whole thing around and the ending is wonderful).

On the subject of Portal, I would like to ask the people who did this research to play Portal through to the end, or failing that, then watch and listen to the end credits on You Tube. They are hilarious. They include the words "for the ones who are still alive".

Yep that Hitler was such a bad boy. He played too many violent video games and decided he wanted to kill millions and rule the world......give me a break.

Yet, violence is OK on public TV (showing termination of life), but porn is not (showing possibility of starting new life). Go figure.

an avid gamer myself, been at it for 17 years. i really think its up to parents to teach their kids from reality and what is not, my parents taught me that when i started playing video games at the age of 6, and 100000 violent games later, im still fine.

also, being a human development major in college, what i learned in class, there is no ACTUAL direct correlation between violent games and violent tendencies because there are too many factors in society to just blame it on videogames (TV,movies,household abuse,environment,whatever), often times, to explain what some people have said above, it can reduce your violent "tendencies" if you have any because it acts like a safe output to redirect your anger or what not, at a source that is not harmful to other people. so people often times play games and subconsciously reduce their stress/anger at the same time without knowing. same principle goes along with little boys who had toy guns when they were little, it was found that they had less violent urges towards other people while growing up, because they have satisfied their curiosity for the object, therefore making it less desirable to explore it any further as an adult. anyways, all the extra hand eye coordination improvements/stimulation of the brain/fast reflexes, all the good stuff said before are also bonuses from playing video games. and about people being violent by nature, that is only partly true, every person is born with a different personality either affected by both your environment, and your genes (nature vs nurture debate, one can affect more than the other, depending on how you grew up), but underlying our brains construction is also the ability and willingness to help other people, altruism as they call in anthropology/human dev. field of studies. we survived this long as a whole species is because we also have that urge to get along for mutual peace which greatly ensures our own personal survival. the reason why humans are the dominant species on this planet and why we are separated from the rest of the animals is because of our highly evolved cerebral cortex, it gives us the ability of a higher level of thinking, we have urges, but we also have defense mechanisms and other mechanisms to supress them. that is what makes us different, a very early theory on this could be found by searching up Sigmund Freud back in the 1930's, the ID, Ego, and SuperEgo. there are more very recent information but i won't go into that, just my 2 cents.

People defend their behaviors. They defended slavery, monarchy, religion. I'd argue that the more irrational a behavior is, the more rigorously it will be defended. The mere act of arguing against it is to point out someone's weakness.

Put very simply, violent games cause a stress response in participants, and stress is unhealthy. If we get into further argument the level of knowledge is too uneven to allow for meaningful debate. I doubt anyone can say violent media do not cause a stress response. I doubt anyone can claim stress is not physically harmful.

*Raises hand* I'll claim stress is not physically harmful. Repressing stress is physically harmful. Everything you do in life causes a stress response. Relationships, jobs, school all create a stress response. Should we ban those? Should we call them unhealthy?

Dealing with stress in a healthy way is good for you. Violent video games are an excellent and healthy way to release stress, so is exercise, and so is sex for that matter. There is no way to live a stress free life. It's how we deal with stress that determines our health.

"I doubt anyone can say violent media do not cause a stress response. I doubt anyone can claim stress is not physically harmful."

Actually, I can say that without a doubt. I have read medical studies and guess what? A little stress is actually GOOD for the body, because it gets the heart pumping faster and is akin to exercise.

Everything in life is stress, it is the definition of life. Stress comes at the lifeform, it makes a decision to overcome it. Gravity, air pressure, temperature, are all stresses we adapt to.

If you look at people who retire from work, the ones who have no hobbies or things to do and are pretty stress free, are the ones who die first. People who stay active with both their mind and body have more stress in their life, and are healthier for it.

Without stress we atrophy to the weekest necessary to survive, which can put us pretty close to death if we live virtually "stress free".

I have played video games my whole, ever since i was 5 i have played the NES and love it. But what this thing is saying that i amm more violent. I listen to heavy metal music, and i wrestle, and i have never never commited a crime. I do play with my bro punch him, wrestle him but does that me i am going to pick up a gun and shoot up my school. the kids that have played video games and comitted crims have had history of abuse, bad home life, and have been bullied by peers at school. you dont think that is the cause. well open your eyes and see what is going on. you see something you dont agree with it you want it gone with out thinking of others.