Official News - page 14

REAL LIFE NEWS: COMPUTER GAMES HELP WITH ANGER MANAGEMENT

by Hazed

There's a lot of rumblings in the media, both in the US and the UK, about the dangers of violent computer games. Surely these nasty games must be having a bad effect on the nation's yoof! Well, maybe not. A new study has found that teenagers are using M-rated games as a safety-valve, to vent their stress.

The Massachusetts General Hospital's Centre for Mental Healty and Media (how long-winded!) says that many young people play video games to manage their feelings, such as stress and anger. Those who play violent games are among those more likely to play to deal with their anger.

The study found that almost all young teens play video games - just six percent had not played any in the six months running up to the survey. The teens also seemed to prefer violent games - most of those aged between 12 and 14 who took part in the study had played violent video games regularly, while two-thirds of the boys and more than a quarter of the girls said they'd played at least one M-rated game "a lot" during the previous six months. Favorite game for the boys was Grand Theft Auto. That game was only second choice for the girls, whose top choice was The Sims series.

"Contrary to the stereotype of the solitary gamer with no social skills, we found that children who play M-rated games are actually more likely to play in groups - in the same room, or over the internet," said Cheryl Olson, lead author of the study.

1,254 kids from the US took part in the survey, representing the various socio-economic, racial/ethnic and geographic groups. The results seem to dispel some of the myths about violent games breeding a generation of anti-social, violent and disturbed teenagers, which is what the meejah keep on reporting. Olson said, "We hope this study is a first step toward reframing the debate from 'violent games are terrible and destroying society' to 'what types of game content might be harmful to what types of kids, in what situations',"

Somehow, I can't see the media changing its tune despite surveys like this - after all, "violent game turned my son into a monster" is a much better headline than "violent game helped my son deal with his stress issues".

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