HHS HealthBeat (November 03, 2008)

Violent games, violent kids

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Violence in video games seems to affect kids who play them, and not just teens – and not just in the United States.

Craig Anderson of Iowa State University found that when he looked at data on U.S. kids ages 9 to 12 years and Japanese kids ages 12 to 18. Anderson says kids who played violent games early in the school year were more likely to be more violent themselves – things like getting into fights – later in the school year.

Anderson tells parents and kids to screen out media violence.

``The content of a video game is very important – it has important effects on players, even though they sometimes don’t notice them themselves.’’ (8 seconds)

The study in the American Academy of Pediatrics’ journal Pediatrics was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November, 03 2008