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by Daniel Berger.
Original Post: Violence, kids, video games
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I always find it interesting when the topic of video games, violence and its potential negative impact comes up. I think it's because I'm rather fascinated by psychology in general.
The reaction from most of the geek crowd is usually one of denial, i.e. that violent video games have no real impact on kids. Usually they cite the fact that there's no direct evidence to support that hypothesis, or that the evidence is contradictory. The closest studies to disprove the effects that I've seen were all conducted on young adults (17+) for relatively short periods of time (a couple months or less), but I don't think these studies prove much since you are probably much less susceptible to any negative effects by the time you're 17.
The thing is, it will never be proven, not with the under 12 crowd. Not because it's impossible scientifically - I think it is - but because it's impossible *ethically*. Imagine if a psychologist conducted a long term study on a bunch of 10 year kids to determine the effects of violent video games. Now imagine that the psychologist found conclusive evidence that not only did violent video games have negative short term effects, but also that it would probably have permanent, negative long term effects on their behavior.
Can you say 'gross ethics violation'? Can you say, 'lawsuit'? Can you say, 'career suicide'? Can you say, 'possible jail time'? Can you say, 'A bunch of fucked up 10 year olds who might have years of issues to deal with because of your study'? Yes, I thought you could.
And so, we are left with our intuition and fights over video game laws, which most (single, childless) geeks hate and most parents support. My own belief is that there probably are harmful, negative effects in general, but that it's random in individuals, and the effects drop drastically with age.
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