Book Review of Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents

Weekly Trip to the Library for Nannies and Au Pairs

Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy

By Craig Anderson

Last week we commented on the International Nanny Association press release stating they do not support the violent video game Dante's Inferno that portrays a "Bad Nanny "that kills unbaptized babies. Click here to see article.

There are many books on the topic of violent video games and their effect on children (and even more articles), we review one book today.

Violent video games are successfully marketed to and easily obtained by children and adolescents. Is there any scientific evidence to support the claims that violent games contribute to aggressive and violent behavior?

Craig Anderson, a leading investigator of the consequences of violence in the mass media, and his colleagues Douglas Gentile and Katherine Buckley, write extremely scholarly and highly sophisticated explanation of the topic. It is not an easy read but they describe both why participation in violent games promote violence by the players and why the public at large find it difficult to accept the great amount of collected evidence that now exists documenting these ill effects.

They focus on both developmental processes and how media-violence exposure can increase the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both short- and long-term contexts.

Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents also reviews the history of these games' growth, and explores the public policy options for controlling their distribution. They state that society should begin a more productive debate about whether to reduce the high rates of exposure to media violence, and delineate the public policy options that are likely be most effective.

Do you think violent video games effect children?