January 2013
The violent content of some video games and the impact on youth is becoming a growing concern for parents as gaming dominates the entertainment industry.
Before it became an issue surrounding video games, it was very common to hear from representatives of the motion picture and television industry that the jury was out on the relationship of viewing violence and actual violent behavior, said Peter Churchill, program supervisor for Alberta Health Services and an addictions professional who works with Calgary adolescents.
“The reality is the jury hasn’t been out for a good 50 years,” he said.
Churchill trains counsellors and presents to parents surrounding the subject of gaming. He conducted extensive research on the topic for his thesis towards his PhD in social work.
Getting any kind of reliable information about the impact of violent video games on youth can be really tricky because there tends to be very strong opinions on both sides, said Churchill.
Most of the research since the early ‘60s indicates a strong and clear relationship between watching violence and various forms of violent and aggressive behavior, he said.
There are a few different factors that seem to play into that, said Churchill.
Age is the biggest factor, he said.
Other factors include the realistic nature of the violence and how recently it was viewed, he said.
Research shows that children up to age 10 are the most observably impacted by what they view in the sense that they may immediately react with more verbal or physical aggression after playing and are more likely to engage in less pro-social play, said Churchill.
One concern is the more realistic the violence, the stronger the impact seems to be in terms of the consequences of imitative behavior or anti-social or aggressive behavior, he said.
Generally speaking these behaviors are self-correcting in most youth, said Churchill.
According to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) and the Media Awareness Network, “Young children have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy, which makes them more vulnerable to frightening and violent media content. As computer graphics and special effects become more realistic this becomes more of a concern.”
“The more realistic, the more worried we need to be,” said Churchill.
“Some of the violent video games now don’t look much more cartoonish than embedded journalism footage,” he said.
There is a lot of misconception surrounding the rating system of video games, which is similar to the motion picture industry, said Churchill.
“Really, it is a loose guideline of advice to parents,” said Churchill.
There is nothing legally binding to the rating systems and there are no guidelines saying that the content has to match the ratings, he said.
On three separate occasions in the United States, there have been attempts at the federal level to legislate the accurate labeling of video game content, said Churchill.
The legislation was defeated all three times, he said.
Most parents tend to be concerned about hours of play and video game content, said Churchill.
Parents are encouraged to look at the actual impacts on different areas of the young person’s life, he said.
They need to ask certain questions, such as, has the young person’s social life, grades or extracurricular activities suffered because of playing video games, he said.
When everything is going well in a young person’s life, some evidence shows that video game play is probably a little bit of an asset, said Churchill.
That can even be true of some video games with violent content, he said.
Some evidence shows that playing games with violent content, depending on the nature of the violence, may assist in the person becoming better at making quick decisions and may increase their risk assessment.
There is no evidence that being exposed to violent video games is causing school shootings and overt violence in teenagers, he said. However, it might be fuel for people who are already emotionally disturbed or violent and may provide an unhealthy outlet, he said.
There is not one simple answer regarding the impact of violent video games on youth, said Marta Edgar, a registered psychologist.
It is difficult to measure the impact on youth regarding exposure to violent content and the amount of time spent playing video games, said Edgar.
“All the time spent on this is time not spent on other things that could enrich their life,” she said.
Whether the nature of the violent video game has the potential to affect a young person negatively can depend on the individual and also on the circumstances in their life.
It is not as simple as attributing violent behavior to one thing, such as being exposed to violent video games, said Edgar.
Being exposed to a violent video game is usually only one little factor, she said.
Loraine Bon, a mother of two teenage boys, said she does not like violent video games, but finds it hard to control because many of her sons’ friends play them.
She said there are noticeable behavioral changes when the boys’ play video games in general, not necessarily just violent video games.
“I notice more than anything their need to continue to play,” said Bon.
She said given the choice, her younger son would choose to participate in sports or activities with friends over playing video games and her oldest son would be more inclined to retreat to the basement to engage in video game play.
“I think so much of it is personality,” said Bon.