Tuesday, November 20, 2007
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Playing multiple violent videogames increased their risk of being highly aggressive.
Sight See: WhatTheyPlay.com

"Students who played multiple violent video games actually learned through those games to produce greater hostile actions and aggressive behaviors over a span of six months," reports Science Daily <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071113160359.htm>, citing a study of almost 2,500 young people - "Violent Video Games as Exemplary Teachers: A Conceptual Analysis" - to be published soon in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. It worked with 430 kids in grades 3-5, 607 in grades 8 and 9, and 1,441 students with an average age of 19, assessing "aggressive thoughts and self-reported fights, and their media habits - including violent video game exposure. Teachers and peers were also asked to rate the participants' aggressive behavior." With the grade-school students, "playing multiple violent videogames increased their risk of being highly aggressive.


Less than half - 43% - of parents of kids who play video games play them with their children, the Associated Press reports <http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5if3tJjIxhz596nF_zjpcPWstHt5gD8SSC7HO2>, citing a just-released AOL/AP survey. "Overall, the survey highlighted how pervasive - yet age-related - interest in electronic gaming is today." The survey found that 81% of children 4-17 play computer or video games at least occasionally, compared with 38% of adults. As for those parents who aren't familiar with the games their children play, there's an alternative. They can read reviews of the games at a new site called WhatTheyPlay.com, which is a great idea. Surprisingly, a Los Angeles Times article about the site <http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-play12nov12,1,3134212.story> makes no mention of another helpful service for parents of videogamers: ESRB.org, where they can look up any game's rating (the site of the Entertainment Software Rating Board). Type a game's title into its search engine box - e.g., Halo 3 - and its rating will turn up (for this one, it's "M" for "Mature," for violence and blood and gore). The ratings guide <http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp> adds a little detail, e.g., the appropriate-age recommendation for M games: 17+.

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Tuesday, November 20, 2007 5:52:06 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Disclaimer  |  Comments [1]  |  Related posts:
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Friday, November 23, 2007 9:53:53 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
What kids learn in virtual worlds
http://www.news.com/What-kids-learn-in-virtual-worlds/2009-1043_3-6218763.html

Kids who are active members of virtual worlds are learning how to socialize, how to be technologically savvy, and how to be good little consumers.

That's according to a group of academics and researchers who met Wednesday evening at the University of Southern California to discuss the effects of virtual worlds on children today. Of course, virtual worlds are still so new that researchers haven't had much time to study their impact on kids. But the MacArthur Foundation, a sponsor of the panel discussion, has invested millions in research over the next several years to ask such questions.

Doug Thomas, associate professor at USC's Annenberg School of Communication, said during the panel that much of what's happening in virtual environments is informal learning. In many cases, kids are getting an early education with technology, learning how to be members of a citizenship, and picking up skills that they'll need in the future workforce, Thomas said.

The downside, he said, is the inherently commercial nature of virtual worlds like Club Penguin and Webkinz, which encourage kids to play games, dress up online characters, and buy virtual goods to decorate their in-world homes or avatars.
Christine
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