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Parents Urged To Monitor Kids' Video Games

Court overturns California law banning violent games

August 10, 2007

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Despite a federal court ruling this week overturning a California law banning violent video games, debate rages over the impact these games might have on young people who play them.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte said he was sympathetic to the concerns expressed by lawmakers who wrote the law, but said it was a clear violation of the First Amendment. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he would appear to the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals.

The law was passed in 2005 but never went into effect after game producers sued to stop it. The law would have prevented those under 18 from buying or renting games depicting serious injury to people "in a manner that is especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel.”

Parents and educators, meanwhile, continue to worry about the impact these games have on young, developing minds.

Prof. Melanie Killen, of the College of Education at the University of Maryland, says “negative” games, that promote aggressiveness and depict sexually exploitive images are pervasive throughout the gaming world, and remain readily available to youngsters.

She points to work by researchers Craig Anderson and colleagues at Iowa State University that she says has consistently shown that high amounts of video game playing increases hyperactivity, unfortunately, and reduces attentiveness to details and information.

“Further, research conducted by myself at the University of Maryland with doctoral students Alaina Brenick and Alexandra Henning, has shown that there is a fairly high acceptance of negative stereotypic images in videogames, and particularly by male adolescents,” she said. “The more frequently adolescents play games, the less likely they are to be critical about the negative images.

What are parents to do? Killen says parents should pay attention to the amount of time their children spend playing video games and to the “quality” of the games.

“Parents need to open their eyes and watch the games that their children are playing,” Killen said. “They should examine the content of the games, and what's involved. Many of the games involve horrific violence; repeated exposure to this content has short-term and long-term negative consequences.”

Even for games that are educational and fun, Killen says children and adolescents should limit their time playing to 30 minutes per day for children, and one hour per day for adolescents.

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