Times on Games Violence

The New York Times has a quick article entitled The Claim: Violent Video Games Make Young People Aggressive which does a decent and balanced job of debunkery:

But a separate study, also published this month, concluded that violent video games have no "long-term," or permanent, effects on aggressive behavior. The study, by a researcher at the University of Illinois, was among the first of its kind to follow two groups of people for a month, some randomly assigned to play violent video games and some not.

In the end, the study's findings may be more in line with public opinion. On the day its findings were announced, a jury in Alabama reached a guilty verdict in the case of Devin Moore, who killed three people when he was 18 and as his defense blamed the video game "Grand Theft Auto."

The bottom line they draw? "Studies generally show that violent video games can have short-term, or momentary, effects on children, but there is little evidence of long-term changes." Now, was that really so hard? It follows common sense thought, there's no reason to be overly alarmed about video games and yet it obviously is something that a concerned parent would note. In other words, there's a bit for all sides from this conclusion and it has the handy benefit of being both rational and honest.

Sad that means so little people will probably pay attention to it. How long until some lawyer gets in front of a camera and announces that the PlayStation 2 causes brain damage ya think?