My Ben’s attractive white DS Lite with an Xbox360 sticker plastered on the top accompanies him everywhere he goes. Sitting on the couch at a family get-together he drew a small crowd of bright-eyed children, who watched with eagerness and excitement as he rounded corners and shot turtle shells at Wario. After watching for a while he let each of them have a go at Mario Kart and Animal Crossing. My sister-in-laws didn’t mind their children playing the DS, but it made me wonder how many parents have ill feelings towards video games.

To put my wondering mind at ease I did what I always do when a question arises, I ate some chocolate chip cookies and ran around the block twice … then I did a Google search to discover what the general feelings toward children and video games are. My findings surprised me as they have claimed to have proven that violent video game play is positively related to increased aggressive behavior. Studies done by psychologists Craig Anderson and Karen Dilly went as follows: Two separate groups of college students played a video game, the first group played Wolfenstein 3D (a violent game) and the second group played Myst (a non-violent game). “Following the video game play the students took some tests and participated in a ‘Competitive reaction time task’ where they were told that they were playing against another student.  They were told that they could blast the other student with a noise if they won, and that they could vary the intensity and duration of the blast.”

Students in both groups blasted their opponent longer and louder following trials when they had lost and their opponent had just blasted them. Students who had played Wolfenstein 3D blasted their opponent longer and louder on such trials than students who had played Myst.  Female students blasted their opponents longer and louder on all trials than male students. Wow, a very conclusive study indeed, *low five* (low five = sarcasm).

Additional studies were done claiming that “students who had played more aggressive video games had also engaged in more aggressive delinquent behavior.” Furthermore, studies show that “the students who spent the most total time playing video games had the lowest academic grades in college.” Near the end of the article, the writer urges parents to keep a watchful eye on their child’s game play saying, “Playing violent video games may not be the innocent activity that many parents think it is.  Based on this new evidence I recommend that parents closely monitor their teenagers’ video game play.  Violent video game play should be limited.  Maybe the next school shooting can be prevented.”

In rebuttal, I did my own study. I found that 65% of teenagers with a history of violent behavior, also have a history of punching walls. My conclusion: Punching walls is dangerous and causes violent behavior. Parents, I strongly advise you to restrain your children from punching walls because otherwise they might become murderers and terrorists. Apparently, we can compare two products of a child’s behavior and say they are directly related and the answer is better parenting. Why don’t any of these studies look at the student’s parents? Perhaps the problem is not video games; perhaps the problem is bad parenting, and the solution to bad parenting is good parenting.