Violent Video Games Are a Public Health Issue
On a "Law and Order" episode shown this week, a teenage boy kills a woman by simulating a violent video game to which, his defense attorney argued, he was addicted. After his conviction, we see a callous, unremorseful youth turn to his sobbing and regretful partner in crime. He smirks and mouths the word, "Bang." Dramatic? Of course. Over the top? Not as much as we\'d like to think. While there has been no research that definitively links violent games with violent acts, the show got everything else right: studies conclusively show that repeated play of violent video games results in decreased sensitivity and empathy and increased levels of aggression.

It\'s time to start looking at the current practice of marketing and selling graphically violent and sexual video games to kids for what it is: a threat to their mental and physical health.

No less an authority than the American Academy of Pediatrics categorically states that "Playing violent video games is to an adolescent\'s violent behavior what smoking tobacco is to lung cancer." According to the AAP, playing violent video games accounts for a 13% to 22% increase in adolescents\' violent behavior compared to a 14% increase in lung cancer from smoking tobacco. Given that 92% of kids play video games at an average of 9 hours per week and 87% of boys under 17 have played violent M-rated games, we\'re looking at huge numbers of children affected, and those numbers rise steeply each year.

At the July 26th, 2000 Congressional Public Health Summit, six leading medical associations (American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Psychological Association American Medical Association, American Academy of Physician, and the American Psychiatric Association) warned of the following effects of media violence on children:

Increased anti-social and aggressive behavior

Violence desensitization, lower levels of empathy

Increased levels of fear due to perceiving the world as violent

Higher tolerance and threshold for violence leading to desire to experience more both in games in real life

Acceptance of violence as a way to settle conflict

The Joint Statement on the Impact of Entertainment Violence on children issued by the organizations mentioned above concluded that "Entertainment violence can lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values and behavior, particularly in children." They noted that the research pointed "overwhelmingly to a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in children."

While we respect the right of game producers to exercise their creative visions, we also believe what the medical and psychological researchers are telling us: That repeated play of these games by youth poses a major public health concern. We at Common Sense Media agree with and support those who are calling for more stringent regulations regarding the marketing and sale of these games to children. We believe that graphic and often sexually-charged media violence needs to be seen for what it is -- a threat as dangerous to our kids as tobacco use or underage drinking. Over the next few months, we will be joining efforts already under way in Illinois and Washington, D.C. that call for changes in the ways violent games are marketed and sold to kids. We believe that it\'s only common sense to keep our kids safe from the proven effects of video violence.