Wall Street Journal, NY
05-14-07
Recommended Reading
By EMILY MEEHAN
Since the dawn of the digital era, parents have been wondering if videogames
are good for their kids. Now the question is becoming ever more urgent as
games evolve to look and sound scarily realistic.
To get a handle on the issue, we turned to Craig Anderson, a distinguished
professor of psychology at Iowa State University and co-author of "Violent
Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and
Public Policy."
Here are some of Mr. Anderson's picks for resources about videogames and their
effect on children -- and his comments on each.
• National Institute on Media and the Family
MediaFamily.org/index.shtml
This is the leading U.S. children's advocacy group on issues involving
videogames and other electronic media. In addition to providing useful
information for parents, it also conducts research on a variety of electronic media
effects on children, [including] violence and obesity. They also have served as a
primary watchdog group on the videogame industry, conducting studies on
videogame ratings, the marketing of inappropriate games to children and the
ease with which children can purchase violent games.
• Kids Risk Project
www.KidsRisk.harvard.edu
This Harvard-based Web site includes information about a wide range of risks for
children, including extensive information about violent videogames. Check out
their KidsRisk Guide on Media and Kids, which describes four essential concepts
for understanding child and media issues, and six actions parents can take to
help create a healthy media environment. The KidsRisk Detective section is
designed to educate children about common risks...associated with [their] use of
electronic media.
• "Digital Game-Based Learning" By Marc Prensky
Although things have changed a lot in the digital gaming arena since 2001,
Prensky's book still provides a wealth of information about how video games can,
are, and will be used to teach a wide array of content from pre-school to industry.
An unabashed proponent of games, Prensky spends almost no time on potential
harmful effects of some types of games, so readers need to be aware that this is
a one-sided story. Nonetheless, the positive uses of video games are worth
extolling, and this book does a superb job.
• "Children in the Digital Age" By Sandra L. Calvert, Amy B. Jordan, & Rodney R.
Cocking
This edited volume brings together scholars from psychology, communication,
sociology, and linguistics to examine the effects of digital media -- including chat
rooms and the internet, video games, and some television effects -- on
developing children and adolescents. The chapters are divided into four sections:
media usage patterns, behavioral effects of media, cognitive effects of media,
and family and consumer media models. Not surprisingly, both positive and
negative effects on children are reported in various chapters, based largely on
the content of the digital media and time spent on them.
• Young Media Australia
http://www.youngmedia.org/au/
This is Australia's leading children's advocacy group with a focus on media
issues. In recent years much of its focus has been on violent video game effects
on children. For example, one can find … FAQs about violent video game
effects… [and] reviews of movies and other electronic entertainment media.
• WiredSafety.org
http://www.wiredsafety.org/
This web site is specifically focused on internet safety. It includes information for
parents, children, tweens and teens. For example, there are tips about keeping
kids and teens safe on MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and other networking
sites. Informative articles about video games, including online gaming, can be
found by using the search engine on this site.
• American Psychological Association "Psychology Matters" report on violent
video games
http://www.psychologymatters.org/videogames.html
This brief summary focuses more specifically on video game violence effects on
aggressive and violent behavior. This web page includes links and citations to
related sources of information, including other child advocacy groups.
Write to Emily Meehan at actone@wsj.com