According to lead researcher Dr. Christopher Ferguson: ”Depressive symptoms stand out as particularly strong predictors of youth violence and aggression, and therefore current levels of depression may be a key variable of interest in the prevention of serious aggression in youth. The current study finds no evidence to support a long-term relationship between video game violence use and subsequent aggression. Even though the debate over violent video games and youth violence will continue, it must do so with restraint.”
From a yearlong study of 302 children between the ages of 10 – 14 years-old from a small city on the border of Mexico. 75 percent of them played video games within the past month on computers, consoles or other devices, and 40 percent played games with “violent content”.
One year later, 7 percent reported being involved in at least one “criminally violent act during the previous 12 months,” with the common crime being physical assaults on other students or the use of force to take something away from someone else. Nineteen percent reported engaging in at least one nonviolent crime during the same period, such as shoplifting or theft on school property.
Dr. Ferguson found that symptoms of depression were the common thread of the children who had committed social infractions. The research did not find that exposure to violence from video games or television at the start of the study was a good predictor of aggressive behavior in young people.
The fact is, videogames have no more negative affect than previous boogiemen like television, comic books, films, radio plays or books. Of course, video games will remain a convenient tool for psychiatrists to appear on television with or politicians attempting to win more votes with scare tactics.
