Summary: Violent Video Games: The Effect on Youth, and Public Implications; by Douglas A. Gentile and Craig A. Anderson

       The article Violent Video Games: The Effects on Youth, and Public Policy Implications, by Douglas A. Gentile and Craig A. Anderson, is about how violence seen in media, video games, movies, and even in person has a negative affect on aggressive behavior seen in children. As video games became more and more violent, Senators Joseph Lieberman and Herbert Kohl open Congressional hearings to look at the marketing of violent games. The hearings were looking at if violent and ‘R-rated’ video games were being sold to children. As a result to the hearings, video games now feature a rating system. With a rating system now in place, Lieberman and Kohl thought that the violence in video games would decrease, but they only rose due to the rating system, they didn’t have to appeal to a general audience.

       There were three different types of studies that were used to in the study: experimental, correlational, and longitudinal. For the experimental studies, over a dozen experiments and been done, all of which shared 4 similar key characteristics: a sample size of 200 people or more, violent and nonviolent games rated on difficulty, violent game and nonviolent games that are truly violent and nonviolent, and a clear measure  or aggression and aggression-related variables for the participant. The major study, overseen by Anderson and Dill in 2000, that was experimental was a study that randomly assigned college students to play either a violent or a nonviolent game. The games were organized by their stimulation and frustration levels. The results showed that playing a violent game increased both aggressive behavior and aggressive cognition.

       For the correlational studies, several studies were done, and they all shared the characteristics of at least 200 people in each study, a good measure of exposure to violent video games, and a measure of aggressive cognition. The major study, overseen by Krahé and Möller in 2004, that was correlational was a study that sampled eighth graders in Germany. They reported that there was a specific correlation to between physical aggression and violence, for those that played violent video games.

       For the longitudinal studies, two took the main focus. The first one, overseen by Ihori, Sakamoto, Kobayashi, and Kimura in 2003, studied 807 Japanese fifth graders and sixth graders twice during a singly school year. They found that the amount the children were playing video games, although weak results, was related to physical aggression later on. But there were two problems with the first study that doesn’t make it as reliable as the second study. The second study, overseen by Anderson, Gentile, and Buckley, assessed 430 third, fourth, and fifth graders. Like the first study, the students were also surveyed at two points in the same school year. The results of the study was that students who played more violent games had a more violent and aggressive outlook on the world. The children who were more exposed to violent video games changed to become more physically and verbally aggressive. It increased violent behavior, but at the same time also decreases compassionately helpful behavior.

       In conclusion, there has been too little attention to how much violent video games, and any violence in movies and media as well, can affect children’s behavior into making them have a more violent and aggressive themselves.