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About [Books] Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What P by S_Gitter's review
Erring on the side of caution is rarely a bad thing
When I first opened this book, I was very impressed by the approach they took to scrutinizing the recent media frenzy concerning the link between violent video games and extremely violent behavior (e.g. Columbine). Although the research (including the research in the book) suggests that violent games are associated with aggression, the effects are relatively small. As such, this book may do well to allay concerns that parents have generated as the result of media hype. I agree with the authors that it is not wise to scapegoat video games for everything and that other risk factors should be considered. Unfortunately, I found little of value after the initial chapters.
Although it is good for parents to attend to other high risk factors, it is my opinion that the authors play down the effects of violent media too much. Even their own research suggests that children who play violent games are 1) more likely to engage in aggressive conflicts, 2) engage in delinquent behavior (e.g. property damage) for fun, and 3) receive poor grades on a report card. Seemingly games are associated with problematic behaviors. And even if the relationship is the reverse, such that children who are more likely to have these problems will turn to violent video games, then parents of children who play these games should remain concerned - as it is suggestive that their child may already be engaging in problematic and delinquent behavior.
I also found that the approach to criticizing previous research was not very even handed. There was a lot of picking and choosing of individual studies to make specific points about the failure of previous research. Any study, when considered individually, will have flaws. But other studies that have been conducted more recently have done well to rule out several of the flaws identified by the authors. These studies were not mentioned. Even the study reported in this book had a great deal of flaws (many of which were also never mentioned). For example, they relied entirely on self-report. People are often reluctant to respond truthfully to self-report questions, especially when the questions pertain to socially undesirable behavior such as aggression. This flaw is most likely to affect the interviews they held with children. The responses children gave seem incredibly insightful and intelligent. One might wonder, however, whether these children put as much thought into their behavior when they aren't being observed by adults. Heck, if an adult asked me these questions when I was a kid I'd be able to report back all the rules and lessons that my parents tried to teach me. I'd probably tell them whatever I thought they wanted to hear. This did not mean, however, that I actually followed these rules in my parent's absence.
Lastly, the authors suggest that violent video games may even confer some benefits to children who play them. They did find that children who played violent games were less likely to be bullied than those who didn't play violent games. Additionally they suggest that children may play violent games to relieve stress, achieve success at something, and that violent games confer social opportunities for children. Given the questionable methods of the study, however, these conclusions are speculative at best. Also, it could be argued that there are a host of other activities that children could engage in that confer the same benefits - activities that aren't associated with aggression, delinquent behavior, and school problems.
Overall I thought this book was alright. I think it is important for parents to understand that violent games need not be their only concern. The way the book is written, however, may leave many of the readers completely unconcerned with the way violent media may influence their children. I don't think this was the intention that the authors had, but unfortunately it may come across that way (I've seen some gamer's responses to this book, and unfortunately some seem to have taken it as evidence that they shouldn't be concerned at all about their violent game play). In the end, in my opinion the true values of this book are the first chapter concerning the misguided media frenzy and the suggestions they make to readers in later chapters about how to monitor your child's exposure to violent content. |
