Boys who don't play videogames 'are at risk'

News.com.au ^ | May 9, 2008 | Andrew Ramadge,

[PROCON]

Interesting logic.

[Hegemony Cricket]

Sedentary vs. active?

[Da Coyote]

Sounded interesting until I saw “...Harvard psychologists.” Sorry, but anything coming out of that clown school that’s not from the science/engineering/math departments should be considered as believable as a CBS news broadcast.

[live+let_live]

I’ll bet boys who don’t play video games are also at greater risk to be physically fit, have a job, and date real girls.

[DannyTN]

As many strategy games as I’ve played, I should have conquered the world by now. At least I have stomped out the Elves and the Goblins. You don’t see many of them around now do you?

[1rudeboy]

Someone such as Charles Krauthammer?

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

If you look at the violent crime in the US over the past 20 years among teenagers it's gone down, and gone down significantly, and if you look at videogame play, it's gone up," said Dr Lawrence Kutner and Dr Cheryl Olsen of Harvard Medical School in a recent interview.

Apparently he never read that correlation does not equal causation.

I think the reduction in violent crime over the last 20 years has more to do with the fact that the "crack wars" that ravaged our cities during the late 1980s/early 1990s ended.

[Flash Bazbeaux]

Then you think wrong. Apparently you missed this study:

BOYS who don’t smoke crack at all are at greater risk of getting into trouble than those who smoke crack occasionally, according to two Yale psychologists.

[WarToad]

I read a lot of crime novels and true crime stories. I must be at risk of being a mass murderer.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

If you look at the violent crime in the US over the past 20 years among teenagers it's gone down, and gone down significantly, and if you look at videogame play, it's gone up," said Dr Lawrence Kutner and Dr Cheryl Olsen of Harvard Medical School in a recent interview.

Oh, and forgot to add this, too.

The type of kids (socioeconomic status, etc.) who regularly play video games on expensive electronic videogame systems tend not to be the class of kids who committed many crimes in the first place, so I doubt he'll get far with a "playing video games reduces crime" argument. These same kids ARE, however, the pool of kids who have produced most of the school shooters and the like (who've been overwhelming from "good" families in "good" neighbourhoods and district, the kids who basically are doing in real life what is depicted in a lot of the first-person shooter games.

[mountainbunny]

When I was a kid, boys played with toy guns, army men, played cops & robbers, King of the Hill, etc., and that seemed to be where they got their violent tendencies out.

Now guns are bad, the Army is evil, cops are demonized, etc., and there is no outlet for little boy behavior.

So, maybe video games are a way for boys to be boys?

[95 Bravo]

“At least I have stomped out the Elves and the Goblins. You don’t see many of them around now do you?”
They just all moved to New Zealand and went to work for Peter Jackson. :)

[uglybiker]

At least I have stomped out the Elves and the Goblins. You don’t see many of them around now do you?

Now we're overrun with trolls!
Gee! Thanks alot!

[tflabo]

Oh Sure... I bet those Amish kids are at great risk for becoming highly dysfunctional and dangerous too.

[Mr. Mojo]

I’ll bet boys who don’t play video games are also at greater risk to be physically fit, have a job, and date real girls.

lol..yup. ...something with which I suspect those "Harvard psychologists" don't have much experience.

[LibFreeOrDie]

Well, these boys won't get into trouble!

[ovrtaxt]

Those aliens from Half Life are pretty rare too. You can thank me later. :^)

[Salvey]

Dr. Leonard Sax, in Boys at Risk, states that video games contribute to the wussification (my term, not his) of boys today.

[farlander]

Bow down to the Supreme Commander, Tech 1 Unit!

[farlander]

Damn head crabs... Where’s a crowbar when you need one...