Violent Games and TV

Article: Study: Violent Video Games Only Affect Unstable Youth

Interesting, but not surprising. It's good to see that someone is actually looking into this. I'm pretty tired of reading how evil violent games are whenever some idiot goes off half-cocked and hurts himself or someone else. Reminds me of all the heavy metal things back in the 80s with Ozzy and Judas Priest. And probably similar to the whole "rock 'n' roll" thing in the 50s. It will always be something with these people.

This reminds me of something a colleague said when I was in Colorado recently. He was discussing his kids (about 8 and 12 I believe) and their parental controls in what TV and movies they are allowed to watch. He commented at one point that anything rated 'R' for nudity or language they are very careful about. Then almost as an aside he says, "but I guess they can watch all the violence they want." This is pretty consistent with most parents I think. There may be levels of violence (e.g., staying away from horror and gore), but the general premise is that we're desensitized to violence but won't let our kids see boobs or heavy petting.

That brings up a pretty cool experiment. (Well, a thought experiment anyway since you don't really want to warp innocent kids just to prove a point). But what if you take two sets of kids and control what they're watching on TV and movies at a level consistent with normal parenting. So they will be exposed at some level to everything (commercials, friends, etc.) but you strongly guide their regular and repeated exposure. For one group, you avoid all sexually explicit materials and movies but let violence slide. For the other group, you avoid all violent shows but let the nudity and sexuality go. You should also have 2 more groups -- one that can see anything (sex and violence) and one that doesn't see anything. I'll let bad language go here because I think that's really just a side note and not related to potential future behavioral problems.

Here's the thought: raise these kids like this throughout their childhood, then release them into the wild at 18. Who will be the better adjusted? Is there any correlation to their exposure and future behavior? Specifically, do kids who have seen R rated violence grow up to be violent people? Or do they abhor violence? Do kids who have group up with sexually explicit scenes and nudity grow up treating women as objects and become introverted perverts? Of the last two groups, who is more ready for modern Western society? The ones who have seen it all before or the ones who believe life is all Charlotte's Web and Judy Blume novels?

I have my own gut feelings here, but to tweak the question more: Do you want your kids exposed to sex and violence through their friends on the 'playground' or would you like to be present while they're being exposed to this on TV (or in real life) so that you can help explain the nuances and how these things fit into real life. In the end, I won't argue for either side but will argue that parental involvement is the key to a healthy childhood.