Of all the studies that have looked at the correlation between video game violence and aggressive behavior, the relationship has consistently been strongest amongst elementary-age children (Selecky, 2000). Why is this? Children, young ones especially, are very impressionable. It is not uncommon for them to imitate actions they've seen in the media, video gam

Thompson, K. and Haninger, K. (2001). Violence in E-Rated Video Games. [Electronic version]. JAMA, 286(5), 591-598.

Selecky, M.C. (2000). Video games and real-life aggression: A review of the literature. Retrieved January 23, 2002 from http://www.doh.wa.gov/cfh/Videoresearch.doc.

Fair Play? (2001). Retrieved January 23, 2002 from Children & The Media on the World Wide Web: http://www.childrennow.org/media/video-games/2001/

That violent images in the media cause an increase in violent behaviour amongst children is not a new concept. More than 1000 studies over the last 50 years have shown that violent programming on TV does quite often induce aggressive behaviour in children (Ruskin, 2001). Video games, however, possess a couple of key qualities that differentiate then from television and make them more likely to influence aggressive behaviour. The first such quality is the failure to show the consequences of violence or convey an accurate meaning of what is considered right and wrong in society. In a study of seventy of the most popular games, it was found that "there were no negative consequences for characters that killed other characters" (Fair Play?, 2001). If anything, the study found, the protagonist usually received some sort of reward for killing. Moreover, it is quite uncommon for video games to depict the physical outcome of violent behaviour. "...More than half of the total characters either [appeared] unaffected by the violence or only temporarily disabled by the violence" (Fair Play?, 2001). Amongst young people, the last point is especially disconcerting. Children who are easily impressionable often get the idea that since the actions they perform in a game do not actually kill or seriously injure their opponent, they could try the very same thing in real life and no one would be seriously hurt. This argument raises the valid issue of the parents' involvement in monitoring what video games their children are playing. The video game industry is, after all, the only media industry that imposes a content rating system on its own games. As a result, the information that allows parents to make informed choices about the games their children play is readily available. If a parent chooses to use video games as a babysitter, at least he or she will be able to pick an appropriate title that will not skew their child's perception of right and wrong. That, in theory anyway, is how the rating system should work. In practice, what the rating on the box says an

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