Product Description: Listening to pundits and politicians, you'd think that the relationship between violent video games and aggressive behavior in children is clear. Children who play violent video games are more likely to be socially isolated and have poor interpersonal skills. Violent games can trigger real-world violence. The best way to protect our kids is to keep them away from games such as Grand Theft Auto that are rated M for Mature. Right?
Wrong. In fact, many parents are worried about the wrong things!
In 2004, Lawrence Kutner, PhD, and Cheryl K. Olson, ScD, cofounders and directors of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, began a $1.5 million federally funded study on the effects of video games. In contrast to previous research, their study focused on real children and families in real situations. What they found surprised, encouraged and sometimes disturbed them: their findings conform to the views of neither the alarmists nor the video game industry boosters. In Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do, Kutner and Olson untangle the web of politics, marketing, advocacy and flawed or misconstrued studies that until now have shaped parents' concerns.
Instead of offering a one-size-fits-all prescription, Grand Theft Childhood gives the information you need to decide how you want to handle this sensitive issue in your own family. You'll learn when -- and what kinds of -- video games can be harmful, when they can serve as important social or learning tools and how to create and enforce game-playing rules in your household. You'll find out what's really in the games your children play and when to worry about your children playing with strangers on the Internet. You'll understand how games are rated, how to make best use of ratings and the potentially important information that ratings don't provide.
Grand Theft Childhood takes video games out of the political and media arenas, and puts parents back in control. It should be required reading for all families who use game consoles or computers.
Almost all children today play video or computer games. Half of twelve-year-olds regularly play violent, Mature-rated games. And parents are worried...
"I don't know if it's an addiction, but my son is just glued to it. It's the same with my daughter with her computer...and I can't be watching both of them all the time, to see if they're talking to strangers or if someone is getting killed in the other room on the PlayStation. It's just nerve-racking!"
"I'm concerned that this game playing is just the kid and the TV screen...how is this going to affect his social skills?"
"I'm not concerned about the violence; I'm concerned about the way they portray the violence. It's not accidental; it's intentional. They're just out to kill people in some of these games."
What should we as parents, teachers and public policy makers be concerned about? The real risks are subtle and aren't just about gore or sex. Video games don't affect all children in the same way; some children are at significantly greater risk. (You may be surprised to learn which ones!) Grand Theft Childhood gives parents practical, research-based advice on ways to limit many of those risks. It also shows how video games -- even violent games -- can benefit children and families in unexpected ways.
In this groundbreaking and timely book, Drs. Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson cut through the myths and hysteria, and reveal the surprising truth about kids and violent games.
Are we reading the same book? As I scrolled the other reviews on this book, I had to check periodically to make sure the reviewers read the same book I read.
While the book thoroughly trounces the idea that political, and more importantly parental decisions should be made based on any existing research, it does not seem to give a pass to anyone (including the authors themselves.)
I did not read anything that offers a vindication of any sort to the 'anti-Thompsons' who believe that kids must play games in order to be better than their non-gaming classmates.
What I've taken from the book is that until much MUCH more research is conducted, the only research that I can trust is sitting with my own children, watching them play and discussing their reactions.
I guess my primary disconnect with most of the other reviews is the opinion that the authors 'really socked it to the politicos' and are giving the gaming industry some kind of free pass to make and market anything they desire to children.
That's not what I read.
Excellent overview of complicated issue, well-researched I work in video games. There are a lot of books that purport to address the issue of whether violent video games are harmful, benign, neither, or all of the above. Grand Theft Childhood actually delivers. It contains summaries of research conducted by the authors as well as (very often) the data they compiled so you can satisfy yourself. Their positions are nuanced and a bit surprising - although they note that kids are able to distinguish between violent games and real life and that they're not induced to be violent because of them, they also note that the amount of cursing in violent games often makes kids uncomfortable because they know those are "bad words".
If you're interested in the space, this is an interesting read. If you work in the space, you should own this book.
Another Marketing Ploy to Sell a Book to a Huge Audience. Irresponsible! Would you too like to turn some heads and sell a lot of books in the process? Well then, all you have to do is write about something that everyone knows but make the opposite conclusions so your book can serve as a force against those who have protested ill effects. There are millions of teens are happy to see a book like this published and thousands employed in the gaming industry who, you can bet will flood the market with this book, hoping to set parents at ease regarding the damaging effects of video games.
No, video games don't led to increased incidence of social dysfunction, violent behavior, and hinder normal childhood development. Just like having firearms in the home don't lead to increased homicides, both accidental and intentional. In fact, it's a great thing to play video games because it increases hand-eye coordination! Sorry, but hand-eye coordination is no longer a skill needed in America since all the factories are in Asia.
Kids don't just play video games for 10 minutes a day. They play them for hours, often leading to sleep deprivation and other forms of physiological neglect. Combined with other forms of docile activity such as Internet chatting, texting, and other crap that consumes children today, we are seeing the most obese teens in the history of earth. In fact, due to childhood and teenage obesity trends, this young generation currently risks a lower life span than its parents - the first time this has happened in the modern era. Wake Up People!
Playing video games is a form of mental programming and even behavioral conditioning. This is a fact. I would like to know how much money these bozos have received from the gaming industry (including Microsoft, Sony, software companies etc.) to conduct research. The irresponsible and blatant wrong assertions in this book should serve as sufficient cause to strip these clowns of their licenses.
The authors confirm what most people with common sense already know - psychologists are morons who are so unintelligent that the had to learn about human behavior from books written by people who have had little interaction with society, rather than learn it through life experiences as a perceptive intellect - the best way to learn about human behavior.
Message to concerned parents of gamers: calm down, read this book Drs. Olsen and Kutner tackle a controversial subject in a clear and thoughtful manner. In Grand Theft Childhood, they demystify the academic research that serves as the foundation for their book, making it readily accessible to parents who want -- and need -- the information. They do so while shattering myths about video game effects and providing thoughtful advice for concerned parents.
Academic research and its requisite statistics can appear daunting, but Olsen and Kutner guide the uninitiated through this maze. Chapter 3, "Science, Nonsense and Common Sense" could serve as a primer for an introductory research methods course (I may use it myself!).
If you're expecting a clear-cut condemnation of video games, you won't find it here. Nor will you find an unfettered endorsement. (So it's likely that neither critics nor supporters will be satisfied with this book.) What you will find: interesting and easily readable background information, some surprises, acknowledgment of the difficulties in drawing any blanket conclusions -- and of the remaining knowledge gaps, and well-reasoned suggestions for what to worry about (and what not to).
As a media researcher and parent of a teen-aged gamer, I heartily recommend this book.
An Unearned gift to the videogame industry This book does a great disservice to families and anyone trying to make sense of the effects of violent video games. Having conducted a survey and focus groups, asking kids what they think of the effects of violent video games on themselves, the authors dismiss a wealth of scientifically valid, peer-reviewed journal articles that have shown that violent video games contribute to users' becoming more hostile, more aggressive, and, yes, at times, more violent. The argument that there's hardly any research on violent video games is false, as is the suggestion that the research is inconclusive. The book smells a lot like Jonathan Freedman's book on media violence. Freedman, a psychologist who never conducted his own research on media violence, wrote a book in which he systematically tore apart every study that had been conducted to date, without regard to the validity of the studies. Freedman gratefully acknowledged funding from the Motion Picture Association of America for his book. It's hard to figure out why someone like Kutner, who has apparently dedicated his career to helping families, would confuse his audience by throwing out valid findings, and calling the research "irrelevant" and "muddleheaded." He is simply wrong.
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