Matrix video game - Contributed

1. The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.

According to federaL crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low.

Researchers have found that people serving time for violent crimes typically consumed less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population. It's true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in the US have also been game players. But young people in general are more likely to be gamers as 90 per cent of boys and 40 per cent of girls play.

The overwhelming majority of children who play do not commit anti-social acts. According to a 2001 US Surgeon General's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centred on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure.

The moral panic over violent video games is doubly harmful. It has led adult authorities to be more suspicious and hostile towards many kids who already feel cut off from the system. It also misdirects energy away from eliminating the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems to continue to fester.

2. Scientific evidence links violent game play with youth aggression.

Such claims are based on the works of researchers who re-present one relatively narrow school of research, 'media effects.' This research includes some 300 studies of media violence. But most of these studies are inconclusive and many have been criticised on methodological grounds. In these studies, media images are removed from any narrative context.

Subjects are asked to engage with content that they would not normally consume and may not understand. Finally, the laboratory context is radically different from the environments where games would normally be played. Most studies found a correlation, not a causal relationship, which means the research could simply show that aggressive people like aggressive entertainment. That's why the vague term 'links' is used here. If there is a consensus emerging around this research, it is that violent video games may be one risk factor - when coupled with other more immediate, real-world influences which can con-tribute to anti-social behaviour. But no research has found that video games are a primary factor or that violent video game play could turn an otherwise normal person into a killer.

3. Children are the primary market for video games.

While most American kids do play video games, the centre of the video game market has shifted to older persons, because the first generation of gamers have continued to play into adulthood.

Already 62 per cent of the console market and 66 per cent of the PC market is age 18 or older. The game industry caters to adult tastes.

Meanwhile, a sizeable number of parents ignore game ratings because they assume that games are for children. One quarter of children ages 11 to 16 identify an M-Rated (Mature Content) game as among their favourites. Clearly, more should be done to restrict advertising and marketing that targets young consumers with mature content, and to educate parents about the media choices they are facing.

But, parents need to share some of the responsibility for making decisions about what is appropriate for their children. The news on this front is not all bad. The Federal Trade Commission has found that 83 per cent of game purchases for underage consumers are made by parents, or by parents and children to-gether.

Did you know?

1.PSN is the new PlayStation Network for online PS3 and PSP downloads.

2.Xbox360 now allows you to copy games to the hard disc drive.

3.PSN does not cost you anything to play or download applications online.

GameYaad.com

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O'Neil Walker

GameYaad.com

Home Of Video Game Repair.

Shop #18

Hagley Park Road.

Kingston 10.

Tel: 876-754-6453 /876-887-5040

Email: info@gameyaad.com