GLLS Notes: Grand Theft Childhood
Kids these days. Am I right? Always corrupting their fragile young minds with penny-dreadful books comic books slasher films television video games filled with sex and violence!
According to Dr. Lawrence Kutner, author of Grand Theft Childhood, the concerns surrounding gaming are just the latest version of the tendency to Please, Think of the Children!
There’s a lot of interesting research going on, and I’m glad to see that they’re starting to study the influence of violence in video games by actually studying children, instead of performing lab experiments with college students.
One of the most interesting results of this survey was the “do as I say, not as I do” result. Kids who were asked what age was appropriate for a M-Rated game would typically say their age or a year younger. If they had a younger sibling, that age was CLEARLY too immature to handle the game in question. A great pattern, and a valuable thing to point out to the Jack Thompsons of the world.
I’m curious to see if they’re doing any comparative research, looking at the results of past studies (with violent movies, for example), to see if kids are reacting in the same way. This could give us greater ammunition to protect against these sensationalist “concerns.”
Notes after the jump. My asides are in parentheses.
Grand Theft Childhood – Real Data on Video Game Violence
Lawrence Kutner, Ph.D.
Center for Mental Health and Media
Dept. of Psychiatry – Mass. General
Kids these days. Am I right?
Violence in media an old reliable smokescreen, a way of distracting the public from scandal
Credit Mobilier scandal of 1873 (Anthony Comstock)
Historical context: penny dreadfuls
Horatio Alger, sexual predator
Gangster movies – Hays code
Comics – Seduction of the Innocent
(see also The Ten-Cent Plague)
Television Violence
1990s: first video game concerns (Mortal Kombat)
– continuing as technology gets more sophisticated
– increase of mature content
– Unrecognized satire: those outside the target audience Don’t Get It
(More on the cultural currency of games – they become an in-joke, and those on the outside are scorned by those on the inside. Those on the outside vilify those on the inside. The cycle continues…)
(what’s the key here: perseverance? This Too, Will Pass?)
Gerard Jones: Killing Monsters
No “profile” of a school shooter (only 1 of 8 showed an interest in violent games)
Only real trend: shooters overwhelmingly male
Perception distorted by media pitching the new hot story
Coverage has gone up, while the # of incidents have gone down
More realistic concerns: Arrests for simple assault are way up for boys (106%) and girls (290%)
Say you’re investigating a mother-daughter domestic. Which is easier: arresting the mother, requiring you to call DCFS and filing a mountain of paperwork. Or do you arrest the daughter?
most research done with college students, not with children
Video games & Violence project
Survey: list 5 games you played a lot in the last 6 months
(only 17 of 1254 did not play games)
#1 for boys: GTA
Madden
Halo
#1 for girls: The Sims
2: GTA
3: Mario/Solitaire/Tycoon
Gaming as social activity: something to do, something to do with others
signifying a number of complex reasons for play
Creative reasons for playing
Excitement/challenge
friendship
boredom
emotional regulation ***
62% of boys play games to relax
Channeling of anger
play to feel less lonely
Most boys and 29% of girls play at least 1 M game regularly
Why kids play violent games:
Competition
Get anger out
Modding
Guns
Are games linked to violence?
M-rated gamers linked to higher rates of aggressive behavior in girls; lesser extent in boys
May be a marker of risk in girls
Boys who played M-rated were LESS likely to bully or fight
Gaming as social activity: gamers are more likely to have friends, making them less likely to be a bully
(Statistical prediction, does not show causation)
Focus Groups:
fantasies of power, violence, respect
aware of the difference between the game and RL
enjoying the “unreality” of it
Parents of boys not concerned about gore
Cared about context, goals, and victims of violence (what does violence accomplish in the game)
objected violence that targeted women and minorities
concerns about sexual content
language (“swears”)
concerns about what kids can do in games (swearing vs. shooting up buildings)
Kids will say their age is OK for gaming, but their little siblings aren’t ready for it.
Do as I say, not as I do
Trajectory similar to television research
(are we comparing the patterns from TV/book/other media research to VG studies?)