It has been argued that violent video games tends to lead to violent or bad behavior in children. In fact recently in the UK, there are some schools who plan to report parents to the police for letting their underage children play games rated for 18+ or older, claiming that such games could lead to “extreme violence”.Now this is an argument that has constantly gone back and forth and now thanks to a new study conducted by the University of Oxford, it has been found that poor behavior in children might not necessarily be linked to violent video games. The study acknowledges that children who play games for more than 3 hours a day “are more likely to be hyperactive, get involved in fights and not be interested in school,” but they could not find a link between that behavior and violent video games.
In fact the study found that children who played games with a cooperative or competitive element for under an hour a day had “significantly fewer emotional problems or problems with peers.” The study also found that playing solitary games led to children doing well “academically and displayed fewer emotional problems or get involved in fights.”
To conclude, the paper’s co-author Allison Mishkin said, “These results highlight that playing video games may just be another style of play that children engage with in the digital age, with the benefits felt from the act of playing rather than the medium itself being the significant factor.”
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