A study has been published by the American Academy of Pediatrics supporting the claim that violent video games can lead to violent behavior in children.

The longitudinal experiment tested Japanese and American students in three separate sample groups. The Japanese children ranged in age from 12 to 15 and from 13 to 18 years, while the American children were between the ages of 9 and 12. They were each assessed at the beginning of the study on their playing habits (how often they play violent games) and physically aggressive behavior tendencies, and then again after a period of three to six months.

The study reported that playing violent video games correlated with later aggressive behavior, showing a stronger trend in younger participants.

While the findings suggest a causal link, this study took place in a real-world school environment where few variables could be reliably controlled. In both countries, dubious methods were used to determine the content of the games these children played, including self- and teacher-reported favorite video game genres as well as lists of the students’ "three favorite games."

Dr. L. Rowell Huesmann, director of the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research in Ann Arbor, claims the results of the study are "pretty good evidence" that violent games breed violence children because the study took into account the participants’ prior aggression.

Dr. Cheryl K. Olson, co-director of the Center for Mental Health and the Media at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston contests that the designation of a game as violent is not defined clearly enough to be certain. "I think there may well be problems with some kinds of violent games for some kinds of kids," she said. "We may find things we should be worried about, but right now we don’t know enough."

I have to agree with Dr. Olson’s summary statement regarding this entire subject. We don’t know enough. Of course gamers would love to automatically dismiss or refute such findings in defense of their beloved pastime, but there is a chance that desensitization occurs, or that certain games under the blanket description of violent reward players for unacceptable behaviors. On the other side of that coin, there is also the possibility that some of these lumped-together games use violence in constructive ways that illustrate the differences between right and wrong.

Then there’s the old question of whether violent games mold violent people or if violent people seek violent games. What do you think?