Trigger Happy
into the possible negative effects of videogames is so far inconclusive. Patricia Greenfield’s 1984 study, Media and the Mind of the Child, concluded that there was no such evidence, but then videogames were not nearly so graphically detailed as they are now. In more recent times, arguments that videogame playing temporarily increases aggression in children51 are countered by other studies claiming evidence for the “catharsis”
Despite the absence of scientific consensus, there is a rising level of moral concern that parallels the outcry over “video nasties” in the 1980s. Questions were asked in the British Parliament on the 1993 release of
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51 These arguments are given a witty and readable overview by Mark Griffiths in “Video Games and Children’s Behavior” in Elusive Links.
52 This is the view, for instance, of G. I. Kestenbaum & L. Weinstein in “Personality, Psychopathology, and Developmental Issues in Male Adolescent Video Game Use,” in Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry 24, pp.
53 Marsha Kinder writes in Playing with Power in Movies, Television and Video Games (p. 115) that she has observed her son playing videogames and argues that they enrich his development: “I have noticed that the better Victor becomes at videogames, the more interested and skillful he is at drawing cartoons.”
