April 28, 2008 -
Today's Seattle Post-Intelligencer features a front page article on GTA IV which includes an interview with one of the authors of Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games.Authors Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson are both members of the Harvard Medical School faculty and the recently-released book has been widely acclaimed by the video game community for its reasonable - and unqiue - perspective on video game violence.
Kutner told the P-I:
For most kids and most parents, the bottom-line results of our research can be summed up in a single word: Relax... We have a long history of panicking over the introduction of new media. We have no evidence this is different.
The real question is which kids if any are at significant risk, and can we use behavior involving violent video game play as markers as what kids [should watch].
If you're looking for more of Kutner's thoughts, the Toronto Star has an excerpt of Grand Theft Childhood in today's edition.
The Post-Intelligencer story also features interviews with a concerned parent, as well as with What The Play editor John Davison and Hilarie Cash, author of the upcoming book Video Games & Your Kids: How Parents Stay in Control.
GP: Big thanks to GamePolitics reader Phantom for the tip!
Comments
Ignore him, would you listen to anyone who has "That guy from Harold and Kumar" on his resume?
Still, I guess that's as close to objective as we can get from the media.
Yeah I saw the same thing... Still it WAS a lot better than most.
The author did seem let down that Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson didn't go game bashing. :)
I'll add it to my list.
I guess it's a good thing that kids don't like to read books or we would be in real big trouble.
easier SAID than done....
darn this cold
Betcha he's royally pissed about it as is going to harrass them and attempt to commit faxcide unless they put his name in the article... after he's done trolling the forums here of course.
http://www.sfgate.com/flat/archive/2008/04/28/chronicle/archive/2008/04/...
Are you talking about Voldemort?
(Harry Potter joke)
Major props to the P-I today. :)
That's what the guys at the site in my link call him, when we have to mention him.
and in before 'overeducated'. :P
"Don't Panic" works better.
Exactly, nothing for him to Google there for his Ego surfing.
Yeah... he does come up in conversations, but more of a footnote to end the show with (I'd say 'as it should be' but him disappearing off everyone's rader is really 'as it should be'...)
...eh? (lulz)
Ahh, relatives :)
http://gamerdadforums.redbirdsolutions.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=5476&p...
Please read the post from momGamer as I think her post sums it up quite nicely. Her tale of her her son playing GTA IV is just -ehm- funny and explains that you can do other things than steal, maime or kill in the game.
And 4 US dollars for a gallon of gasoline? Try about 8 US dollars for a gallon a gas ? (or about 2 US dollars a litre...)
Sorry, just made me laugh, Doom has NEVER been used to train, thats a complete media-promoted myth.
How the heck can the army train to kill insurgents in a pixelated game where you can hardly make out a red devil creature from the background?
Right sure, it really shows you how to kill, and in case you did not know, the army prefears to train soldiers to use the weapons, desensitizing the last on their mind, and in most cases is not done since it can lead to soldiers refusing to kill.
But anyway, the artical is good, and does show you the media are over reacting, I wish Jack Thompson would read reports from actual members of harvard medical school instead of finding a self proclaimed 'child' psychologist and getting her to bad-mouth video games.