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The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games And What Parents Can Do
Simon & Schuster
April 2008
On Sale: April 15, 2008
272 pages ISBN: 0743299515 EAN: 9780743299510 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Listening to pundits and politicians, you'd think that the
relationship between violent video games and aggressive
behavior in children is clear. Children who play violent
video games are more likely to be socially isolated and have
poor interpersonal skills. Violent games can trigger
real-world violence. The best way to protect our kids is to
keep them away from games such as Grand Theft Auto that are
rated M for Mature. Right? Wrong. In fact, many parents are worried about the wrong things! In 2004, Lawrence Kutner, PhD, and Cheryl K. Olson, ScD,
cofounders and directors of the Harvard Medical School
Center for Mental Health and Media, began a $1.5 million
federally funded study on the effects of video games. In
contrast to previous research, their study focused on real
children and families in real situations. What they found
surprised, encouraged and sometimes disturbed them: their
findings conform to the views of neither the alarmists nor
the video game industry boosters. In Grand Theft Childhood:
The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games and What
Parents Can Do, Kutner and Olson untangle the web of
politics, marketing, advocacy and flawed or misconstrued
studies that until now have shaped parents' concerns. Instead of offering a one-size-fits-all prescription, Grand
Theft Childhood gives the information you need to decide how
you want to handle this sensitive issue in your own family.
You'll learn when -- and what kinds of -- video games can be
harmful, when they can serve as important social or learning
tools and how to create and enforce game-playing rules in
your household. You'll find out what's really in the games
your children play and when to worry about your children
playing with strangers on the Internet. You'll understand
how games are rated, how to make best use of ratings and the
potentially important information that ratings don't provide.
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