What is the effect on children playing violent video games

Although quite a bit of research has been done in the field, the results are not conclusive. While it is true that some studies have found that violent video games lead to an increase in aggression, there are a number of problems with these studies. First of all, the measures for aggression can be somewhat arbitrary. Second, there have been few, if any, studies that follow children playing these games over a long period of time. Third, the studies take place solely in a lab environment, which is considerably different from the home environment. Fourth, the children involved in the study have a very short amount of time to play the game; in one studies some children were more familiar with the non-violent game but had never played the violent game before. It is therefore possible that any increases in aggression were due to frustration rather than violence. The age of the child is one of the main factors in how influenced they will be by any media, according to several studies, but many studies that deal with video games have only dealt with a narrow range of ages.

This is not to say that there is no link between violent video games and violent behavior in children. However, correlation does not imply causation. There are serious flaws in the studies that do exist, and more research is needed.