Media Violence and Children

London 2003 Video games have become one of the dominant entertainment media for children in a very short time. In the mid-1980s, children averaged about four hours a week playing video games, including time spent playing at home and in arcades (Harris & 'Williams, 1985). By the early 1990s, home video game use had increased and arcade play had decreased. The average amount was still fairly low, averaging about two hours of home play per week for girls, and about four hours of home play per week for boys (Funk, 1993). By the mid 1990s, home use had increased for fourth grade girls to 4.5 hours per week, and to 7.1 hours per week for fourth grade boys (Buchman & Funk, TIME SPENT WITH VIDEO GAMES In 1972, a new form of entertainment became commercially available with the release of the video game Pong. In Pong, two players tried to "hit" an electronic "ball" back and forth. From these humble beginnings, a revolution in the entertainment industry was born. Interactive game revenues are now significantly greater than the domestic film industry ("Industrial Strengths," 2000). Worldwide video games sales are now at $20 billion annually (Cohen, 2000). The PlayStation video game console, which began as a side project at Sony, now represents $6 billion of the company's $20 billion in annual sales (Cohen, 2000). It is reasonable to question whether video games may have similar effects to the effects of other entertainment media. In this chapter the term video game will be used to describe games played on video game consoles (e.g., PlayStation), on computers, or on hand-held video game devices (e.g., GameBoy). Douglas A. Gentile and Craig A. Anderson Violent Video Games: The