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Journalism of Courage
They may be rated as suitable for young teenagers, but many video games sold for use at home are hardly kid stuff.
Researchers from Harvard analysed 81 “T-rated” games and found violence in almost all of them: The number of “deaths” per hour averaged 122. Under the guidelines of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, an industry group, T-rated games are for children 13 and over.
The researchers, said an author of the study, Dr Kimberly M Thompson of Children’s Hospital Boston, rated the videos for every act of violence. Ninety-eight per cent of the games contained intentional violence, with 42 per cent showing blood, they said. Sixty-nine per cent rewarded players for killing characters or required them to do so.
Thompson believes many parents would be surprised at the violence. “You have to pay attention not only to the rating but to what’s actually in the game,” she said. The researchers also said the ratings board should add new categories, like the PG and PG-13 ratings of the movies
New York Times News Service
