Video games and their influence on the human psyche, especially that of children, have been a subject of heated debates since their invention. Each side has their own strong proponents but neither had any truly conclusive proof that "they're right".
This subject pops up whenever we hear of school shootings or terrorist attacks committed by young perpetrators - it's often stressed that they "played video games". Some call that a relevant fact regarding the cases, others call it shifting blame.
This mist of confusion might be partially dispelled by a recent study published in the British Medical Journal, a part of the UK Millennium Cohort Study... although it's only "recent" in terms of the publication date - the study itself actually began a decade ago.
Some 11,000 children were being observed throughout the decade with their mothers periodically filling out surveys. The researchers wanted to find out if exposure to video games or television has a negative impact on their behavior and/or mood and... video games don't. It was watching TV (for over 3 hours a day) that turned out to lead to behavioral problems between the ages of four and seven... checkmate, television?
So what does this study change? Probably not much - people won't change their minds overnight... but it's certainly a step towards proving what gaming enthusiasts have been saying for ages - that video games are a positive way of spending your spare time, and if not positive, at least they don't do any harm.
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