Psychological scientists Robert Weis and Brittany C. Cerankosky of Denison University conducted a study examining short-term effects of video game ownership on academic development in young boys. Families with boys between the ages of 6 to 9 were recruited for this study. The families did not own video game systems, but the parents had been considering buying one for their kids.

The children completed intelligence tests as well as reading and writing assessments. In addition, the boys’ parents and teachers filled out questionnaires relating to their behavior at home and at school. Half of the families were selected to receive a video game system (along with three age-appropriate video games) immediately, while the remaining families were promised a video game system four months later, at the end of the experiment.

Over the course of the four months, the parents recorded their children’s activities from the end of the school day until bedtime. At the four-month point, the children repeated the reading and writing assessments and parents and teachers again completed the behavioral questionnaires.

The results of this study showed that the boys who received the video game system immediately spent more time playing video games and less time engaged in after-school academic activities than boys who received the video game system at the end of the experiment. Furthermore, the boys who received the video game system at the beginning of the study had significantly lower reading and writing scores four months later compared with the boys receiving the video game system later on. Although there were no differences in parent-reported behavioral problems between the two groups of kids, the boys who received the video game system immediately had greater teacher-reported learning problems.

Further analysis revealed that the time spent playing video games may link the relationship between owning a video game system and reading and writing scores. These findings suggest that video games may be displacing after-school academic activities and may impede reading and writing development in young boys.

The authors note that when children have problems with language at this young age, they tend to have a tougher time acquiring advanced reading and writing skills later on. They conclude, "Altogether, our findings suggest that video-game ownership may impair academic achievement for some boys in a manner that has real-world significance."

Video Games May Hamper Academic Development in Some Children is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Games.com reports that Dr. Phil told Teresa that she was taking her obsession to the point where she was sabotaging the family computer when others tried to use it. "She unplugged the router, so you would think the Internet had gone down, and as soon as you went away, she plugged it back in and went back to tending her crops," Dr. Phil told Teresa’s daughter Jennifer, who confronted her mother about the problem.

"Part of the reason is because of her attitude when I do ask to get on the computer," Teresa responded.

"No, it’s not," Dr. Phil said. "You unplugged it because you have a ridiculous addiction to a ridiculous computer game that’s interfering with your ability to be a mother. You needed a fix, and she wouldn’t get off, so you had to create the opportunity."

Dr. Phil Confronts Mom about Online Game Addiction is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

“You hear stories about you can’t get someone through the Internet,” said Maryland’s Howard County Sheriff’s Department deputy Matt Roberson. “Guess what??You can. I just did. Here you are, playing World of Warcraft, and you never know who you’re playing with.”

In this case, online gamers were playing alongside Alfred Hightower, a man wanted on charges of dealing in a schedule III controlled substance and dealing a schedule IV controlled substance, and two charges of dealing in marijuana. A warrant was issued for his arrest in 2007.

The sheriff’s department enlisted the aid of the U.S. Marshals this summer to track down a number of fugitives as part of Operation: Falcon, and Hightower was among those targeted. Unfortunately, authorities were unable to locate him. Roberson soon found out that he had left the country.

“I received information from a childhood friend, who tells me the guy is in Canada,” said Roberson. “I held onto the information in the back of my head. I spoke to the marshals and asked if we could confirm the guy’s location, would they help us get him? They indicated that they would.”

With the help of sheriff’s major Steve Rogers, Roberson began gathering information on Hightower through a number of sources, and discovered that their suspect was a World of Warcraft fan.

“We received information that this guy was a regular player of an online game, which was referred to as ‘some warlock and witches’ game,” said Roberson. “None of that information was sound enough to pursue on its own, but putting everything we had together gave me enough evidence to send a subpoena to Blizzard Entertainment. I knew exactly what he was playing—World of Warcraft. I used to play it. It’s one of the largest online games in the world.”

Roberson’s subpoena was nothing more than a politely worded request, considering the limits of his law enforcement jurisdiction and the ambiguity of the online world.

“They don’t have to respond to us, and I was under the assumption that they wouldn’t,” said Roberson. “It had been three or four months since I had sent the subpoena. I just put it in the back of my mind and went on to do other things. Then I finally got a response from them. They sent me a package of information. They were very cooperative. It was nice that they were that willing to provide information.”

Blizzard gave Roberson everything he needed to track down Hightower, including his IP address, his account information and history, his billing address, and even his online screen name and preferred server.

“I did a search off the IP?address to locate him,” said Roberson. “I got a longitude and latitude. Then I went to Google Earth. It works wonders. It uses longitude and latitude. Boom! I had an address. I was not able to go streetside at the location, but I had him.”

Roberson and Rogers contacted the U.S. Marshals, who immediately notified the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Border Services Agency. According to Rogers, Canadian authorities located Hightower in Ottawa, Ontario, and arranged to have him deported. The marshals picked up the suspect in Minneapolis, and Howard County has until Jan. 5 to bring him back here to face charges.

“Roberson did some great work on this deal,” said sheriff Marty Talbert. “This is the first time in my seven years as sheriff that a fugitive was located in Canada. Rogers and Roberson did an outstanding job coordinating this…Suspects cannot be allowed to escape facing criminal charges by simply moving and relocating.”

Man’s Video Game Addiction Gets Him Caught on Drug Charges is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

The link remained after the investigators accounted for several other factors, including the teens’ scores on measures of self-esteem and depression, as well as their exposure to violence on television.

The findings do not prove the Internet addiction breeds violent behavior in children; instead, it suggests that violence-prone teenagers are more likely to obsessively use the Internet, explained lead researcher Dr. Chih-Hung Ko, of Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan.

However, the study does add to evidence from previous studies that media—TV, movies, or video games—can influence children’s behavior. Ko told Reuters Health that parents should pay close attention to their teenagers’ Internet use and the potential effects on their real-life behavior.

Some signs of Internet addiction include preoccupation with online activities, withdrawal symptoms such as moodiness and irritability after a few Internet-free days, and missing other activities to devote more time to the computer.

In this study, teenagers who fit the addiction profile were more prone to aggression than their peers, but the type of Internet activity seemed to matter as well. Online chatting, gambling, gaming, and spending time in online forums or adult pornography sites were all linked to aggressive behavior. Teens who spent their time doing online research or studying, on the other hand, were less likely to be prone to violence.

According to Ko, certain online activities may encourage kids to “release their anger” or otherwise be aggressive in ways they normally would not in the real world. Whether this eventually pushes them to be more aggressive in real life is not yet clear, the researcher said.

Ko recommends that parents talk to their children about their Internet use and their general attitudes toward violence.

Link Discovered Between Teen Internet Addiction and Violent Behavior is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment

Iowa State University Assistant Professor of Psychology Douglas Gentile says that this is the first study to tell us the national prevalence of pathological play among youth gamers. “Although the general public uses the word ‘addiction,’ clinicians often report it as pathological use,” he said. “What we mean by pathological use is that something someone is doing—in this case, playing video games—is damaging to their functioning. It’s not simply doing it a lot. It has to harm functioning in multiple ways.”

Gentile analyzed data collected in a national Harris Poll survey in January 2007 of 1,178 American youth. He compared the youths’ play habits to the symptoms established in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders for pathological gambling. He classified gamers as pathological if they displayed at least six out of eleven symptoms.

The pathological gamers played videogames 24 hours per week, about twice as much as non-pathological gamers. They were also more likely to have game systems in their bedrooms, have trouble paying attention in school, receive poorer grades in school, have more health problems, and to feel addicted. Some have even stolen to support their habit. The study also found that pathological gamers were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with attention problems such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Gentile was surprised at the results. “I started studying videogame addiction in 1999 largely because I didn’t believe in it,” he said. “I assumed that parents called it ‘addiction’ because they didn’t understand why their children spent so much time playing. So I measured the way you measure pathological gambling and the way it harms functioning, and was surprised to find that a substantial number of gamers do rise to that level (of pathological addiction).”

Gentile said there is still much to learn, and he is continuing his research, conducting studies to determine risk factors and symptoms found in pathological gamers. “We don’t know who’s most at risk, or whether this is part of a pattern of disorders. That’s important because many disorders are co-morbid with others. It may be a symptom of depression, for example. And so we would want to understand that pattern of co-morbidity because that would help us know how to treat it.”

Source: Science Daily, Nearly 1 in 10 Youth Gamers Addicted to Video Games, April 21, 2009

One in Ten Youth are Addicted to Video Games is a post from: Drug Addiction Treatment