Read and Then Answer

Adults Reading Comprehension

Read and then answer

Really?

The Claim: Violent Video Games Make Young People Aggressive

Principio del formulario

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR

THE FACTS Republicans and Democrats alike screamed government waste last March when a group of senators suggested spending $90 million to study how video games "and other electronic media" influenced children's behaviour. Surely an important question, critics of the plan said, but $90 million?

Skip to next paragraph Some believe that, in any case, the verdict is already in. This month, the American Psychological Association called for a reduction of violence in all video games, saying the evidence from 20 years of research on the subject was clear. They based their conclusion largely on the work of Kevin M. Kieffer, a psychologist at St. Leo University near Tampa, Fla., who prepared an analysis of dozens of relevant studies.

He found that, in general, children exposed to virtual bloodshed showed greater "short-term" increases in hostility toward peers and authority figures than those exposed to more benign games. And many of the studies included in the analysis were randomized, rebutting the notion that aggressive people are simply drawn to violent games, Dr. Kieffer found.

But a separate study, also published this month, concluded that violent video games have no "long-term," or permanent, effects on aggressive behaviour. The study, by a researcher at the University of Illinois, was among the first of its kind to follow two groups of people for a month, some randomly assigned to play violent video games and some not.

THE BOTTOM LINE Studies generally show that violent video games can have short-term, or momentary, effects on children, but there is little evidence of long-term changes.

Answer

1.- Do people agree or disagree with spending $90m on studying violent video games? Why?

2.- What did the Amer5ican Psychological Association call for?

3.- How did they support this call?

4.- Who is Kevin Kieffer?

6.- What did he find in his studies?

7.- What did a separate study find about long term effects?

8.- What do you think?