Center on Media and Child Health

Video Game Sales Soar; 1/3 Parents Use Ratings

In November, the video game industry broke their sales record with $2.63 billion in sales of hardware and software in that month alone.   The Los Angeles Times reports that lead-scare toy recalls have led some parents to purchase video games instead of traditional toys. The best selling games of the month were:

• Call of Duty 4" Modern Warfare (rated M for Mature)
• Super Mario Galaxy (rated E for Everyone)
• Assassins Creed (rated M for Mature)

In related news, a new study from Harris Interactive reports that one out of three parents uses video game ratings to monitor their child's play, and even fewer actually understand what those ratings mean.

A txt a Day Keeps the Doctor Away?

A recent Wall Street Journal article highlights the use of text messages as part of the "telemedicine" wave.  In some countries text messages are cheaper, faster, and more private than phone calls or e-mails, so they present a useful alternative to calling or visiting a health professional.  Text messages are being used all over the world for a variety of health-related purposes:

• in the US: finding an HIV testing center near the user's location
• in Canada: using picture messages to consult about a meal with a nutritionist
• in the UK: reminding women to get breast cancer screenings   
• in Australia: allowing people to ask potentially-embarrassing sexual health questions   
• in Africa: monitoring AIDS patients   

Researchers have already tested the effectiveness of some health uses of text messages.  Rodgers et al found that people were twice as likely to successfully quit smoking if they received text messages containing advice and support for 7 months.

Cyberbullying Issue of JAH

The Journal of Adolescent Health has dedicated a supplemental issue to the topic of cyberbullying and all full-text is publicly available.  In the first article, long-time media violence researcher L. Rowell Huesmann reviewed 41 studies on violence in television and video games and concluded: "Media violence increases the risk significantly that the viewer or game player will behave more violently both in the short and long run."

• See research on media violence from the CMCH Database of Research

Other articles in the issue explore the prevalence and predictors of cyberbullying, the difference between online harassment and cyberbullying, and commentaries on educational policy implications and Internet gang violence.

• See JAH table of contents