Center on Media and Child Health

TV Use Down; Computer Use Up

The 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey is now available.  Here are the results of the media-related questions:

• 35% of students watched television 3 or more hours per day on an average school day (see table).  This is down from 43% in 1999.
• 25% of students used a computer for something that was not school work for 3 or more hours per day on an average school day (see table).  This is up slightly from 22% in 2003.

Though overall use between the two is down, I wonder if teens are really watching less television, or whether the availability of TV episodes over the Internet combined with widely available broadband access means they are watching those shows over the Internet instead of on a traditional TV set.

The Problems and Promises of Video Games

In April, Dr. David Bickham, Staff Scientist at CMCH, spoke at Penn State's Institute for Information Policy conference titled Playing to Win: The Business and Social Frontier of Videogames.  The goal of the meeting was to bring together experts whose work centers on the economic, social and cultural aspects of videogames. 

A video of Dr. Bickham's 30 minute presentation is available online (seems to work best in Internet Explorer).  He outlines the benefits and concerns about video games according to recent research, and explains how research on this topic is conducted. 

Should Children Get Fit Using Video Games?

Some players already use the Nintendo Wii as a form of exercise, but the new Wii Fit brings the concept to a new level. The game includes a weight-sensing balance board on which players stand and move to participate in strength-training, yoga, and balancing via video game. Nintendo calls it “a combination of fitness and fun.” Buyers seem to agree.

This new release highlights some growing questions about exercise-focused video games. In particular, what effects do they have on children (especially those under 6) who use them? In a recent San Diego Union Tribune article, Dr. Don Shifrin explained that we don’t really know yet, and Dr. Daniel Anderson said that parents should limit children’s video game time and make sure that they don’t play even mildly violent games. There is plenty of research to support these recommendations, but when it comes to fitness by video game—at least for the moment—the jury is still out. For more information, see the following links

• Energy expenditure of sedentary screen time compared with active screen time for children
• Selecting appropriate toys for young children: The pediatrician’s role

 

Take This Game and Run With It

Back in April we told you about an "active-adventure" video game in development by students at Carnegie Mellon.  The Pittsburgh News interviewed the creators and got to see the game in action! 

Players run on a pad when they want their character to run on-screen; jump when they want the character to jump; and step forward and swing their arm when they want the character to punch. The creators are hoping that this game offers a full-body action experience to combat the sedentary nature of most video games.  See video of game play

When is too much...well, too much?

When it comes to children's video game use, this question is not easy to answer, but a recent article in U.S. News and World Report highlights the importance of asking by stating that 8.5 percent of 8-to-18-year-old gamers can be considered pathologically addicted.

Although the American Psychiatric Association does not yet recognize game addiction, recent research out of the Stanford University School of Medicine has shown that "areas of the brain responsible for generating feelings of addiction and reward are activated during game play." And plenty of parents have the anecdotal evidence to prove it.

See CMCH's February Parent Perspective for one parent's experience with her daughter's gaming addiction.

**Update** 05/15/08:  One of our readers noted that the President of the American Medical Association recently issued a commentary on video game overuse.

Women are Sex Objects and Black Men are Thugs?

Since last week’s release of Grand Theft Auto IV, there has been an upsurge in concern about how violence in video games affects those who play them. But it’s not only their violence that’s raising eyebrows— concern is also mounting over their use of stereotypes. A Boston Globe article addresses the “growing number of gamers and scholars criticizing the lack of diversity and high proportion of stereotypes in video games.”

Some people argue that stereotypes are an acceptable form of comedy and that seeing them represented in media does not affect people’s views of the world. The research, however, suggests otherwise. Several recent studies show that video games’ stereotypical portrayals of gender and race may be harmful for young people.

One study suggests that video games, like other forms of media, “are sources of information that children and young adults may use to determine what behaviors and attitudes are considered appropriately masculine and feminine.” That finding is especially troubling given that video games overwhelmingly portray men as aggressive and violent, while women are shown as hyper-sexualized objects.

Likewise, racial stereotypes abound and black men are unlikely to be represented as anything other than thugs or athletes. A forthcoming study explores the effects of such stereotypes on players of both majority and minority racial backgrounds.

For more information, see the following studies:

• Fair play? Violence, gender and race in video games
• Video game characters and the socialization of gender roles: Young people's perceptions mirror sexist media depictions
• Social evaluations of stereotypic images in video games: Unfair, legitimate, or "just entertainment"?

"Active-Adventure" Video Game in Development

The following was written by Garth DeAngelis, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center.  To learn more about this project, see the team's blog. 

In the past 20 years, the percentage of overweight adolescents in the United States has more than doubled --  nearly 30% of American children today are considered obese or overweight. There are numerous reasons for this disturbing fact, but our team is striving to address one of them: the sedentary nature of video games.

There is an unfortunate correlation between the increase in child obesity and the popularity of video games. In 1999, the average child played video games for 29 minutes a day. According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), that number has more than doubled to approximately 63 minutes per day in 2007.  What can be done about this?

Since the 1980s, products have been released that merged movement and gaming such as Nintendo’s Power Pad (see original commercial) and Dance Dance Revolution (see DDR champs in action).   However, there has never been an “exergame” that combined traditional elements of gaming with active “exercise-based” inputs to create an immersive story with free exploratory navigability in an open world in the vein of a Zelda or Dungeons & Dragons epic.

The success of the Nintendo Wii (see demo) led us to believe that a game could be created that would combine exercise and fantasy worlds.  After meeting with medical experts at University of Pittsburgh’s Medical Campus, they recommended designing a way to increase a child’s heart rate when playing. We immediately thought of the success of the DDR dance pad. After extensive research, we couldn’t find any other game that re-designed the dance pad to be used for a non-dancing/simulation game.

We knew we could literally place the child in a video game hero’s shoes by re-purposing the foot pad. To make our hero jump over a chasm while being chased by a menacing enemy, the player will jump in their living room; when our hero unleashes a three-step melee combo on an antagonist, the player will not only swing their arms, but move their feet in conjunction to mimic the attack of their avatar. The child will be actively engaged in a traditional action-adventure experience, but their mind will be focused in the ‘flow’ of gameplay, not on burning calories. We believe this can be done precisely with our project, The Winds of Orbis: An Active-Adventure.

Our goal is not to supplant traditional exercise or sports activities. Rather, we hope to replace the sedentary 30 to 60 minutes a day that the average child spends sitting on the couch moving only their thumbs with an experience that will encourage them to stand up, move, and sweat while playing the type of game they already love with a smile on their face.

Boston Regulating Video Games?

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a measure to limit the sales of violent video games to minors.  Several other states including Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Michigan and California, have attempted similar measures but have all been denied because of Constitutional conflicts.

Dr. Michael Rich, Director of CMCH, was interviewed for a newscast and a podcast on this topic.

2 Video Game Helpers for Parents

With video games reaching an all-time record of $17.9 billion in sales for 2007, parents may need assistance in helping their kids use their games in safe and healthy ways.  Here are two new resources we just learned about:

Xbox offers family settings where parents can set timers for their kids, control which games they have access to, and require approval before connecting with new people.

WhatTheyPlay.com offers parent reviews of video games, descriptions of content, and images/video from the games themselves.  Users can search by the kind of video game system, the game rating, game title, or kind of content. 

 

Wii Helping Rehab Patients and Seniors

The Nintendo Wii, which allows movement in real-life time and space to control movement on a video screen, is offering a chance for rehab patients and seniors to take part in their favorite activities. 

This video shows a cerebral palsy patient, stroke victim, and disabled veteran all using Wii to practice their balance and hand-eye coordination as they attend physical therapy.

The Daily Times reports that older residents who never thought they'd bowl again were throwing strikes with gusto.  These kinds of activities encourage seniors to sharpen their movement skills.