Thomas Mott Osborne: “the average time spent playing video games for the average young person age 8 to 18 years is 49 minutes a day, just a…”

“the average time spent playing video games for the average young person age 8 to 18 years is 49 minutes a day, just a little bit less than an hour a day. Ratings of video games are made by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board, also known as the ESRB. The ESRB assigns ratings without first playing the games, based on surveys, which is really a rather unusual way of doing surveys. The ESRB is actually a part of the video game industry; so in essence, the industry is rating itself, which is inappropriate. Ratings are often used as marketing tools to increase sales. They are subjective. There are no quantifiable standards in these ratings. Research done by Dr. Elizabeth Caril of the American Psychological Association and other researchers indicate the following: Number one, exposure to violent video games increases aggressive behavior, thoughts and anger. Number two, sexualized violence in video games increases violence toward women and acceptance of rape. Number three, video games enhance stereotypes of minorities and women. Number four, violent antisocial behavior is often necessary to win the game, often with no negative results to the aggressor. Other findings were as follows: often these games employ stalking and killing of victims, and these videos are similar to what the military uses in training soldiers to kill enemy soldiers. The ratings for the ESRB are as follows: E is a rating which means E for everyone.…”