Grand Theft Childhood

Despite the media hype and political posturing, new, federally funded research in the US on violent video games and teenagers indicates that the politicians and even some health professionals may have it all wrong!

In 2004, Drs. Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl K. Olson, co-founders and directors of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, began a $1.5 million study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice on the effects of video games on young teenagers. In contrast to previous research, they studied real children and families in real situations

What they found surprised, encouraged, and sometimes disturbed them.

Coming to the project with no agenda except to conduct sound, responsible research, their findings conform neither to the views of the alarmists nor of the video game industry. In Grand Theft Childhood, Kutner and Olson untangle the web of politics, marketing, advocacy and flawed or misconstrued studies that until now have shaped parents’ concerns.

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