Catholic Online Forum

The U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Department of Communications and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America support the White House proposal to allocate $10 million to the Centers for Disease Control to study the relationship between video games, media images and violence.

"We know that media influences young people and their behavior," said Helen Osman, secretary of communications for the USCCB. "So it is crucial to deepen our understanding of how violent media images and video games influence them and whether there is a link to violent behavior."

"We agree with the President that we do not benefit from ignorance," said Father Mark Arey, ecumenical officer of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. "This research will be beneficial not only to the effort to curb gun violence but also providing deeper insight into the relationship of children and media overall."

Controversies over video games center on debates around game content and the potential negative impacts on player behaviour. Video games have been studied for links to addiction and aggression but results have been conflicting. A 2001 study found that exposure to violent video games correlates with at least a temporary increase in aggression and a decrease in prosocial behavior (caring about the welfare and rights of others).[1] Another 2001 meta-analysis using similar methods[2] and a more recent 2009 study focusing specifically on serious aggressive behavior[3] concluded that video game violence is not related to engaging in aggressive behavior. Potential positive ramifications of video game playing have also been proposed.[4] Recent research has suggested that some violent video games may even promote prosocial behavior in certain contexts.[5]

Some commentators have argued there is lack of substantive studies on the connection between games and violence, and that the video game industry has served as a fallback scapegoat for societal ills.[6][7][8] The most recent large scale meta-analysis, examining 130 studies with over 130,000 participants worldwide, concluded that exposure to violent video games causes both short term and long term aggression in players and decreases empathy and prosocial behavior. However, this meta-analysis was criticized for a number of methodological flaws, including failure to abide by quantifiable measurements of aggression and for failing to engage dissenting studies, thus aggravating the sampling bias of incorporated studies

One of the most common criticisms of video games is that they increase the violent tendencies among youth.[1][17][18] However, several major studies by groups such as The Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health, The Journal of Adolescent Health, and The British Medical Journal have shown no conclusive link between video game usage and violent activity."

Visiting the USCCB site, I found this: Catholics, Orthodox Support Study On Video Influence On Violence

MILLER: Tax dollars for gun control

Sneaky executive order bankrolls anti-Second Amendment propaganda

The directives on gun violence President Obama signed Wednesday were meant to seem harmless. A closer look at the president’s first memorandum reveals it to be a sneaky assault on congressional authority in order to fund gun-control propaganda.

Getting this done has been on the White House “to do” list for some time. In his 2013 budget submission, Mr. Obama deleted the prohibition that has been in effect since 1995 on the use of federal funds to advocate or promote gun control.

Mr. Obama is trying to steamroll the Democratic and Republican majorities that kept the ban intact by labeling the advocacy as research. “While year after year, those who oppose even modest gun-safety measures have threatened to defund scientific or medical research into the causes of gun violence, I will direct the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to go ahead and study the best ways to reduce it,” said Mr. Obama.

Under the terms of the memo, CDC may “sponsor” another entity to conduct the research, which is a handy way of funneling taxpayer cash to sympathetic gun-control groups.

Congress clamped down on the spending after President Clinton used the CDC and National Institutes of Health to create material advancing his theme of treating gun ownership as a public health issue, rather than a constitutional right. Millions in taxpayer funds were blown on junk science, such as $2.6 million used to determine if teenagers who are shot are more likely to have been drinking and carrying a gun. An additional $2 million went to figure out whether moving bars and liquor stores would prevent gun violence in communities.

By calling gun violence a “public health crisis” on Wednesday, Mr. Obama echoed Mr. Clinton’s model. It’s a move that could cost lives, as shifting funding away from fighting disease creates severely misplaced priorities. In 2010, 780,213 Americans died from cardiovascular disease and 574,743 from cancer, compared with 11,078 firearm homicides.

Well, it's been argued about for some time now.

Will Hollywood voluntarily dial the violence back?

Grace,



If and when it becomes clear that is what the pubic want. But first we need some hard evidence, hence this study and hence the American bishops' support for the study.

"We know that media influences young people and their behavior," said Helen Osman, secretary of communications for the USCCB. "So it is crucial to deepen our understanding of how violent media images and video games influence them and whether there is a link to violent behavior."

"We agree with the President that we do not benefit from ignorance," said Father Mark Arey, ecumenical officer of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. "This research will be beneficial not only to the effort to curb gun violence but also providing deeper insight into the relationship of children and media overall."

I also suggest the USCCB promote an FDA study into the effects of mood altering drugs currently being prescribed to many children as a result of any number of subjectively determined activity disorders diagnosed.

Daniel,



What does this mean and what does it have to do with the subject?

More Kids Taking Antipsychotics for ADHD: Study
Unapproved uses of these powerful drugs need further investigation, experts say

TUESDAY, Aug. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Use of powerful antipsychotic medications such as Abilify and Risperdal to control youngsters with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other behavior problems has skyrocketed in recent years, a new study finds.

Antipsychotics are approved to treat bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, other serious mental problems and irritability related to autism. But they don't have U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for ADHD or other childhood behavior problems, and their use for this purpose is considered "off label."

"Only a small proportion of antipsychotic treatment of children (6 percent) and adolescents (13 percent) is for FDA-approved clinical indications," said lead researcher Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

"These national trends focus attention on the substantial and growing extent to which children diagnosed with ADHD and other disruptive behavioral disorders are being treated with antipsychotic medications," said Olfson.

As the world continues to search for answers to the senseless violence and police say they are leaving no stone unturned, reports surface on the links between certain psychiatric medications and homicidal violence.

The Washington Post has reported that a neighbor of Adam Lanza, the suspected shooter in the Sandy Hook Elementary School killings, said that Lanza was on some form of medication. Police have issued search warrants to determine if Lanza was being treated with any drugs prescribed for mental illness.

Police have said that so far a search of the Lanza home has turned up no such medications. The shootings take place as warnings grow louder within the medical profession of dangerous and possibly violent side effects of a class of psychiatric drugs known as SSRIs, "selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors." One study from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices has identified 31 drugs that are disproportionately linked with violent behavior.

Lanza is reported to have been diagnosed with Aspergers, a form of autism. One of the drugs prescribed for autism is Prozac. Time Magazine reported in January of 2011 in an article entitled "Top Ten Legal Drugs Linked to Violence":