We have all heard of active video games by now. Guitar Hero started the craze, to the tune of $1 billion in sales but Nintendo’s Wii has expanded the genre. Players of all ages can play baseball, fish, box, bowl and even do yoga. These games are much more active than traditional games but are they really any better, health wise? Researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston have been wondering the same thing. Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) is game where players use a special mat and dance to prompts. DDR has been used successfully in schools, homes and afterschool programs. In order to provide cardio related benefits, new games have to raise heart rates enough to burn calories, so arm and wrist movements are not enough. One positive of these games is the lack of food commercials and the inability to eat and play at the same time. But parents are cautioned that some games have players act out extremely violent actions, in realistic ways. One game on Wii has actual stabbing and punching instead of button presses, so parents need to exercise caution when choosing games.

Link to article go-go_games.html

Link to studies on Video game violence and kids behavior violence.asp

I read an article recently on MediaWise, they are a part of the National Institute on Media and the Family. In this column they talked about how advertisers and others are getting their message to our kids. One way is Advergaming in which videogames contain advertising messages. They incorporate these messages into the background of the games. The revenues from this type of advertising can be as much as ten percent of the 10 billion dollar gaming industry. Another part of the story is how hate groups are using media, like free music CD’s, which are filled with the groups message to recruit white children. This is scary and it goes to show how media can be used in highly negative ways. Here is the link to the original story.Advertisers Want Piece, not Peace, of Mind