New study links games, TV and the Internet to mental illness

The Daily Mail couldn't wait to get its hand on it

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4 February 2009 12:14 GMT / By Verity Burns

A new study by a children's charity has linked some of our three favourite past times, computer games, the Internet and TV, to both violence and mental illness.

Apparently, these three things are to blame for "the lurch to more and more violence which we know can breed violence and increase mental illness".

Reported by who else than the Daily Mail, the claim comes from the Children's Society's Good Childhood Report, a study conducted by "a panel of industry experts". These included former aid to Tony Blair Lord Layard and English Children’s Commissioner Sir Albert Aynsley-Green.

"There is much evidence that exposure to violent images encourages aggressive behaviour", reads the report. "On television, violence is frequently shown as part of a normal human life".

"The violence is both physical and psychological, and violent argument appears as a standard response to disagreement. To be sure, there is plenty of violence in Shakespeare and in the cinema. But people used to go to the cinema once a week, whereas our children now watch television for an average of 17 hours a week".

Also receiving a bad rap in the study was celebrity culture, single parents and parent's "aggressive pursuit of personal success", all of which are accused of causing psychological, moral and emotional damage respectively.