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Study: Many video games 'unhealthy' for girls

graphic

December 13, 2000
Web posted at: 11:28 a.m. EST (1628 GMT)

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- Almost half of the top-selling U.S. console video games contain "unhealthy" messages for girls, including unrealistic body images, provocative sexuality and violent behavior, according to a study released on Tuesday.

"It's not a pretty picture of women. It's a very distorted picture," said Lois Salisbury, president of Children Now, an Oakland, California-based child advocacy organization which commissioned the study.

"Children in America are consuming an hour-and-half per day, on average, of online activity or video games. That's a steady diet, and it's an increasing proportion of their media diet," Salisbury said.

The Children Now study surveyed the top 10 selling games for each of three popular console systems -- Sony Corp.'s PlayStation, Sega Corp.'s Dreamcast and Nintendo Co. Ltd's Nintendo 64.

Fifty-four percent of the games surveyed contained female lead characters while 92 percent had male lead characters.

Those games which feature female characters tend to display women in an exaggerated and stereotypical manner, with 38 percent displaying significant body exposure, including cleavage, thighs and midriffs.

"In addition, 38 percent of female game characters had large breasts and 46 percent had unusually small waists," the group said in a news release announcing its findings.

Altogether, 54 percent of the female characters were depicted as fighting or being violent, while many also exhibited stereotypical female behavior and characteristics.

"The unhealthy messages that both girls and boys absorb from these new media impact the way they think girls are supposed to look and act," Salisbury said.

"For example, in certain games the females emitted a high-pitched giggle or sigh in reaction to different actions by the player," the study said. "Their male counterparts, in contrast, had no such response."

Industry analysts say roughly one-third of video game console users in the United States are female.

While the Children Now study said the games' negative female imagery delivers the wrong message about female behavior to both boys and girls, Salisbury said the study was more concerned about the girls since they are apt to identify with the female characters.

"There is an interactivity, there is an absorption, and the children who are playing are actually assuming different characters. That does a lot for identity formation," Salisbury said.

Children Now said that some popular games showed positive images of women, citing "Mia Hamm Soccer" from South Peak Interactive and "You Can Be A Woman Engineer" from Cascade Pass Inc. as two examples.

"This analysis is the beginning of putting out some fundamental information for parents, and for the industry itself, to reflect upon on images and messages that children are getting about what it means to be female," Salisbury said.

"Since most parents aren't playing these games, it is very easy for them to unwittingly sleepwalk through all of the images they contain."

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



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RELATED SITES:
Children Now Home Page
Children Now: Links Directory
National Institute on Media and the Family - Media Influence on Children
PlayStation
Nintendo Power Source
Sega.com
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