Sure, the stereotype is of the fat kid alone in his parents’ basement playing video games, but a new study says that may not be accurate. Well, at least it says the kid may not be quite so fat, quite so fast. West Virginia University researchers are claiming Dance Dance Revolution can at least slow weight gain in kids.

West Virginia’s pilot program was to install Dance Dance Revolution into every state middle school. But did it actually help? Researchers wanted to know, so they monitored 35 overweight children between the ages of 7 and 12. What they found was that kids who played Dance Dance Revolution on a nightly basis only gained 2 pounds during the 24 week study. That compares to kids who did not play and gained 5.3 pounds. (more…)

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As the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 draws ever nearer, the waters are already starting to boil. This, without Rockstar’s title even around to help it bubble over. The latest blowup is in Boston where the mayor wants to ban violent video game sales to minors.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino is apparently hopeful that banning sales of violent games to minors will cause a drop in street violence in the city. Larry Mayes, Menino’s chief of human services, said of the issue, “Children aged 17 and under should not be sold this stuff, so they are not getting into the hands of 9- and 10-year-olds. Is it going to be an uphill battle? Sure. But it’s absolutely a battle that the mayor feels he should take on.” (more…)

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Whoever said nothing good comes of video games? With the rise of popular music titles such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero, so has there been a rise in the popularity of classic rock music. Everything from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Journey have seen a resurgence in popularity as a younger generation are exposed to the music for the first time. The developers claim it was all part of the plan.

Kids are listening to Journey, Megadeth and Deep Purple? Well, yes say their parents and single sales. Gary Wedbush says it’s a sort of way to connect with his two sons. “Not to over-simplify, but any time you find common interests with your kids it’s a very cool thing,” Wedbush said. “You get to connect in a way that’s different than the normal parent-child relationship.” (more…)

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Are video games all bad? Sure, everyone knows seven year-old Timmy should not be playing Grand Theft Auto probably, but there has to be some redeeming value to some game out there for him, right? The Northwestern of Oshkosh, Wisconsin contends that issue is, as always, a little complicated.

The article in question profiles one family which recently started allowed their children to play video games. Their reaction so far has been that the games have taught their children about sharing and that losing is a part of life. Sounds like great life lessons. However, they do note tat gaming time is limited in their household. (more…)

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Researchers at the University of Buffalo have found there is at least some evidence of a link between playing video games and being fat. This may not come as startling news to some, but it is a rather important finding from a scientific study. The bigger news is that they think they may have a solution, and luckily for geeks it involves another box you plug into your TV!

The study measured the body mass index (BMI) of 70 boys and girls between the ages of 4 and 7. Each had a BMI that reached 75 percentile or higher for their age group and gender. The families of the children were given TV Allowance devices which measure individual family viewing of television through the use of personal access code. Each child watched television or played video games at least 14 hours a week prior to the study. (more…)

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Four million teachers from around the world have called for retailers to boycott selling the new game Bully: Scholarship Edition. Actually, Bully isn’t a new game but a sort-of director’s cut of the original PS2 title. Regardless, teacher unions from around the world worry about the implications of a title they feel glorifies the act of bullying.

Eight teachers’ unions in Canada, the United States, Britain, South Korea, Australia and the Caribbean have banded together in order to request the boycott of retailers. “We’re asking retailers to be responsible,” Emily Noble, president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, said yesterday. “Yes, they can sell it and make a buck out of this, but is this the kind of marketing that they want to be [doing], selling games that glorify violence?” (more…)

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Want your child to lose weight? Let them play a video game-assuming it’s the right video game. That’s the sort-of advice from a new study presented in the medical journal Pediatrics by the Mayo Clinic. The actual study gets ever so slightly more complicated. That’s science for you.

The new study measured 25 children, including 15 of normal weight and ten obese, while playing video games. Researchers found that sitting still watching TV or playing with a traditional controller caused kids to expand the exact same amount of energy. However, playing a title using a video camera interface, such as the Sony EyeToy, expanded three times as much energy. Obese children burned the most calories while playing the dance games at just over six times as many as sitting still. (more…)

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