PLUS: Teens make roads safer, Internet Craze Endangers Youth, Comedy Central Gets Science-y

“Joy” stick? Not So Much — New analysis of 130 studies shows that violent video games can increase aggression and decrease empathy among those who play them. But researchers say that’s not necessarily a reason to toss out Halo just yet. Craig Anderson, who leads the Center for the Study of Violence at Iowa State University in Ames, says that video gaming is just one of many factors that can lead children and youth to become more aggressive. Teens raised in rough neighborhoods, are exposed to abuse or have trouble in school also are more likely to be violent. “If you have a child with no other risk factors for aggression and violence and if you allow them to suddenly start playing video games five hours to 10 hours a week, they’re not going to become a school shooter,” Anderson says. “One risk factor doesn’t do it by itself.” But it is, Anderson adds, one of the only variables that parents can actually control. (USA Today)

Volunteer Teens Make Roadways Safer — More than 6,000 youth die on the nation’s roadways every year. Some teens, alarmed by these sobering stats and often touched by personal tragedy themselves, are trying to encourage their friends to drive more safely through a new, peer-to-peer program. The program, titled Teens in the Driver’s Seat, reaches more than 300,000 students across the country so far, and it’s rapidly growing. While previous safe-driving efforts often focused on just one cause of roadway injuries—not wearing a seatbelt, for instance, or driving under the influence—Teens in the Driver’s Seat also deals with some often overlooked factors on the roadway, including night driving and distracted driving. “We are all just so surprised when the accidents happened,” says 17-year-old Ali Read, who lost a friend recently to an automobile accident. “As teens, we tend to think that we are invincible and do not realize that we are driving a two-ton bullet.” (ABC News)

Internet Craze Poses Danger For Youth — Some folks have called Chatroullette, the latest Web site to take the virtual world by storm, the anti-Facebook. Instead of creating a forum that allows you to talk with folks you already know, Chatroullette introduces users to strangers completely at random. What could go wrong, you ask? Plenty, as it turns out. While Chatroullette insists that its users be at least 16 and tells them to not engage in any obscene or pornographic activities while online, these sorts of restrictions are easy for users to work around. Furthermore, they might be whisked to “chat” with someone sitting, in front of his or her computer, completely naked—and that outcome is more likely than you’d think. Some experts claim that the site is a “predator’s paradise.” “This is a huge red flag; this is extreme social networking,” Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, told The Early Show on CBS. “This is a place kids are going to gravitate to.” (Fox News)

Comedy Central Gets All Science-y — If you want to learn a little something about science on television, where do you go? A thoughtful talk show? They don’t book scientists anymore. The Science Channel? Get real. Unless the “science” in question involves things blowing up, it doesn’t have time for it. No, scientists say the best—indeed, perhaps the only—network friendly to science these days is Comedy Central. Really. “Comedy Central is it, as far as science goes,” says Caltech physicist Sean Carroll. “I give tremendous credit to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report for understanding that science is fascinating and fun, not off-putting and work.” (USA Today) 

More Youth Culture Updates:
YCU: Drug Use Link to Lack of Sleep
YCU: Young Adults Not In Church
YCU: Teen Boys Lie About Sex
YCU: Teens picky about Internet
YCU: Bullying linked to suicide