INC: Wall of text
As some one who suffers from depression since the age of about 15, as well as high blood pressure recently (not that it matters in this case), this "research" is the biggest piece of (excuse my language but this hit me on a personal level) shit i have ever read.
The only line that rang true was "The researchers conceded that “reverse causality†was possible – that depressed kids may be drawn to violent games" Its not "possible" this is the reality.
I tend to be drawn into violent video games when im depressed, manhunt (one of my absolute favourites), dota, diablo etc actually puts me at ease because im doing something in a game, that i cant do in real life, also it means to escape to a different reality where you know you will be making a difference in that world, but in your state of mind you dont care if its a fictional world, you know you are making a difference not just to the world but the character that you are playing
Violent games does NOT cause depression, its caused by other things in life, whether it be school, family, social life or something else. If you actually talked to the kids, not as a scientist doing bloody research but as a friend, you will find out this out pretty easily. The only time a video game may cause depression is the constant belittling in a video game, if a person thinks they pathetic and useless and people online are saying the same thing, it just cements it in their head that they are.
All it comes down to is talking to the person, it doesnt take a scientist to see that a person is depressed or not, all a depressed person really wants is someone to be able to talk to about whats eating at them, and if no one gives a flying fuck or they just keep brushing them off constantly, they will turn to not just games, but other things to keep their minds off the things that bugging them, could be a magnitude of things, drugs, violence, music, etc.
yes it may be "just a phase" of the person, generally this is the case, but in other cases its not. You CANNOT treat all cases of depression the same, so asking 5000 depressed kids if they play violent games for x amount of hours is the biggest load of crap. What should have been done is asked them is when they are feeling sad (and why) what do they do to become happy again, can almost guarantee you that there will be different answers and not even half of them will be "play violent video games"
My 2c
