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To the Editor: The Entertainment Software Rating Board agrees with Dr Thompson and Mr Haninger¹ that parents should be involved with their children in selecting computer and video games. We also agree that parents should discuss game content with their children, and that pediatricians can play an important role in educating parents about the rating system.

However, we disagree with the overly broad conception of violence used in the study. The authors see violence where most Americans would not—for example, in games as innocuous as Ms Pac-Man (apparently because players receive points for "eating" ghosts) and The Smurfs.

In a similarly flawed study, Thompson and Yokota² identified "acts of violence" in every available G-rated animated film, including The Care Bears Movie, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, and Snoopy, Come Home. An example of a "violent" act cited in this study is the flying elephant Dumbo "shooting" . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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