An Iowa State University and National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF) study has concluded that 8.5% of its 1,178 U.S. participants, aged 8 to 18, met the American Psychiatric Association (APA) criteria for gambling addiction, once again bringing the oft-debated topic of video game addiction into the national spotlight.

Participants were asked eleven questions regarding their gaming habits, including "Do you sometimes skip household chores in order to spend more time playing video games" and "Have you ever lied to family or friend about how much you play."

Per APA standards, exhibiting six or more symptoms constituted addiction. Furthermore, the study found that "pathological status significantly predicted poorer school performance even after controlling for sex, age, and weekly amount of video-game play," with "pathological gamers" twice as likely to have a diagnosed attention problem.

The study claims that the results are "nationally representative within 3%." However, study author and Iowa State researcher Douglas Gentile was quick to point out that the study does not confirm video games lead to "poor school performance... Read more

As part of its ongoing family-oriented efforts, Microsoft today unveiled its "Get Game Smart" initiative to educate parents about family-friendly gaming practices.

The Get Game Smart website encourages families to play video games today, discuss appropriate content, set limits accordingly, practice online safety, and learn about parental controls in game consoles, such as Microsoft's own Xbox 360.

One activity, the "Do You Know Your Gamer?" quiz, tests a parent's knowledge about their children's favorite games, with an accompanying quiz for kids so parents can see how much they actually know--depending on the children's honesty, that is... Read more

As part of its annual video games report card, the National Institute on Media and the Family has issued a list of games that are not appropriate for children, along with a selection of child-friendly Everyone and Teen-rated titles.

While NIMF and the Entertainment Software Rating Board have have disagreed in the past, all of this year's "games to avoid" were rated Mature by the ESRB, with NIMF further embracing the ESRB ratings in its suggestions of "great games for kids."

To scope out the entire 13th Annual Video Game Report Card and all of its parent-friendly tips, such as how to set a console to restrict gameplay based on a title's rating, check out the full report here. The organization's list of recommended games for children and not-so-child friendly to avoid follows below:

Games to Avoid for Children

Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is set in a post-nuclear world. The survivors must navigate their way through a world with giant insects, raiders, slavers and super mutants. Player's kill whatever is in their path with guns and explosives. This game is rated M for blood and gore, intense violence, sexual themes, strong language and drug use. Available on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Dead Space
Dead Space is one of the latest titles in the survival horror genre of video games. The setting is hundreds of years... Read more