At least, that's the hope. New companies are fiercely competing with each other to design video and computer games that will appeal to young girls, a potentially lucrative market as yet untapped by giants like Nintendo and Sega, whose games mostly appeal to boys. So executives at companies like Girl Tech, Her Interactive, and Girls Games, are quick to insist that the more girls' thumbs on control pads today, the greater the number of women entering the fields of science and technology in the future. And these executives are bolstered in their claim by an array of busy feminist academics, who feel the dearth of good video games for girls is further evidence of bla- tant discouragement of female participation in the world of computer technology.
Most parents spurn video games, and with good reason.
Aside from keeping young minds idle and young bodies sedentary, published studies over the last decade have suggested that video games can increase levels of aggression and negatively influence the behavior of children who use them. In a study conducted by George Selnow, assistant professor of communications at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, children were found to substitute video games for social interaction and friendship. In a 1992 article published in the American School Board Journal , Eugene Provenzo, professor of education at the University of Miami, suggested that because video game players operate in virtual anonymity, they learn to act independently of social norms. And in a 1984 study published in the Journal of Communication , Joseph Dominick, a professor at the University of Georgia, found that boys who frequently played games at video arcades showed correspondingly low levels of self-esteem. This hope, though, may be a little bit like the money American companies once dreamt of if only they could crack the potentially huge market of China.