Non-gamers more anti-social

Research from the United States claims people who do not play games are likely to be more anti-social than those who do.

A government-backed research project, headed by PhD Lawrence Kutner, surveyed 1,300 young people across the US, concluding there was absolutely no evidence video games lead children to a life of crime.

Playing games apparently gives young males social confidence, according to the study, while those who don't play video games had a significantly greater risk of becoming anti-social.

"It seems that playing video games for boys is a marker of social confidence. That surprised us," Mr Kutner said.

"It's interesting if you look at what happened a year ago at Virgina Tech... [the attacker's] suitemates who he shared a dorm room with said that he didn't play video games at all and that struck them as really odd because everyone else did.

"That fell right in line with our research findings, that the kids who don't play at all are actually at greater risk... It says something about their social relationships.

"If you look at violent crime in the US over the past 20 years among teenagers, it's ... gone down significantly, and if you look at video game play, it's gone up significantly."

Mr Kutner did admit that those youngsters who played adult-rated violent video games for more than 15 hours a week could be at greater risk of getting into trouble.