ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the risks involved with playing video games-or, in popular parlance, the (alleged) harmful effects of video game play. This is an issue that everyone in the industry-and just as many people who have nothing to do with video games-seems to have an opinion about. For angry parents and determined teenagers, for dismissive developers to anxious educators, and for seemingly everyone in between, the video games seem to contain an element of danger. Over the years, the question of harm has received massive attention in both public debate and in research circles.
