Recently, video arcades have served as a social gathering locale for children of all ages. Due to the fact children spend considerable time playing video games, possible effects of this activity are of interest to social scientists and the public at large. The present research used a naturalistic observation to explore participants' sex and age classification (<= 18 or >= 19), and whether more men and boys or women and girls participated in the playing of violent video arcade games. We found that not only are arcade patrons primarily men and boys, but they also tend to play more violent video arcade games than their female counterparts. Possible reasons for and implications of these findings are considered.

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