Foul Ball Seen in Pro-Backed Video Games

June 30, 2004 -- Nine-year-old Stephane Safar likes to play MLB Slugfest, a video game rated "E", that is, for everyone 6 years old and older.

But then he played it in front of his mother Amy, and what she saw went well beyond real-life baseball, as players punched and kicked each other during the course of the game.

"Now that I've seen what's in MLB Slugfest, I'm shocked," she says. "I haven't watched the game before and it really is a slugfest."

Wrong Message for Kids?

Many sports video games, including MLB Slugfest, use the likenesses of real athletes. And that can be a problem, argues Kimberly Thompson, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of a recent study on violence in E-rated video games.

"The important message that a lot of kids take away from viewing their heroes, these sports heroes, committing acts of violence … is that maybe it's OK," Thompson says. "You know: 'Maybe it's OK if I don't follow the rules because my heroes aren't following the rules.'"

In fact, Amy Safar is "concerned that he might mimic the behavior that he sees. … Does he know that that's not really how Barry Bonds acts out on the field? Does he know that Nomar [Garciaparra] can't punch somebody?"

MLB Slugfest is licensed by Major League Baseball, which declined to be interviewed for this story.

"My own personal opinion," says New York Mets pitcher Mike Stanton, "is that's something you're really not going to see here at the baseball field or any Little League field, and it's not really promoting the sport the way we would like it to be promoted. But, you know, sometimes money speaks louder than words."

Amy Safar says parents can be misled when they see products endorsed by professional sports leagues.