I have no formal training in any of this but do find many opportunities to engage in dialogue around this topic. Parents (me included) all very eager to learn about many things in order to better protect their children.

To sum them up, the news media are grossly exaggerating and omitting the message the AMA is telling. What the AMA is talking is specifically multiplayer online games, such as World of Warcraft or Everquest. These games are the foci of the video game addiction. Problems of addiction are well known among players of these MMOs, so there’s no surprise. However, some argue the “trivial” details and some say it doesn’t exist. Nevertheless, I don’t believe there’s a sufficient case for addiction for video games in general because the problem would have risen much earlier.

Mark Griffiths of Trent Notthingham University is, in my opinion, the primary researcher concerning online video game addiction. His papers should provide a clearer picture of the situation. As well Nick Yee @ nickyee.com/daedalus, who discussed issues of addiction among others.

I agree with the rest of your post. Especially engaging parents to gaming, one of the caveats I recall is that parents often buy M-rated games because their kids ask them to, even when they were warned by clerks and having seen the rating itself. Another caveat is that parents need to teach children to be media critical or literate, so that they understand the media as entertainment. Indeed, parenting is the most effective tool and not a law.

To clarify on the issue of academic performance, research shows that video games has no effect on academic performance, some say it has positive effects. However, any activities that, like video games or football, consume an excessively large amount of time is a problem. How much is dependent on the individual.