A new study finds that girls who play games with a parent behave better, share a deeper connection with family and had stronger mental health. Sarah Coyne, professor at Brigham Young University's School of Family Life is lead author of the study.

The surprising part about this for me is that girls don't play video games as much as boys," says Coyne. "But they did spend about the same amount of time co-playing with a parent as boys did."

The study tested 287 families using age appropriate games. Girls seemed to dig such games as Mario Kart, Mario Brothers, Wii Sports, Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Call of Duty, Wii Sports and Halo ranked the highest among boys.

Are you a Canadian ticked off at the newly concocted scheme to charge you based on the bandwidth you consume? Then you might want to check out Anti UBB, an organazation dedicated to stopping "usage-based billing" in Canada. As a consumer in the U.S. this should scare you, because if usage-based billing is implemented without complaint from consumers, it will most definitely make its way here.

So what exactly is usage-based billing? From the site:

To quote a poignant line from Ground Hog Day, "don't drive angry!" But that is exactly what video game players do. A new study by  UK-based tire manufacturer Continental Tyres found that people who spend time playing driving games are more dangerous when behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.

The study cited Gran Turismo and Grand Theft Auto as two games that had a particularly bad influence on players. In other words, they took the virtual driving skills out into the real world. The study asked 2,000 motorists (half gamers, half non-gamers) between the ages of 17 and 39 on their driving habits. Though gamers believe they are more skilled than the average driver, many also say they take higher risks and making more claims on their insurance as a result.

"Gamers take more risks than non-gamers, possibly due to the lack of real consequences in the game," said Tim Bailey, safety expert at Continental Tyres. Read More

An excellent editorial appearing in the February 2011 issue of Reason Magazine explains quite plainly why it is ridiculous that California is fighting for the 2005 law written by Leland Yee and signed into law by then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Writer Jacob Sullum starts the article by pointing out the irony of Arnold signing into a law a bill that bans violent media.

This from the same guy who starred in movies like Eraser, Commando, Terminator 1 and 2, End of Days, Last Action Hero, Predator, Total Recall, The 6th Day, and many more. Most recently, he did a cameo in The Expendables - an ultra violent action movie starring an all-star cast of aging action stars. Read More

World of Warcraft gold sellers using PayPal as their preferred method of payment are getting a surprise from the wholly-owned eBay subsidiary: a threatening letter.

Last week Blizzard sent out complaints to PayPal, accusing gold and virtual property resellers of " intellectual property." This week PayPal jumped on a number of companies, issuing the following letter:

"You were reported to PayPal as an Intellectual Properties violation by Blizzard Entertainment Inc. for the sale of World of Warcraft Merchandise.

If you feel your sales do not infringe upon the intellectual property rights of the Reporting Party, please complete the attached Objection to Infringement Report by January 21, 2011."

Hi Everyone! Part of my job here at PlayStation is to get out into the wild and show off our latest and greatest. Of course there are the usual events – e.g. E3, CES, GDC, Comic-con, etc.—where we often get to interact with all of you lovely readers. But every now and then we head out to more mainstream events to exhibit what’s new from PlayStation. This year, we were able to stop by the Sundance Film Festival, where some of our friends in Hollywood got to check out the PlayStation Green Room at Silver.

According to a new study commissioned by the recently (Comcast) acquired NBC Universal and carried out by Envisonal, 23.8 percent of Internet traffic involves "digital theft." Of this 11.4 percent of this is done using the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol.

Focusing on the United States, the study estimated that 17 percent of Internet traffic is engaging in "infringing activity," with BitTorrent traffic accounting for 9 percent of that number.

Envisional's analysis of the top 10,000 peer-to-peer "swarms" found that 99.24 percent of non-pornographic material being traded was copyrighted material.

A new social game called Hospitopia launches on Facebook today. A small portion of the proceeds from the game will go directly to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, a charity that raises funds for 170 children’s hospitals.

Hospitopia, created and administered by CausePlay allows the players to create and operate a virtual hospital while generating real funds to help children across the country. CausePlay donates 10 percent of all game revenue to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Users have the option of specifying which Children’s Miracle Network Hospital they’d like to see benefit from their play, which in turn earns that hospital special prizes and incentives while raising money across the network. Read More

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My Peoples. Coker here on another fine ModNation Monday. The fresh creations keep coming from all of you unbelievable folks in the MNR community, and we couldn’t be more proud.

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