Michael Rich says TV and video games can cause longterm damage.

DURHAM, N.H. (AP) – Parents must protect their children from the influence of violent video games, movies and television and help them become wiser consumers, a Harvard Medical School professor told parents and educators at the University of New Hampshire Friday.

Michael Rich, the keynote speaker at a conference on media violence Friday, said teenagers who shot fellow students in Kentucky and at Columbine High School were trained by common video games U.S. Marines use for combat training.

“They spent hundreds of hours practicing a murder simulation,” Rich said of students who carried out the shootings. “When they go out and execute it, we should not be surprised.”

Rich said popular shooting games train players to enjoy simulated killing and give them efficient motor skills to carry it out.

“We are training our soldiers and police officers to overcome the species’ natural reluctance to kill another by using games off the shelf,” he said.

The conference, “Meeting the needs of Children, Youth and Families in a Media Age,” was sponsored by the UNH and the University of Maine cooperative extensions and the New Hampshire Coalition on Media Violence. Rich’s speech “Media and Public Health: Peril and Promise” kicked off a day of workshops.

Rich said television, movies and video games can have harmful longterm effects on children, but he encouraged parents to help kids recognize negative media influences.

Rich is an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. He compared teaching children to make wiser choices about what they watch, play and hear to practicing safe sex. He said parents could create a “mind condom” to filter negative influences.

Rich noted one study that showed children who viewed more hours of television demonstrated a greater propensity for domestic violence and violent crime when they became adults.

“If we are steeped in violence and its all around us,” Rich said. “We need to accept that as normative behavior.”

Among Rich’s recommendations were that parents prohibit children less than 2 years old from watching television and that parents not use television as “a baby-sitter.” He also said the nation needs a universal rating system to advise parents on music, television, video game and movie content.

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