Here’s some good news for couch potato kids: watching TV has now been shown to act as a painkiller. A new study shows that children who watched cartoons while having blood taken reported less pain than those who were actively distracted by being soothed by their parents. How far do these narcotic effects of TV watching extend? Parents may soon be sitting their kids in front of the tube for every cut and scrape. Couch potato kids will throw themselves to the pavement for the sweet reward of more Sponge Bob.

And if that’s not enough to get you scared for the kiddies, it appears that some video games might actually improve social skills. A study argues that MMOs (massively multilayer online video games) helped to build bridges between players with different world views. The researchers admit that, while the games may not create close emotional bonds between players, the benefits of exposure to different kinds of people enhance their sociability. So, if you have a kid that’s addicted to Second Life, or some other MMO crack, you need not only worry about internet porn, but recruitment to random cults, scientology, and Al Qaeda. So keep this in mind in case DHS is suddenly banging down your door.