Video Software Dealers Association et al v. Schwarzenegger et al

Filing 84

Declaration of Thomas N. Robinson, M.D., M.P.H. in Support of 78 Brief of Amicus Curiae In Opposition to Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment filed byCommon Sense Media. (Related document(s)78) (Radford, Francine) (Filed on 4/19/2006)

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Video Software Dealers Association et al v. Schwarzenegger et al Doc. 84 Case 5:05-cv-04188-RMW Document 84 Filed 04/19/2006 Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 GOODIN, MACBRIDE, SQUERI, RITCHIE & DAY, LLP ROBERT A. GOODIN, State Bar No. 061302 FRANCINE T. RADFORD, State Bar No. 168269 505 Sansome Street, Suite 900 San Francisco, California 94111 Telephone: (415) 392-7900 Facsimile: (415) 398-4321 PILLSBURY WINTHROP SHAW PITTMAN LLP THOMAS V. LORAN III, State Bar No. 95255 JOANNE H. KIM, State Bar No. 221525 50 Fremont Street Post Office Box 7880 San Francisco, CA 94120-7880 Telephone: (415) 983-1000 Facsimile: (415) 983-1200 Attorneys for Amicus Curiae Common Sense Media UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN JOSE DIVISION VIDEO SOFTWARE DEALERS and ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE ASSOCIATION, Plaintiffs, v. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, in his official capacity as Governor of the State of California; BILL LOCKYER, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the State of California; GEORGE KENNEDY, in his official capacity as Santa Clara County District Attorney; RICHARD DOYLE, in his official capacity as City Attorney for the City of San Jose, and ANN MILLER RAVEL, in her official capacity as County Counsel for the County of Santa Clara. Defendants. Date: May 12, 2006 Time: 9:00 a.m. Courtroom: 6 Before the Honorable Ronald M. Whyte No. C 05 4188 RMW RS DECLARATION OF THOMAS N. ROBINSON, M.D., M.P.H. Case No. C 05 4188 RMW RS DECLARATION OF THOMAS N. ROBINSON, M.D., M.P.H. Dockets.Justia.com Case 5:05-cv-04188-RMW Document 84 Filed 04/19/2006 Page 2 of 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 /// /// I, Thomas N. Robinson, declare: 1. I am an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and of Medicine, in the Division of General Pediatrics and the Stanford Prevention Research Center at Stanford University School of Medicine, and Director of the Center for Healthy Weight at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. I make this declaration in opposition to plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment. I know the following facts of my own knowledge, and if called as a witness, could and would testify competently thereto. 2. I received my B.S. and M.D. from Stanford University and my M.P.H. in Maternal and Child Health from the University of California, Berkeley. I completed my internship and residency in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital, Boston and Harvard Medical School, and then returned to Stanford for post-doctoral training as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. I joined the faculty at Stanford in 1993, was appointed Assistant Professor in 1996, and promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2003. I was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar, am a member of the Institute of Medicine's Committees on Prevention of Obesity in Children and Adolescents and Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity, and am Principal Investigator on numerous prevention studies funded by the National Institutes of Health. I am also Board Certified in Pediatrics, a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and practice General Pediatrics at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. 3. I co-authored a study titled "Effects of Reducing Children's Television and Video Game Use on Aggressive Behavior" (Robinson, T., Wilde, M., Navracruz, L., Haydel, F., Varady, A.), published in January 2001 in Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine The abstract for this study summarized it as follows: "An intervention to reduce television, videotape and video game use decreases aggressive behavior in elementary schoolchildren. These findings support the causal influences of these media on aggression and the potential benefits of reducing children's media use." 4. The study is described in the layman's terms in paragraphs 5 through 7. Case No. C 05 4188 RMW RS DECLARATION OF THOMAS N. ROBINSON, M.D., M.P.H. Case 5:05-cv-04188-RMW Document 84 Filed 04/19/2006 Page 3 of 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 5. Using a randomized, controlled experimental design our research team studied third and fourth grade students in two matched elementary schools. The two schools were randomly chosen to be either an experimental intervention school or a control (comparison) school. When the study began, data were collected on the levels of aggressiveness for each group using the following four measures: peers' assessment of aggressiveness; parent reports of aggressiveness; playground observations of aggressive behavior; and the participants' perceptions that the world is `mean and scary.' 6. After these data were collected, the third and fourth graders in the experimental group (one school) received a media reduction curriculum from their regular classroom teachers, where they received training in school about self-monitoring their media use, and reducing the amount of time they spent watching television and videotapes and playing video games. The control group (the other school) received no intervention. 7. Approximately eight months after the study began, our research team repeated the aggressiveness measurements. Compared to children in the control group, the children in the experimental group that received the curriculum consequently reduced their media use, and exhibited statistically significant reductions in the primary measure of aggressive behavior, peer ratings of aggression, and in directly observed acts of verbal aggression on the playground. Differences in other secondary measures, directly observed physical aggression on the playground, parent reports of aggression and perceptions of a mean and scary world, were not statistically significant but all were in the same direction (decreased in the group that received the curriculum compared to the control group). 8. In the article, we, the authors, noted that "because the intervention targeted reduction of media use alone, without substituting alternative behaviors or activities, these results are also additional evidence for the causal effects of the media on children's aggressive behavior." /// /// /// Case No. C 05 4188 RMW RS 2. DECLARATION OF THOMAS N. ROBINSON, M.D., M.P.H. Case 5:05-cv-04188-RMW Document 84 Filed 04/19/2006 Page 4 of 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 3234/001/X77065.v1 I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on April 17, 2006 at Atlanta, Georgia. Thomas N. Robinson, M.D., M.P.H. Case No. C 05 4188 RMW RS 3. DECLARATION OF THOMAS N. ROBINSON, M.D., M.P.H.

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