Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do is a book by Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl K. Olson.

Along with psychiatrist Eugene V. Beresin, Kutner and Olson are co-directors of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media, a division of the department of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The authors found previous research (including experimental studies on college students) of little help to parents, teachers, pediatricians or policymakers concerned about potential risks from video game play.

In an interview,[2] Olson explained why they chose to write a popular book in addition to their academic publications: "We felt it was important to give intelligent people who haven't been involved in research a chance to see how media violence studies are planned, carried out and interpreted so they could judge for themselves what makes sense.

We also wanted to share insightful comments made by teens about the role of video games in their lives, and the specifics of parents' concerns."

In an April 16, 2008 interview on X-Play, Kutner and Olson noted that although some studies have claimed to show a link between video games and violent or aggressive behavior, most research in this area has been flawed.

"You'll sometimes see kids coming out of an action movie making kung fu moves against one another", said Kutner, as an example of the type of thinking behind some of the studies they looked at.