While this article does come from a credible health resource, The University of Utah Health, the article itself is is significantly flawed. It does not source any of it's claims only saying "studies have shown." It relies solely on broad claims about gaming's impact, such as desensitization to violence, increased aggression, and negative academic and social outcomes.
The article absolutely should have included references to specific studies or authoritative guidelines, such as those from the American Psychological Association, National Institutes of Health, or other peer-reviewed sources.
However, it is not necessarily untrue that there have been studies to corroborate the claims in this article. Playing violent video games has been consistently linked to increased aggression, both in lab settings and real life. The claim of increased aggression is supported by studies showing a rise in aggressive thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes following exposure to violent content (Anderson & Dill, 2000), (Gentile et al., 2004), (Uhlmann & Swanson, 2004).
That being said, subsequent studies have found that exposure to prosocial video games has been shown to reduce aggressive thoughts and behaviors, contradicting the previous general perception that video games increase aggression. Studies found that prosocial content primes players for kindness, cooperation, and conflict resolution (Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2009), (Saleem et al., 2012).
This also contradicts the claim that violent video games are associated with decreased empathy and helping behaviors. Though some studies have shown that violent games decrease prosocial responses, such as empathy and cooperation (Anderson et al., 2010), (Bushman & Anderson, 2001).
That being said these studies too have been additionally iterated upon have found that video games actually increase empathy, and helping behavior. For instance, children exposed to games involving nonviolent cooperation showed more empathy and willingness to help others in subsequent tasks (Gentile et al., 2009), (Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2010).
My point here is that just about every study that shows video games as having a given effect on a child has a study that claims instead that video games have the opposite effect. With this in mind it may be important to look at this 2015 meta-analysis which found that video game effects on aggression, empathy, and academic performance either positively or negatively are statistically minimal. The study argues that outcomes have often been overstated, with video games having diverse effects depending on the content, context, and player characteristics (Ferguson, 2015). This is further corroborated by a study done that same year which found that effects of gaming vary significantly based on individual traits, such as empathy levels, self-control, and aggression predisposition. (You et al., 2015).
