2. In this comprehensive study we will look at
statistics, medical journals, news articles, as
well as psychological test studies to see if
there is any link between video games and
violence in youth.
3. Violence has always been prevalent in the world.
It would be lazy to say that since violence has always existed
and video games have not, that video games have no impact
on violent behavior.
Is there any correlation between violent crimes in America
and video games?
4. According to the FBI’s official website, as of 2010, violent
crimes in America have declined to one third of what they
were in 1994.
In this graph from the CDC government website we see the
statistics of homicides in youth from 1994 to 2010.
5. In this graph from The Acagemic website we see video game
revenue statistics in the United States from 1995 to 2008
6. If there was a connection between video games and
violence, wouldn’t these graphs show an equal
correlation?
Violent crimes as a whole, as well as in youths, have
decreased dramatically while video game sales have
skyrocketed.
7. In 2013 the British Medical Journal posted an article
from the UK Millennium Cohort Study.
The study spanned over 10 years and included over
11,000 children beginning at the age of 5.
It was titled: Do television and electronic games
predict children’s psychosocial adjustment?
Longitudinal research using the UK Millennium
Cohort.
8. This study recorded the amount of hours per day children
would watch television or play video games over the
course of 10 years.
Every couple of years they would test the children for:
Conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, emotion
symptoms, peer relationship problems, and prosocial
behavior.
After the 10 year study, they have determined that
playing video games has absolutely no adverse effect on
children even if they start playing as young as five.
A link to this study can be found in the Works Cited
section.
9. Researchers from the University of Oxford in the UK and the
University of Rochester in the US conducted a lab study in
2014.
In this study they found that violent content had no impact on
whether or not people playing video games felt aggressive.
What they found was that if a player could not master the
controls within 20 minutes, whether they were playing the
violent version or non-violent, they became annoyed and
agitated.
In the findings, Dr. Andrew Przybylski stated, “This need to
master the game was far more significant than whether the
game contained violent material”.
10. In June 2010, the American Psychological Association
published a special issue of the Review of General
Psychology, in this article many doctors and psychologists
published papers on how video games do not cause violence.
Dr. Christopher Ferguson, a psychology professor at Texas
A&M published a paper, in which he said “Many studies on
the issue of media violence rely on measures to assess
aggression that don’t correlate with real-world violence – and
even more important, many are observational approaches that
don’t prove cause and effect”.
11. The U.S. Department of Justice has funded research through the
Center for Mental Health and Media at Massachusetts General
Hospital.
They conducted this research in order to determine the impact video
games have on youth.
They found that in a vast majority of cases, “violent video games
may be part of normal development, especially in boys – and a
legitimate source of fun too”.
12. There are quite a few people who believe
video games cause violence in youths.
According to a recent study in Singapore,
children are more likely to believe that hitting
others is acceptable if they play video games.
This study has also been criticized by
psychologists for its inaccurate methods of
collecting data.
13. Violence has always been a problem in our society.
Before video games became so prevalent, movies and
television were blamed for violent behavior.
After the Columbine Massacre in 1999, the media blamed
movies such as The Matrix and Fight Club for causing
violence in our youth.
14. The media, parents, anybody who thinks they are entitled to
their own opinion will look for a scapegoat, something or
someone to blame for violence.
With all of the studies and data collected, it is clear that video
games do not cause violence in youth.
15. There are a few options for parents who are
worried about their child playing a video game
whose content might be too graphic for them.
First: the ESRB rating system gives detailed
information about what is in each video game, as
well as how old one has to be to legally purchase
a video game.
Second: each and every current-gen console
comes equipped with parental controls. Parents
can password protect the console which their
child is playing on in order to lock games rated
Teen or Mature.
16. I have been playing video games since I was two years
old. My first game was Super Mario Bros 3 on the
original Nintendo console.
Since then I have been an avid gamer, ranging on
almost every console, playing every type of video
game.
I have spent easily over 10,000 hours of my life
playing video games and belong to many online
gaming communities.
Out of all the time I’ve spent playing video games, I
have never been arrested for, or accused of committing
a violent crime. Nor has anyone in any of my gaming
circles.
17. Is there any correlation between video games
and violence in youth?
According to numerous studies, spanning over
many years and continents, the answer is: No,
there is not.
Medical studies, statistics, as well as
psychological journals have been assessed.
None of them show a connection between
violence and video games.
