Video Games Do Not Cause Violence In Youth

By: Jacob Love

Introduction

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.

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?

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.

In this graph from The Acagemic website we see video game revenue statistics in the United States from 1995 to 2008

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.

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.

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.

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”.

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”.

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”.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Conclusion

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.

Thank you

For taking the time to view my slideshow presentation.

Works Cited

Ferguson CJ. "Blazing Angels or Resident Evil? Can Violent Video Games Be a Force for Good?" Review of General Psychology (June 2010): Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 68–81.

http://www.acagamic.com/research/stats/game-industry-sales-data/ http://adc.bmj.com/content/early/2013/02/21/archdischild-2011-301508.full.pdf+html

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Mental_Health_Letter/2010/October/violent-video-games-and-young-peoplehttp://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/violent-video-games-dont-make-you-aggressive--

difficult-games-do-says-new-study-9246838.html http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2014/140408.html

www.aknittysociety.com www.cdc.gov www.FBI.gov

www.gamerstimeout.com www.jsonline.com

www.medievalarchives.com www.rottentomatoes.com

www.scholarsfane.blogspot.com www.thesun.co.uk