Video Games Cause Violent Behavior

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Video Games Cause Violent Behavior

Thomas Le
Montgomery College

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Video Games Cause Violent Behavior

There are millions of people that are active gamers and play video games almost every
day. All over the world, males and females of all ages participate in playing video games every
day. Playing video games is a hobby, a way to connect people together, and even the professional
gaming scene is growing at an exponential rate. With something so immensely popular, there are
sure to be bad stigmas and rumors that arise alongside it. One of the most common stigmas that
playing video games gets is that it causes violent behavior in teenagers that play them. A system
was created to help parents and consumers monitor what games that either their buying or for
someone else. The ESRB system has been working so well that they have even made it a law to
require every video game to have a labeled rating telling the buyer about the contents of the
game. Video games have been created for a form of entertainment and pleasure for people,
violent video games having harmful effects was not the intention of any game developer and it is
rare for a game to cause someone to become extremely aggressive. Even though video games
were design as entertainment, they come with many different kinds of benefits.Violent video
games does not cause violent behavior in growing adolescents because there is an effective rating
system, playing video games come with many benefits, and there has not been enough evidence
or research to conclude that video games produce violent behavior.
There is an effective rating system in place that prevents violent video games from
actually affecting specific age groups. This rating system that has been implemented into all
console games, mobile games, and computer games is called the Entertainment Software Rating
Board (ESRB). This system was created because of so much backlash that people were giving
games for their content and the point of this rating system was to tell consumers what ages are
appropriate for a specific video game. This rating system helps prevent violent behavior since it

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serves as a barrier for negative influence. Depending on the age of the audience, the younger
ones tend to be more easily influenced by media For example, most children in the United States
believe in Santa Claus or the tooth fairy at a young age because their developing brains are easier
to convince and fool. This rating system takes elements such as violence, blood, mischief,
gambling, and language into consideration when determine the correct age group for each game.
This system is effective because it can be enforced by the retailers that sell the games as well as
parents. Retailers cannot sell a game to someone that is not in the appropriate age group, for
example Game Stop cannot sell a game that is rated R to a minor. This system specifically helps
parents that want to determine whether or not a game is appropriate and suits their children.
According to the FTC, "the most recent FTC data indicate that 87% of parents are aware of the
system, 73% of that number said they review the rating most or all of the time before their child
plays a video game for the first time" (Shapiro, et al 2015, p. 1). A majority of parents are aware
of the ESRB system and they are enforcing the effectiveness of the system upon their children.
One of the reasons why violent video games do not cause violent behavior is because there is an
effective rating system for video games that can be enforced by retailers and parents.
There are a lot of benefits that actually come with playing video games, rather than all
the negative rumors. One benefit that video games provide for teenagers is that they gain
cognitive skills. Games provide all sorts of puzzles and memorization that allow players to
improve their critical thinking skills as well as memorization skills. These skills will allow
students to perform better in school because studying will become easier remember and the
critically thinking skills that come from playing video games will translate to breaking down
problems. Another pro that comes from playing video games is that it rapidly increases reflexes
as well as perceptual skills. All video games require some kind of reactionary movement, and the

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more that teenagers play the game then the faster their reflexes will become. Many games have a
trial and error sort of gameplay included in them; this trial and error will always help teenagers
improve attentiveness and perceptual skills because failing a level in a game will cause the
player to try something new the next time until they get it right. Lowenstein (2004) states that
"We can measure the presence of absence of disease with reasonable precision, but we cannot
easily or reliably measure aggressive behavior in laboratory settings" (p. 1). This statement
shows that it is not valid to conclude that playing violent video games will produce violent
behavior and they have not been proved so but playing video games does come with a lot of
benefits. Playing video games is a major way to help teenagers and adolescences exercise their
mind enjoyable while being a home.
Playing violent video games will not make an individual more aggressive there has not
been enough evidence to conclude this as a fact. The stigma that violent video games have is
clouded by rumors and false judgement by different communities. Getting research and evidence
for this complex subject may often be very difficult because there are many factors that are
included, other than just playing video games. Some factors that play a role in violent behavior
are mental health, stress, and relationship conflicts. Kain (2015) quoted "To hold up a few
sensational examples as casual evidence between violent video games and violent acts ignores
the millions of young men and women who play violent video games and never go on a shooting
spree in real life" (p. 1). Video games are very popular and there are hundreds of millions of
active gamers around the world. This shows that the ratio of violent video game players and
shooters is very lopsided and the few that have become violent killers must have had some kind
of mental health concern. The violent video game issue has been going on for many years and
there have been many government involvements with the concern. For example, Vice President

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Joe Biden has been involved in the issue as well as some states that tried to impose their own
laws on this issue. Violent video games are still a very complex subject and there has not been
enough concrete evidence or research to conclude anything.
There have been a lot of accusations and rumors that spread about the effects of playing
violent video games. Video games have been chiseled over the past couple of decades to appeal
to the general audience; the ESRB system has been working tremendously and will only continue
to become better. Parents are the ones that have the most influence in enforcing this rating
system. When a teenager buys a game, almost every time they would not even glance at the
rating but if parents were to teach their children about this system then the amount of poor
influence games have will decrease tremendously. Video games are developing day by day and
the benefits are only beginning to show. In the future, video games can be introduced into
classrooms so that students may reap the benefits that video games offer. One of the things that
were said about violent video games was that they are killing simulations packaged as games. It
is actually a lot different from in game and in real life because the games have so much more
creative features that real life does not offer. Most games are created from imaginations and
creativity; only very few games actually have correlation with in game and the real world. One
thing that was said was that violent video games create another school shooter. For example,
Thompson (2006) stated that the FBI and Secret Service found in the aftermath of Columbine
that such violent entertainment invariably plays a role in such school shootings (p. 1). This is
statement is not entirely accurate because in the Columbine school shooting, the two shooters
were part of the Trench coat Mafia and they were suicidal as well as depressive (Thompson,
2006, p. 1). Playing violent video games is one thing but being able to obtain actual guns is a
whole different story. If a teenager was able to obtain a firearm, then the parents should be the

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ones to blame because of the lack of involvement in that individuals life. According to Linda
Piepenbrink (2008), violent video games will result in a lack of empathy for human suffering
and death (p. 1). This may or may not be true for everyone since everybody takes in things
differently than others. Saying that violent video games desensitizes an individual is too broad
and does not make any sense because there are millions of gamers that have been playing for
years and to say that all of them lack human empathy is very inaccurate. Bioshock Infinite has
sold nearly 4 million copies and is one of the more violent video games that have been sold in
the past. If violent video games were a major problem then people would not buy them, yet there
are so many avid gamers. Violent video games should not be taken away or changed in any way,
but the only thing that should be changed is how parents and retailers provide them to teenagers.
Violent video games do not cause violent behavior. Video games are so popular today that
it is unreasonable to blame them for the few cases of shootings. Large amounts of the people that
are blaming video games to cause children to become more aggressive are parents, but parents
are also the ones that can prevent it. The video gaming industry is a large industry that is growing
faster than ever. Playing video games has even becoming actual paying jobs for some people.
Evidently, playing video games cannot cause violent behavior because there is an effective rating
system in place, they have many benefits that can improve mental health, and there has not been
enough evidence or research to make any false claims. As video games grow in popularity,
people will soon realize the beneficial aspects that they provide and one day the poor stigma will
be lifted.

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Reference Page
Spelman, P. B., Shapiro, I., Elwood, J. P., & Leatherbury, T. S. (2015). The Video Games Rating
System Is Effective. In R. Espejo (Ed.), At Issue. Violent Video Games. Farmington Hills, MI:
Greenhaven Press. (Reprinted from 2010, September)
Lowenstein, D. (2004). Violent Video Games Do Not Encourage Violent Behavior. In L. I.
Gerdes (Ed.), Opposing Viewpoints. Media Violence. San Diego: Greenhaven Press. (Reprinted
from testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce on the Effects of Interactive
Violence on Children, 2000)
Kain, E. (2015). Violent Video Games Do Not Cause Violence. In R. Espejo (Ed.), At Issue.
Violent Video Games. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press. (Reprinted from Mother Jones,
2013, June 11)
Thompson, J. (2006). Violent Video Games Train School Shooters. In S. Hunnicutt (Ed.), At
Issue. School Shootings. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.
Piepenbrink, L. (2008). Violent Video Games Teach Anti-Social Behavior. In D. M. Haugen
(Ed.), At Issue. Video Games. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.