Do Violent Video Games Cause Violence?
Video games are a fairly new concept to the world and as does every new and mysterious idea, they have been put under serious pressure and scepticism through the years. This is natural human behaviour. When mobile phones were introduced people believed that social interaction was done for and that this simple invention that is now part of everybody's normal would call for the end of humanity as they knew it. Trillions of phone calls and a few decades later and that idea is just absurd now that they have successfully integrated into common life. Like every new invention created video games have been targeted by attackers who fear the future and want to stay inside their comfort zone at any cost. Even though most people are ok with video games there are still many corporations and ‘Social Justice Warriors’ that believe that video games encourage racism, sexism towards women and violence. Violent video games do not encourage violence.
There are several reasons why violent video games do not encourage violence. The majority of people who play video games are sane and can tell the differences between what is acceptable in video games and the real world. Gamers know that video games are a gateway out of the real world and that they can do whatever they want but they also understand that the violence in some videogames should not be carried out in real life where somebody may get hurt. Blaming violence on video games that offer many violent people an opportunity to get out all their stress and anger without hurting anybody. Nothing bad comes out of giving people a way to enjoy a bit of friendly violence that you would find in sport instead of causing serious problems to real people. Infact studies have actually shown that as video games have gained popularity, crime rates have gone down. For example in the US in 1995 there was $3.5 billion of computer and video game sales and roughly 3 million violent crime offences, but in 2003 where computer and video game sales had skyrocketed to $7 billion, violent crime offences had dropped to just under 2 million.
Some may argue that violence in video games can encourage violent behaviour in young impressionable people. They would probably say that a young person playing a game where they fight people or do other violent things may encourage them to be violent in real life which could be harmful to them or other young people around them. Another argument is that video games sexualize female characters too much and that in game characters are discriminatory to women and that this kind of behaviour may rub off on young influential people and would make it incredibly hard to raise a nice and un-selfish person. They might even argue that video games could demoralize females who play video games and make them feel lesser than other people. The opposition is wrong on all counts.
While some may argue that video games make impressionable youth violent, their argument is weak. If parents are worried about their son/daughter becoming violent then they shouldn't have allowed them to play them in the beginning. All video games have an age rating and when purchasing games everyone requires ID. This alone should show parents that some games are too violent or convey certain themes that are inappropriate for young people. So, if a child plays Call Of Duty which has an age rating of 18 plus, can you really blame anyone else but the person who bought them the game which in most cases are their parents. It is their responsibility to choose what they want their child to see and be influenced by. If they stand by and let their child play are far too inappropriate game then the only person for blame is them. The opposition also argues that video games can influence people to discriminate females and also make them feel down. This is ridiculous, almost every male action character has a six pack, 6 feet of height, a cool hair doo and huge biceps. If you were to compare the sexualisation of both genders in video games their would be no differences. Also studies show that “women ages 18 or older represent a significantly greater proportion of the game playing community(34%) than boys age 17 or younger(18%). With more boys going through transitions In life there is a huge gap between boys that will be affected by seeing the perfect male far greater than they ever could than girls would in video games with women. Clearly, we can disregard all of these arguments made.
It is clear that violent video games do not encourage violence. Sane people can clearly tell the difference between what is acceptable in games vs reality. There are many already violent people who play video games and the cause of their violence cannot be tracked to video games. It is the responsibility of the parent or guardian to monitor what their children are being influenced by especially if they are very impressionable and play games which are made for ages above them. Blaming violence on video games may increase the amount of people who cannot relieve stress and cause them to be violent and leave impressionable children open to other dangerous ideas and activities in the world.
Bibliography-
https://videogames.procon.org/view.source.php?sourceID=009370
https://videogames.procon.org/view.source.php?sourceID=009486
https://videogames.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=003627
