The Truth About Violent Youth and Video Games

[numbuheightbitstar]

Hey, I found this article just now (it was linked to in another forum), and after reading it, I felt I just HAD to spread it. it pretty much debunks the myth that video games are responsible for youth violence.

gr.bolt.com/articles/violence/violence.htm

[thuhjesheekuh]

I don't keep up with national/international media like I should, but I read webcomic rants and the violent kids/video games correlation is a #1 pet peeve. I'm glad someone actually took the time to try to give a decent rebuttal. Good find, James.

[missingnumbuh]

That was a pretty good article. Nice to see someone trying to show that violent video games aren't as bad as everybody thinks.

To be honest, I don't mind violent video games. A majority of them are mostly sci-fi or fantasy anyways (survival horror games in general). However, I can say that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is purposely attempting to stur up controversy (since most of the games popularity derives from just that). The "hot coffee" controversy is proof of this. Then again, I kinda don't care. I never liked the series after GTA3, anyways.

[SAVE_US.WBTC]

I've been following the media violence issue for a long time, and have formed extremely strong opinions about it. The government has no place restricting access for any portion of the population to an expressive medium. I'm not going to complain about retailers' individual policies, but it's clear that their restrictions are not exactly voluntary, and were strongarmed into adopting them with the fear of legislation hanging over their heads.

Aside from the youth violence statistics, a lot of the censor monkeys' other arguments are hooey as well. First, they cite the studies. They discuss that all these psychological studies show that violent video games cause aggressive behavior. As a psychology student, I can tell you that the studies they use have horrible experimental designs. They are conducted in a laboratory setting, which is in no way indicative of any sort of real-life situation. The methods they use to measure "aggression" (not even necessarily violence. All violence is aggression but not all aggression is violence) include hitting dolls, popping balloons, recognizing aggressive words on a computer screen, delivering "noise blasts" to an opponent in a competitive game, and kids playing fantasy games with violent themes instead of peaceful ones. There is also the major problem with demand characteristics. Someone who enters a study on aggression will be predisposed to act aggressively, and skew the results. Finally, who says violent games can't be good for children? Here's an LA Times column written by Gerard Jones, author of Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super-Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence:

HEADLINE: New fools' crusade targets video games

BYLINE: By GERARD JONES

BODY:

I hate "Grand Theft Auto." Yes, I know it's a masterpiece of video-game design that ingeniously weaves its caustic jokes on urban reality into a complex narrative; hundreds of gamers have told me so. I still hate its cheap use of spraying blood and globe-breasted cholas to snare young male attention and its snarky indulgence in bad taste - carjackers beating up hookers - in place of real satire. Mostly, I hate that, as a believer in the need for free popular culture and the validity of young people's desire for antisocial stories, I find myself having to defend it again and again.

Well, it's happening again. The California Assembly is expected to vote soon on a foolish and dangerous bill, AB 450, which would criminalize the sale or rental of a video game possessing "violent content" to anyone younger than 18. Similar laws have passed recently in Illinois and Michigan, and more are in process elsewhere.

We are in another of America's periodic prohibitionist crusades against entertainment forms that offend adult sensibilities, and once again our leaders seem determined to miss the point that each one of those crusades has already made: They don't work. In fact, they always backfire.

In the 1950s, the targets were comic books; in the 1930s, gangster movies. Politicians and reformers have launched lesser forays against gangster rap, Elvis, slapstick cartoons, the Three Stooges, jazz and just about every other noisy product that comes off the cultural fringes to seize people ages 13 to 30 and disgust their parents.

The pattern is reliable. A new medium or genre appears, selling itself partly with shock value and the things young people like - which inevitably includes bad taste.

There is a cry of horror from teachers and parents who wish to believe that adolescents won't think about sex and gore unless they are "exposed" to them. Then research is created to demonstrate the medium's negative effects, usually by social scientists who already dislike the offending material and design studies that seek only the negative, never the positive. Always, "Does this make the child more aggressive?" Never, "Does it make the child feel freer, bolder, more resilient?" Never even, "Does it make him more aggressive than, say, playing soccer?"

Finally, the legislators move in, for no fruit hangs lower in the political orchard than entertainment loved by kids and nonvoting geeks in their 20s. When the Illinois Legislature passed its video-game law, Democratic Sen. Mike Jacobs said: "I'm going to vote for this bill, but I'm voting for it for one reason - because this is a political bill. If I vote against it, it will show up in a campaign mail piece."

In the early 1950s, the U.S. Senate assailed comic books for supposedly contributing to juvenile delinquency. As a result, many comics that are now considered great works of popular art were killed and the medium's development was retarded. Die-hard comics fans reacted with an "underground comics" movement that eventually spawned material far more offensive to adult taste than any of the comics excoriated by the Senate. And, of course, juvenile delinquency didn't go down. In fact, it went steadily up for the next quarter of a century.

I say "of course" because I don't think anyone, not even the authors of bills such as AB 450, really believes that such legislation will have any effect on real-world crime. Since bloody "first-person shooter" games hit the market about 15 years ago, violent crime in America has dropped nearly 30 percent. Youth crime has dropped even faster than adult crime. A few hideous acts have been perpetrated by kids who played video games, but the same acts have been perpetrated by kids who didn't. All the numbers show that young Americans aren't nearly as violent, criminal or disrespectful of laws and other people as was my generation in the 1970s.

Bills such as AB 450 are eruptions of offended taste, and like all such eruptions only aggravate what they're supposed to stop. We all know that every kid who really wants to play "Grand Theft Auto" will find a way. The law will only add the glamour of contraband to the experience. That's how prohibition always works.

Access to video games is restricted by the same types of ratings and retail policies as R-rated movies. It's a porous system, but one that most of us have accepted as good enough. We don't need laws making shock entertainment look sexier and more powerful than it is. We don't need our police wasting their resources putting careless Best Buy clerks in prison for selling games.

And we don't need our lawmakers throwing themselves into an unwinnable war against the eternal forces of adolescent bad taste. Grown-up reality should be enough for them.

Gerard Jones, the father of a sixth-grade boy, is the author of "Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book." He wrote this article for the Los Angeles Times.

[himurakenshin]

It is NOT the video games fault. Like OMG, WHO THE F*%$ BUYS THE VIDEO GAME THAT'S RATED M? The 9 year old that plays it, or the parent that can legally buy it? God, some parents and the law.........

[numbuheightbitstar]

WeBuiltThisCity: Great article you found.

But you know, what I think the problem is, isn't the legislature... it's that debunking arguements get little circulation. I mean, look at the article I found--It's on GamesRevolution. Do you think a Senator or a Congressman is going to read Games Revolution? Do you think most PARENTS read Games Revolution? No. There's only one group that reads sites such as Games Revolution, and thats kids that play games, and they ALREADY KNOW That "Video Games cause youth violence" is complete bunk.

What NEEDS to happen is that topics such as this need to be brought to the attention of people BESIDES gamers. Parents of Gamers, religious leaders, anyone who is not normally considered a "gamer." Information needs to spread, instead of being regurgitated to people who already knew or suspected it.

[chixiedixie]

Wow......
It's most likely games now makes the youth violence down because you can kill in the video games and let you anger out in the video games.

Well,
that's what I do,
let my anger in video games,
but I rarely play killing games,
just fighting games.

I hope my post makes sense....

[k34]

it did make sense
but me is the opposite video games make me angry cause i hate it when the enemy kills me

[poppyseeds]

seriously, games arent the problem.
heaven forbid its the PARENTS fault that their kids go out and shoot people
oh noooo "its the games"
take responsibility, man!
if yur kids so stupid that games make him wanna go out and kill sumbuddy than dont get him any!!

[chixiedixie]

if yur kids so stupid that games make him wanna go out and kill sumbuddy than dont get him any!!

he, he, sorry I couldn't help noticing grammar erros,
like:
1.yur- your,
2.your kids so stupid, your kids are so stupid,
3.than don't get him any!!, than don't get him any games!!

Well I shouldn't be talking espcailly with how much grammar mistakes are in my stories in FF.net


anyway,
Parents are looking for an excuse to blaim on,
like we blaim our parents for stuff
(well at least most teens do)

[himurakenshin]

AAAAAAH! Off topic-ness!

It IS the parents fault/guardians fault. They should keep it out of reach from the younger children! God, some parents are just so stupid and not willing to admit it!

(I.E., my mom.......ALWAYS with the excuses......she left the OJ out this morning and blamed ME!!!!)

[poppyseeds]

lol! same thing with me and her wedding ring!
it was in a jewelry box the WHOLE time

[k34]

yeah parents dont ever blame themselves

[Shwoo]

Um... Have you ever spoken to a parent?

Off topic messages deleted.

[k34]

who me?