Violent behaviour in society is always concerning and worrying many people seek ways to stop it from occurring. Often it is assumed that one of the most common causes of violent behaviour, especially among young people, is the media which they consume. This is especially the case with violent video games. As a result of this many people argue that violent video games should be banned and that this would have the effect of reducing the amount of overall violence in society. This paper will argue against this. While it may be the case that sometimes a parallel can be developed between the playing of violent video games and committing violence, it is impossible to develop and causal link an research has shown that other factors are much more important in determining violent behaviour. Therefore violent video games should not be banned and they should not suffer any further age restrictions.
People who make the argument that violent video games should be banned often focus on sensational and controversial stories, without paying attention to wider social facts or trends. One example of this came after a shooting at a naval base in 2013. Here it was reported that the person who did the shooting had his ‘dark side’ triggered by playing games such as ‘Call of Duty for up to eighteen hours a day.’ (Buktin. 2013) This article, while it tells a striking story, does not provide any serious scientific analysis of the events which led to the shooting and therefore does not effectively prove a causal link between violence in games and violence in reality.
Several studies have attempted to prove this and have investigated the problem carefully and with serious scientific rigour. In the study ‘Does Playing Video Games Induce Aggression?’ scientists studied areas of the brain which were stimulated when people played certain video games. They did find that the same areas of the brain were stimulated when playing the games, as one would expect to be active if a person was having violent thoughts or committing violent action, however they were careful to also emphasize the fact that a parallel is not a causal link. Indeed they say at the start of their results that ‘a correlation does not necessarily mean a causal relation.’ (Weber et al. 2006) By making this statement, it makes it very difficult to justify using law to ban something which many people derive pleasure from in the name of protecting safety.
Other studies have shown that the way that people respond to violence has more to do with their social circumstances than it does with the media which they consume and that this consumption cannot be thought in isolation from these social circumstances. One telling example of this kind of study took place and involved teenagers and people in their early twenties playing video games in different environments such as colleges and also in their parents houses. It was found that when playing around parents, those who had a strong family unit and emotional support were much less likely to respond with aggression than those who did not have this kind of emotional and intellectual support in their life. (Anderson, 2007. 40) Therefore, not only could it be argued that there is no direct link between playing video games and causing violence, but that emphasising such a link only serves to cover up real social problems connected to class, race and family breakdown.
In conclusion, this essay has argued that violent video games should not be banned and that it cannot be proven that they lead to violent behaviour. It is has considered several studies which have failed to prove this and has also shown that, while violence in society is a legitimate concern for everyone, blaming individual acts on the media results in distracting attention from more complex, and potentially difficult social problems.
- Anderson. Craig A. et al. Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research and Public Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
- Butkin, Christopher. “Washington Navy Years gunman Aaron Alexis heard “voices in head” after playing violent video games up to 18 hours a days.” Daily Mirror. 09/2013. Retrieved from http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/washington-navy-yard-gunman-aaron-2280976.
- Mathiak, Klaus. Weber, Rene & Ute Rittefeld. “Does Playing Violence Video Games Induce Aggression? Empirical Evidence of a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.” In Media
