Is it really to blame? A closer look at the effects of

 Computer game violence has been depicted as the missing link in many horrific crimes, especially among the younger offenders.  We take a look at how feasible that statement is, why it may or may not be and argue about what can be done to minimize the impact violence in games has on young people.

 Children and teenagers spend many hours playing video games that may have a effects on:  School performance  Attention deficits  Levels of aggression  Gamers tend to favour action and shooter games that depict lots of violence over educational and puzzle  Most parents believe that violent games cause violent behaviour, but still almost all teenagers play them

 Video games require active participation  Research says that violent video games desensitize children to murder, war, and crimes; leading them to re- enact violent behaviour  Children are unable to distinguish between fantasy violence and real world violence

 Is there a link between violent acts and violent video games?  Most journals suggest there isn’t

 The debate of media violence on behaviour is years old, dating back to the 1950’s (Dale Kunkel, PhD)  Video games have become the centre of this argument in recent decades  Positive effects of video games:  Coordination and Spatial Cognition  Pro-social behaviour  Education  Exercise

 Video game violence and other suggestive behaviour can be found in a variety of games that have ratings from U to 18.  Side effects of video games on participants:  Poor social skills,  aggressive thoughts and behaviour  declining grades  A study was conducted by Dr. Brad Bushman which seemed to show that racism in games can become a part of the players lifestyle however this study has not produced concrete answers.  Video game violence has been linked by the media to some of the most horrific incidents of mass homicide in the world, such as:

 In July 2012, a gunman at the midnight viewing of the Dark Night Rises dressed in combat gear used tear gas bombs to set off a massacre that killed twelve people and injured eighty-two people.  Like the columbine high school massacre the shooter was reported to be a gamer that was engaged in a dark fantasy.  Whether video games were fully to blame in these incidents is still disputed. However it seems that they are at least partly to blame.

 One of the recorded cases where it is believe that video game violence took a role in reality was the Columbine School Massacre.  In April 1999 two students (shown above) murdered 12 students and a teacher with an addition 21 injuries.  It is believe that video games played a role in this as both attackers were fans of games such as Doom and Wolfenstein. It is disputed that one of the attackers created a mod for Doom which resembled the school

We've been told how video game violence affects a person, especially those of a young age or those who are not mentally mature. I have conducted my fair share of research into the topic and the results are interesting.

 Research led by psychologist Christopher Ferguson and published in the journal of communication had some interesting findings.  He found no link between violent media and behaviour. Data from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) was used to estimate the violent content of popular games from 96 to This was then compared with data on youth violence during the same years.  The research found that during this time period youth violence dropped, despite maintaining very high levels of media violence in society with the introduction of video games.

 Research led by psychologist Christopher Ferguson and published in the journal of communication had some interesting findings.  He found no link between violent media and behaviour. Data from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) was used to estimate the violent content of popular games from 96 to This was then compared with data on youth violence during the same years.  The research found that during this time period youth violence dropped, despite maintaining very high levels of media violence in society with the introduction of video games.

As you can see on the graph, sales of video games have more than quadrupled from 95 to 2008, in the US. So it stands to reason that the violent crime rate would also increase, if video games did in fact cause violent behaviour, but according the statistics juvenile murders fell 62% and all juvenile violent crimes fell 36% during the same period.

 Here are two graphs, as you can see they are very contrasting. The first graph, on your left, shows the amount of video game sales per capita for Japan and the US in 2005, and the second graph, on your right, shows the amount of murders committed by teenagers in the same countries, also in  Per capita video game sales were $5.20 in the US compared to $47 in Japan, although the US had 2,279 murders committed by teenagers ( which is 27.9 per million residents) compared to 73 murders in Japan (which is 3.1 per million).

 When a tragedy strikes the media are quick to assign blame and video games have never been a favourite of mainstream media. A prime example is school shootings.  Following a school shooting in 1999 that killed 13 people, 176 newspaper articles across the US focused on the allegation that video games were the cause of the tragedy, however a 2004 US Secret Service review of many previous school-based attacks found that only one-eighth of attackers exhibited an interest in violent video games, which was less than the rate of interest attackers showed in violent movies, books, and violence in their own writings. The report did not find a relationship between playing violent video games and school shootings.

Christopher Ferguson adds that the wrong problem is identified. He says targeting video games may distract society from more pressing concerns such as poverty, education and vocational disparities and mental health.

 Censorship- many countries follow censorship systems such as the ESRB and PEGI which make it law that a game be a certain rating if it contains certain features like strong violence or discrimination.  Certification companies should make parents more aware of what their children are buying.  The UK or other countries could enforce a stricter laws on censorship as in Australia, where the government and censor bodies have banned or refused classification of some games.

 Parents should look for reviews for games that their children want before they buy the game. This can get them more knowledge on what type of the games and then can make a decision on whether or not their child should be playing that game.  Be made more aware of the PEGI and ESRB systems that give quite detailed descriptions on what is in most games and give a summary of what the game is about and it’s content.

 Games becoming more digitalised might help with video game violence because if people are forced to enter their age then it may stop them from downloading 18+ games.  Game retailers to be stricter with selling games to parents with children. They could restrict sales or more simply offer a description of any adverse content to the buyer before hand.  The previous could also be enforced through legislation to ensure the companies comply.

Is there a link or just a statistical likelihood?

 The previous chart shows the number of consoles sold per month since  This chart to the right depicts the sales of each console over it’s supported lifespan.

 Using data from the sales of all consoles table, we can extrapolate that over 989 Million games consoles have been sold worldwide!  Using the current estimate of world population, that means 1 in 7 people own a video games console.  With the average household of 2 adults and 1.8 children, this means that almost 1 in 2 households own a console of some kind!

To put this into perspective, it is like saying: “All murderers wear socks, so everybody who wears socks must be a murderer.” It is statistically almost certain that all perpetrators of ANY crime have played a game containing some form of violence in their lives.

 1 in 2 households on average own some form of games console.  Statistically, most of the population of all prisons worldwide have engaged in some video game violence of some sort.  Violence in video games is inclusive, in some form, in all age ratings of game.  The ratings system is broken and ineffective without proper enforcement and heeding.  There are many other factors affecting the tragedies blamed on game violence, inclusive of small arms proliferation, mental health and social and fiscal deficiencies.