May 15th, 2020
In a single weekend, two mass shootings happened in which thirty-one people were killed and more than a dozen injured. Everyone in the country was waiting to hear what President Trump was going to say about the mass shooting that happened over the weekend. Two mass shootings in less than three days created a lot of tension for parents about the usage of guns and their rules but the President of the United States blamed old bogeymen. In the 2019 New York Times article, Video Games Aren’t Why Shootings Happen. Politicians Still Blame Them, Kevin Draper explains how many politicians often blame video games for mass shootings even though studies show no correlation between video games and violent behavior. Draper argues that no study explains that video games make children more violent and there are no links between video games and violence yet politicians blame them. In this paper, I will argue that Draper’s argument on how politicians should not blame video games for the prevalence to be convincing.
Most of the politicians from the republican party started supporting President trump and many of them echoed President Trump’s intention and blamed video games for the mass shooting. The trend for blaming video games began in the late 1990’s when the first mass school shooting happened at Columbine High school in 1999. As a result of this shooting politicians began blaming violent video games such as the Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. This trend continued when a school shooting repeated in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and many politicians still blamed video games. However, Draper argues, “If video games did indeed cause some mass shootings, one might expect such events to be common in Japan or South Korea. Both countries spend more per capita on video games than the United States…But Japan and South Korea — both of which have very strict laws limiting gun ownership — have among the lowest rates of violent crimes in the world, and mass casualty events are quite rare.” This quote from the same article explains how other countries like Japan and South Korea produce so many games but their violent crime rate is less than the United States of America. The main reason for this is Japan and South Korea’s ability to control their strict gun ownership rules. It is indeed not because of the video games produced by their talented programmers and animators. If all the politicians who are against video games can focus on limiting their gun ownership to only required people, the violent crime rate could be declined. Chris Ferguson, a psychology professor at Stetson University explains, “the evidence was clear that violent video games are not a risk factor for serious acts of aggression. Neither are violent movies, nor other forms of media.” This quote emphasizes that there is no correlation between aggressive behaviour and videogames or violent movies. Both the evidence prove that video games have no effect on children or their violent behaviour, it is the gun ownership laws which have to be revoked in order to decrease the violence.
Even though video games have no correlation with violence or aggressive behaviour some of the parents are worried about their kids exposure to some violent situations. Few of the video games may promote sexual violence, drug abuse, foul languge, gender sterotypes, and killing people. Therefore as an influence from these violent actions presented in video games many parents are scared to expose these games to their children. In the article, Video Games and Children: Playing with Violence, AACAP states that girls spend more than an hour playing video games in a day whereas boys spend more than two hours playing video games in a day. AACAP quotes, “Studies of children exposed to violent media have shown that they may become numb to violence, imitate the violence, and appear to be more aggressive. Younger children and those with emotional, behavioral, or intellectual challenges may be more influenced by violent images.” This quote expresses that whenever children are exposed to violent images they may get influenced by the images and behave more violently than a kid who doesn’t play any video games. AACAP also quotes, “Teens often spend even more time than younger children. Video games have become very sophisticated and realistic. Some games connect to the internet, which can allow children and adolescents to play games and have discussions with unknown adults and peers.” This quote explains that teens spend more time than children on playing video games, as our internet is getting better and better everyday teens have access to playing video games with unknown people online and parents are worried that friendship with unknown people might lead to problems. This quote always infers that kids spend less time compared to teens, which really helps all the parents worried about younger children. If parents are still worried about their kids, they can choose what video games to buy, “Store-bought video games are evaluated by the Electronic Software Ratings Board (ESRB) and rated for their appropriateness for children and teens. The ratings are featured prominently on the game packaging.” These ratings from ESRB will help parents in choosing the best games for their kids’ age group and parents will always have access to what their children are playing. In the same article, the AACAP quotes, “Some video games may promote learning, problem-solving and help with the development of fine motor skills and coordination.” This quote infers, not all video games are violent or disturbing, some video games will help the children in enhancing their learning experience and improving their cognitive skills. Some of the parents may still have questions about the video games but parents always have access to what kids play and they can always choose the game according to their age.
As many politicians are against video games and their violence in them, why are they not able to ban video games? In the article, National Economic Impact of the U.S. Gaming Industry, American Gaming Association (AGA) explains the government is benefitting from video games. In fact, last tax year the gaming industry contributed more than forty billion US dollars and more than ten billion on game taxes. AGA also quotes, “The gaming industry directly employs 727,000 people in the U.S., with $33.3 billion of wages, salaries, tips, benefits, along with other labor income.” This quote confirms that the government is not only benefitting from the tax amount, but the gaming industry is also helping create so many jobs and increasing the employment rates in the country.
All things considered, there is no proof of evidence that videogames are the cause of mass shootings in the U.S. Even though most politicians think mass shootings are caused by video games, there is no evidence to prove that. The government should stop blaming video games as the cause for mass shootings and instead they should focus on improving gun ownership rules. If the mass shooting didn’t occur because of the video games, then the government should explain to people about the benefits of video games and in what and which ways it can help some younger children from playing skillful video games. The government should also explain to parents about ESRB, their rating, and how it affects the games that children play. Video games don’t only give entertainment but they also produce a lot of jobs and tax money to the government. Video games will not make children more aggressive or violent but politicians use this as a way to escape from the weak gun ownership rules.
Works cited:
Draper, Kevin. “Video Games Aren’t Why Shootings Happen. Politicians Still Blame Them.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Aug. 2019, http://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/sports/trump-violent-video-games-studies.html.
“National Economic Impact of the U.S. Gaming Industry.” American Gaming Association www.americangaming.org/resources/economic-impact-of-the-u-s-gaming-industry-2/.
Aacap. “Video Games and Children: Playing with Violence.” Video Games and Children: Playing with Violence, http://www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Facts_for_Families/FFF-Guide/Children-and-Video-Games-Playing-with-Violence-091.aspx.