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Harrison Smith

Mr. Gardner

Rancid Lemurs

October 31, 2022

Are Video Games to Blame for Youth Violence?

Ever since the 80’s and 90’s video games have been misunderstood by the

media, parents and political figures. Much of the gang and youth violence of that time

was constantly blamed on the seemingly violent video games released then. Instead of

parents looking towards the schooling system, drug culture, or even regulating gun

rights, most parents and politicians came to the same conclusion, that video games

were somehow to blame for the majority of youth violence. As decades passed, the

belief only became more and more widespread as many news programs and politicians

continued to rely on these stories to scare ignorant people. People like Armstrong

Williams, who wrote the article Gun Violence, Mental Illness, and Solutions where he

suggested it was video games to blame for all of those issues. Many political figures

preach sentimonies like this as well, blaming gun violence on video games instead of

the guns themselves, going as far as saying once how guns don’t kill people, video

games do. Though many sensible people have come around as well, putting more

blame on the laws which give teenagers the ability to purchase a gun, and insist on not

solely blaming video games.

The conflict of whether video games are to blame for youth violence is obviously

about the content of the games. Call of Duty and the Grand Theft Auto series are
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usually the two game series met with the most scrutiny as both are insanely popular,

grossing billions every year. Both games display scenes of violence and gore, profanity

and in somes cases sexual content, which is seen as over the top and shouldn’t be

marketed towards children and teenagers. Armstrong Williams argues how “these

games have desensitized children and have glorified the horrors of war and gang

violence. They promote these violent extremes as a mere novelty to have fun.” then

goes on to ask if this is truly what we want our children consuming. What Williams fails

to realize is that these games are not marketed towards children, or young teenagers,

these games are rated 18+ by the Electronic Software Ratings Bureau (ESRB) which is

the official ratings board for video games in the United States. The conclusion that

Williams comes to is that politicians and parents should regulate the media their

children consume. And lastly, he believes that gaming companies and politicians who

allow this sort of media should be held accountable for all the violence they’re directly

and indirectly causing.

In recent times the issue of video game violence has evolved to be much more

complex taking into account the gun laws which enable the violence. Tech Insider

released a video called Stop Blaming Video Games for Mass Shootings which argued

how the relation with mass shooters and gamers is inherently flawed for a few reasons.

The demographic for video games is usually young males, which correlates to many

school shooters. However a study was conducted which showed that only twenty

percent of school shooters enjoyed violent video games where eighty percent of all

male high school students enjoyed gaming. The video argued that based on this

information the average school shooter actually played less violent video games than
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the average normal high school student. It was also argued that of course you will find

one shooter who enjoys video games, because the audience that enjoys video games is

insanely massive (Tech Insider). The video then shows how many other mass shooters

were not involved with video games, their demographic and age just didn’t align with the

market. Because of this gaming was never once brought up during their cases, and

wasn’t blamed once. The point is that, if video games truly were to blame for these

terrible shootings, how is it that so many of these awful people had nothing to do with

them. Tech Insider believes that videogames are a non sequitur and a red herring for

more important issues such as gun control, gangs, and bullying, which the media and

politicians want to avoid bringing attention to, so instead they blame video games and

the “violence” they put into children's brains.

Over the last few decades, video game culture has become the most profitable

media genre in the world, the market reaching several billions of dollars every year. As

video games have become more and more popular, the violent crime rate in the US has

actually decreased exponentially every year (See fig. 1).

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(Fig. 1) Kain, Erik. “As Video Game Sales CLimb Year Over Year, Violent Crime

Continues to

Fall.” Forbes, 19 Apr. 2012

This graph represents the time from the mid 90’s to early 2000’s when violent youth

crime was at its peak in the United States. As the graph shows, as video games

became more and more popular every year, violent crime began to drop. This was also

during the largest peak of insensitive and violent video games. This was the height of

the Grand Theft Auto series, which saw mass scrutiny and even bans in some

countries. However, even with these supposedly groundbreakingly violent games

coming out then the violent crime rate continued to decline.

I’ve always believed that the idea that video games were solely to blame for real

world violence was absurd and I was pleasantly surprised to see that that was true. I

find it disrespectful to blame real world deaths on something as trivial as video games.

So many politicians argue how video games rot the minds of children, without
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understanding a thing about the medium. The news and politicians rely on scaring

parents who don’t know any better by withholding information about the topic. Instead of

telling parents about the ESRB and the ratings board they make statements about how

every school shooter has an Xbox and abruptly calls for action surrounding video

games. I believe that there are much more important issues around the topic of real

world violence, than just video games.

In conclusion it’s blatantly obvious that video games and youth violence have no

direct correlation. The topic is used as a Red Herring for politicians and the media to

pull attention away from gun laws and to scare ignorant parents into making a fuss. If

the two were truly connected, even in some miniscule way, violent youth crime would

increase alongside the booming industry. Though some school shooters may have been

involved with the hobby, so are billions of other perfectly innocent people. Video games

are not to blame for real world youth violence.

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Works Cited

Kain, Erik. “As Video Game Sales Climb Year Over Year, Violent Crime Continues to

Fall.” Forbes, 19 Apr. 2012.

WILLIAMS, ARMSTRONG. “Guns, Violence, Mental Illness, and Solutions.” New York

Amsterdam News, vol. 113, no. 23, 9 June 2022, p. 13. EBSCOhost,

https://madison.com/opinion/cartoon/hands-on-wisconsin-video-game-cultu

re-isnt-the-issue/article_0ca094f5-b735-5396-be41-67f79021c213.html.

Tech Insider. “Stop Blaming Video Games for Mass Shootings.” YouTube, 31, Mar. 2018,

https://youtu.be/ZloQM4Cw0gQ