Nick McIntosh

Do violent video games lead to real violence?

This topic has been tossed around quite a bit lately since unfortunately there has been a string of ridiculously violent acts lately. Some would say it all dates back to 1999 when Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris opened fire in their Colorado high school slaying 13 people. It was revealed that both Harris and Klebold both were into playing violent games, like Mortal Kombat, Doom, and Wolfenstein 3D. As of 2009, roughly 91% of America’s youth play video games [source:Yahoo News], so should we all hide and be in constant fear? Probably not, in the 50s kids who exhibited bad behavior were often condemned because of comic books. I know comparing “bad behavior” to something like a shooting spree is ludacris but our ultra violent media world has always made a fantastic scapegoat. Let me provide you with some real life examples other than the Columbine shooting, just so you can develop your own opinion and further ingest the topic. Devon Moore an 18 year old killed 3 officers June 7th 2003, no criminal history. The report shows that he was cooperative as the officer booked him on suspicion of stealing a car. He then snapped and went on his rampage, after the dust had settled it was reveled that Moore played Grand Theft Auto for hundreds of hours, which is primarily a cop killing game. The Attorney Jack Thompson, a long time crusader against video game violence, is bringing the suit. “What we’re saying is that Devon Moore was, in effect, trained to do what he did. He was given a murder simulator”[source: 60 Minutes]. In the case of Aunders Breivik from Norway, who killed 69 people on July 22nd 2011, he said he played Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (FPS) so he could practice shooting people. These are just two examples of real life situations that I have came across. So could there be concrete evidence that can show a direct correlation between killing people in a FPS (First Person Shooter) and actually doing it in real life? What has science came up with pertaining to violet video games and real violence? One of the main claims in the video game argument is that video games are more likely to interact with someone’s behavior rather than TV because you are seemingly “Sucked into” a video game. You don’t just sit on the couch and watch a video game you interact with it. Games do have a reward system and are also repetitive. Reward and repletion are the main make-up of Classical Conditioning, a very well known a proven psychological concept. You could maybe say that since kids and teens brains are still in the developmental stage they would in theory be easier to fall victim to this type of psychological “training”. It has been shown that children who interact with violent video games show a surge in physiological signs of aggression. For every argument you usually have a pro and con, some evidence to support this just being a trend per say would be that since violent games sales are on the rise, violent crime rates in the United States are going down[source: LiveScience].
There is a study being conducted by Dr.Cheryl Olson and her team at Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Center for Mental Health and Media and Harvard to prove that violent games help students deal with stress and aggression. She has found that over 49% of boys and 25% of girls use violent games such as Grand Theft Auto as an outlet for their anger. Dr. Olson has come to the conclusion that violent games affect students positively and not negatively because the violent crime rate is going down while the popularity of M-rated video games has increased. She suggests that instead of stopping children from playing M-rated games completely, parents should just monitor how much time their children spend playing games; parents should take responsibility.