The Fairness of Blaming Violent Video Games for Violence

Ever since the release of video games, such as the first Mortal Kombat game in 1992 or Grand Theft Auto in 1997, it has been highly debated whether or not violent video games correlate with violence. Certain people have gone as far as to contribute the uprising in more graphic video games as a factor to children and teenagers committing violent crimes.

 “I absolutely don’t see any sort of connection between more violent video games and violence in children and teenagers,” AP Psychology teacher Sean Fowler said. “I see this accusation as just an easy scapegoat for children’s bad behavior.”

 One negative effect children may experience from violent video games, according to the American Addiction Center, is aggression. However just like a rated R movies, if parents are worried about their children being exposed to violence and other mature content that T or MA games may have, they are heavily recommended to monitor what their children are playing and come to the conclusion themselves on what is appropriate for their child to play.

 “Parents need to monitor their own children and make sure that they know what they’re getting before they purchase a game,” Fowler said. “I understand that there are parents who aren’t comfortable with their kids playing games like Call of Duty or Rainbow Six Siege but they need to be the ones who are making sure their kids aren’t playing those types of games.”

  While the negatives of video games may be more mainstream than the positives, people like Norths esports coach Brett Bevill want people to realize that there are benefits to playing video games. Bevill sees playing video games, in a healthy moderation, as a workout for the brain. Since many video games rely on the gamer reacting to quick time events, the children playing the games are constantly using their brains and developing critical thinking skills in order to determine what their next move is.

 “Some of my best athletes are some of the smartest kids at the school,” Bevill said. “If you don’t become too addicted to it, I personally think gaming is a fun activity and I haven’t seen anyone becoming violent after playing them.”