There is a huge ongoing debate on whether or not violent video gaming has an effect on kids and adults. In light of of the many random murders that have been and still are taking place recently, in this country, the question still remains, are violent video games responsible?
Everyone from the Fox News pundits to the NRA, to Obama advisor Dan Axelrod are suggesting violent gaming is one of the main culprits of our recently increased gun violence.
Are they right, or are they using this platform to forward their own agendas to increase ratings and popularity?
Basis for the facts presented here are from the www.ProCon.org website. It is an independent, nonpartisan, non-profit organization. Also from the www.theesa.com website, the Entertainment Software Association.
Who Plays Video Games?
68% of households play video games across all rating platforms. Interestingly, 49% of game players are in the 18-49 age group. With the average player age being 35. Males play 53% of games with females making up the other 47%. 34% of 7th and 8th grade males are cited as playing 6-7 days a week. Girls play around 12%, respectively. U.S. households bought close to 230 million video games in 2011.
Does Violent Games Create Violent Actions?
According to the collected data,the top three video games played by males was Grand Theft Auto, Madden Football, and Halo, respectively. Madden being a sports game, while the other two are described as blood and gore, intense violence, and use of drugs.
However,figures show that youth violence that involves serious violent crimes fell from 115,000 in 1995 to less than 74,000 in 2008. While video game sales exponentially increased during that same time period. While violent crime of youth has dropped drastically, (36%), others factors have not.
Problem Behavior in Youth
While violent crime by youth has substantially dropped over the last 10 years, problem behavior has not declined as much. Approximately 55% of male 9-12th graders were involved in a physical fight in 1993. That margin has only declined to around 45% in 2007. Only a 10% drop.
Females faired a bit better from 34% being in a physical altercation in 1993 to around 27% in 2007.
What is interesting in this analyses is the percentage of males and female gamers who was involved in problem behavior based on whether they played mature rated games like Grand Theft Auto and Halo type games or not.
51% of male, 9th-12th graders that played mature rated games had been in a physical fight, and 60% hit or beat someone up. 23% damaged property just for fun. 60% of those students got into trouble with a principal or teacher, and 35% received poor grades on their report cards. 22% got suspended from school
When it came to females, the results are not much better. 40% that played mature games got into a fight. 49% hit or beat someone. 15% damaged property for fun. 49% got in trouble with principals or teachers. 37% got poor grades. 22% of females got suspended.
What Does This Say?
The overall percentage of males and females, grade 9-12 involved in problem behavior that played mature rated games verses students that played non-mature rated games was approximately 1.5 times higher.
It shows an indication that while mature rated gaming does not seem to produce people who get involved in hard, violent crime like killing and murder. On the other hand it does suggest that it has increased problem behavior for crimes like assault and misdemeanors. It also shows a marked increase for getting into trouble with peers or authoritative figures.
