# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
FRIDAY, April 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- A small study offers a mixed view on whether video games may make kids more aggressive.

Those children who spend more time playing games might be slightly likelier to be hyperactive and to get into fights. But violent video games seem to have no effect on behavior, according to British researchers.

The researchers also said they discovered that kids who played video games for less than an hour a day were more likely to be less aggressive and rated as better-behaved by their teachers.

And even if spending a lot of time playing video games every day may alter the way kids act in everyday life, "all observed behaviors were very small in magnitude, suggesting only a minor relationship at best and that games do not have as large an impact as some parents and practitioners worry," said study author Andrew Przybylski. He is an experimental psychologist at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University.

In the study, researchers looked at 217 teens, 110 males and 107 females, and examined both their video game-playing habits and their personalities as judged by their teachers.

A bit more than half of the girls had never played video games, compared to just 13 percent of the boys. Sixteen percent (18) of the boys played video games more than three hours a day, compared to 3 percent (4) of the girls.

The researchers found that the 22 kids who played video games the most each day were the likeliest to have behavioral problems, exhibit hyperactivity and have trouble academically, although the effects were "quite small in magnitude," Przybylski said. He added that there's no way to know whether kids are drawn to video games because of their personalities, or whether video games alter their personalities.

The kinds of video games that the kids played appeared to have no effect after the researchers adjusted their statistics so factors such as gender wouldn't have an effect.

And there was even an unexpected benefit to playing for short amounts of time each day, the study authors found.

"Individuals who regularly played less than an hour a day of any type of game were actually less likely than their non-playing peers to fight with or bully peers and were rated as better behaved by their teachers," said study co-author Allison Fine Mishkin, a graduate student at Oxford Internet Institute. "This suggests that, in small doses, video games are a valuable and valid form of play which we do not need to fear."

Christopher Ferguson, chair of the psychology department at Stetson University in Florida and a leading critic of studies linking violence to movies and video games, praised the study. In this research area, "it is often difficult to discern good science from overstated panic," he said.

The new study is "in many ways an improvement over what has come before," he added, especially since it relies on perceptions from teachers about the behavior of kids, not the self-descriptions of the kids themselves.

Craig Anderson, director of the Center for the Study of Violence at Iowa State University, has a different view. He said the study doesn't say much that's new, and he believes that violent video games have been proven to increase aggressive behavior and thinking.

Dr. Claire McCarthy, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, wouldn't go so far as to criticize video games. Considering the lack of definitive research, "we need to be a little bit careful when it comes to vilifying video games," she said. "And we are unlikely to ever know all the answers about the true effects of video games," she added.

"All we can really do is use our common sense, and make sure that kids get plenty of time away from screens, too," McCarthy said. "Playing video games doesn't usually help kids learn the behavioral skills they need to succeed. They still need to get shut off sometimes."

The study was published online recently in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture.
More information
For more about video games and teens, visit the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Violent Video Games Don't Influence Kids' Behavior: Study

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
FRIDAY, April 3, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- A small study offers a mixed view on whether video games may make kids more aggressive. Those children who spend more time playing games might be slightly likelier to be hyperactive and to get into fights.

# data[].attributes.headline
Why Video Games Don't Cause Violence in Society

# data[].attributes.subject
Why Video Games Don't Cause Violence in Society

# data[].attributes.body
There are many video games like Call of Duty that are very violent. Does that mean that the amount of violence will lead to a bunch of psychotic murderers in our society in the nearby future? On the contrary, video games can actually be good for you, as long as you don't play them too often.

In my opinion, violence in video games doesn't cause violence in our society. First of all, video games are only a small factor when compared to other factors that could cause violence like physical abuse. Second of all, not all video games are violent. There's a particular game that is my favorite that involves being nice to everyone and giving them a chance no matter how psychotic they are, unless you decide to go down the genocide route. Also, by the age of seven, children can distinguish when something's real or just pure fantasy.

Yes, video games can be bad for you when played in huge amounts.
When played in small amounts, video games can have beneficial effects. First of all, video games can allow you to release stress and anger from real life, which would result to LESS violence. In a study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, children played video games because it helped them deal with their negative emotions and stress. Video games can also increase coordination and reaction skills as demonstrated by an experiment conducted by scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Basically, high school gamers, college gamers, and medical professionals competed to see who could perform a better virtual surgery. The experiment tested skills in 32 different categories including hand-eye coordination, pressure on the controls, and timing. The high school students, who played 2 hours a day, outperformed the college gamers and the medical professionals. Another benefit is that it can help people with dyslexia. A study in the University of Padua shows evidence for this. The study had two groups of children aged 7-13 with each group playing a different game. The first group of children played an action game called "Rayman Raving Rabids" while the second group played a more mellow game. The children that played the action game were able to read quicker and more accurately. The action game helped increase the kids' attention spans, which is an important skill in reading.

# data[].attributes.headline
10 Reasons Why Video Games Are Good For You Youtube VIdeo

# data[].attributes.subject
10 Reasons Why Video Games Are Good For You Youtube VIdeo

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
10 Reasons Why Video Games Are Good For You

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
From boosting reaction time to building confidence and social skills, we count down 10 Reasons Why Video Games Are Good For You.

# data[].attributes.headline
9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For you

# data[].attributes.subject
9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For you

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Your mother was wrong. Video games aren't bad for you. They're actually making your life better.

Despite hand-wringing over a supposed connection between violence and video games ( hint: there isn't any), numerous academic studies indicate that playing video games has many psychological and even physical benefits.

Taken together, it turns out video games actually make you a better human being.

1. 'Mario' Is Like Steroids For Your Brain

To better understand how video games affect the brain, German researchers conducted a study, which was released this week. They asked 23 adults with a median age of 25 to play "Super Mario 64" for 30 minutes a day over a period of two months. A separate control group did not play video games at all.

Examining the brains of the two groups using an MRI machine, they found that the gaming group had a rise in gray matter in the right hippocampus, right prefrontal cortex and the cerebellum -- areas of the brain responsible for spatial navigation, memory formation, strategic planning and fine motor skills in the hands.

"While previous studies have shown differences in brain structure of video gamers, the present study can demonstrate the direct causal link between video gaming and a volumetric brain increase," study leader Simone Kühn said. "This proves that specific brain regions can be trained by means of video games."

Kühn and her colleagues concluded that video games could potentially be used as a therapy for patients with mental disorders that cause brain regions to shrink or be altered. Such diseases include schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder and Alzheimer's.
2. 'Starcraft' May Make You Smarter
In August, British researchers found that certain video games, particularly strategic games such as "Starcraft," can increase a player's "brain flexibility," which the scientists described as "a cornerstone of human intelligence."

The study, conducted at Queen Mary University of London and University College London, is based on psychological tests conducted before and after 72 volunteers played "Starcraft" or the life-simulation game "The Sims" for 40 hours over six to eight weeks. They found that participants assigned to play "Starcraft" experienced gains in their performance on psychological tests, completing cognitive flexibility tasks with greater speed and accuracy.
3. Video Games May Slow The Aging Process
"We need to understand now what exactly about these games is leading to these changes, and whether these cognitive boosts are permanent or if they dwindle over time," study researcher Brian Glass said in August. "Once we have that understanding, it could become possible to develop clinical interventions for symptoms related to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or traumatic brain injuries, for example."

Playing brain-teasing game for just two hours a week may help slow the degree of mental decay associated with the natural aging process, according to a study this year from the University of Iowa.

A study of 681 healthy individuals ages 50 and older revealed that playing 10 hours of a specially designed video game was able to stall the natural decline of different cognitive skills by up to seven years, in some cases.
4. They May Help Dyslexic Kids Read Better
Over five to eight weeks, one group of seniors was given computerized crossword puzzles while three other groups played a computer game called "Road Tour." The game involves matching pictures of vehicles while remembering the location of a particular road sign as more and more "distractors" appear as the player advanced. The experience is meant to mirror the difficulty older drivers have when they have to process information from multiple points of view at an intersection.

"Whether it's a specially manufactured game or something like 'World of Warcraft,' games are cognitively complex and require mental energy and abilities to play them," said Jason Allaire, an associate professor in the department of psychology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, who was not involved with the study. "Whenever you do anything that requires mental energy, you're exercising your abilities -- it's just like if you exercise your muscles, you get stronger."

A study from the University of Padua throws cold water on the idea that video games are bad for the brains of young children. In February, the Italian researchers presented evidence that playing fast-paced video games can improve the reading skills of children with dyslexia.

The team separated children age 7 to 13 into two groups, one of which played an action game called "Rayman Raving Rabids" while the other played a lower tempo game. When the reading skills of the children were tested afterwards, those who played the action game were capable of reading faster and more accurately. The authors of the study hypothesized that the action games helps kids increase their attention spans, a skill considered crucial to reading.

5. Teen Gamers End Up Better At Virtual Surgery Than Real Medical Residents

In November 2012, scientists at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston conducted an experiment in which high school gamers, college gamers and medical residents competed to see who could perform better virtual surgery. The players completed a series of tasks on a device that replicated real surgeries and measured skills in 32 different categories, such as hand-eye coordination, pressure on the controls and timing.

The high school sophomores, who played video games two hours a day, dramatically outperformed both the college gamers (who played four hours of video games daily) and the medical residents (who had only sporadic gaming experience). Trying to be a real surgeon must have gotten in the way.

Still, Sami Kilic, a University of Texas professor who helped design the experiment, reasonably insisted that students interested in a career in medicine should still focus on academics, not virtual surgery. However, a separate study found that surgeons who played video games for at least 3 hours a week saw 37 percent fewer mistakes during laparoscopic surgery. 6. Video Games Can Be A Pain Reliever

In 2010, researchers presented evidence at the American Pain Society's annual scientific meeting that video games, specifically ones with an emphasis on virtual reality, have proven effective in reducing anxiety or pain caused by medical procedures or chronic illness. The study found that when people undergoing chemotherapy or other serious treatments were immersed in a virtual gaming world, they reported significantly less stress and fear. In addition, those being treated for burn wounds found a decline in their pain ratings by rates of 30 to 50 percent.

Referencing the motion sensor technology of the Xbox Kinect or the Wii, Charles Friedman of the Pain Relief Centers said that gaming allows the brain to stay busy using other senses instead of focusing on pain. Gaming also releases endorphins in the brain, a chemical that is generally associated with happiness and capable of numbing discomfort.

7. 'Call Of Duty' Can Improve Your Eyesight

According to a University of Rochester study, shooting bad guys in video games can unexpectedly give you better vision.

In the 2009 study, expert action gamers played first-person shooting games like "Unreal Tournament 2004" and "Call of Duty" while non-experienced action gamers played "The Sims 2." Those playing the shoot-'em-up games saw a boost in their "contrast sensitivity function," or the ability to discern subtle changes in the brightness of an image. Considered one of first of the visual aptitudes to diminish over time, the ability to pick out bright patches is key to tasks like driving at night.

The study's authors believe that the process of locating and aiming at enemies exercised gamers' eyes. And with bad guys unpredictably popping up, the shooting games also helped players learn to analyze optical data on the fly. The researchers believe their study shows the potential of video games -- particularly action games -- to serve as an aid in the way we correct bad eyesight.

8. Video Games Can Be As Effective As One-On-One Counseling

While video games are often blamed as a cause of mental illness, studies have shown that they can also be a cure.

In 2012, researchers in New Zealand created a novel way to treat depressed teenagers with "SPARX," a video game designed to give therapy to kids in a way that was more fun and active than traditional counseling. The acronym stands for "smart, positive, active, realistic and x-factor thoughts," strategies that have been commonly used to battle depression.

The study included 168 teens with an average age of 15 that had previously sought help or struggled with depression. Half of the group was randomly assigned to "treatment as usual," which was usually one-on-one counseling over five sessions. The other half played SPARX, a fantasy game where the subjects created avatars in order to squash "gloomy negative automatic thoughts," and restore order in the virtual world. Each level taught players basic facts about depression, strategies for dealing with intense negative emotions and relaxation techniques.

The results for the SPARX group were extremely encouraging. About 44 percent of SPARX players recovered completely from depression while only 26 percent of the control group were no longer depressed.

9. They Can Help Stroke Victims More Fully Recover

For stroke victims, recovery can be a long or even impossible process. Seeking a more affordable and effective approach to restoring speech and movement after a stroke, Debbie Rand of Tel Aviv University turned to video games.

Individuals who had a stroke one to seven years before the study were assigned to one of two groups. The first did traditional rehabilitation exercises while the other played video games on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

For an occupational therapist like Rand, the advantages of using video games for rehabilitation were clear in several ways. While both groups showed improvement in things like grip, only the video game group continued to show improvement in hand strength after the treatment. The video gamers not only performed double the number of arm movements during each session, their movements were "goal-directed" and not merely repetitive exercises.

"When individuals plan their movements and move deliberately in order to accomplish a specific goal, it is likely to have a positive impact on brain plasticity," Rand said, noting that because video games are fun and enjoyable, subjects are more likely to commit fully to the rehab.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
9 Ways Video Games Can Actually Be Good For You

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Your mother was wrong. Video games aren't bad for you. They're actually making your life better. Despite hand-wringing over a supposed connection between violence and video games ( hint: there isn't any), numerous academic studies indicate that playing video games has many psychological and even physical benefits.

# data[].attributes.headline
Link to Study That Shows That Violent Video Games Make Children More Violent

# data[].attributes.subject
Link to Study That Shows That Violent Video Games Make Children More Violent

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Playing violent video games is no more likely to be damaging to young children's behaviour than those considered harmless, an Oxford University study suggests.

Research involving British primary schoolchildren found that the length of time young people spend playing games, rather than their content, could have an effect on their behaviour or school performance - and even then only slightly so.

But it concluded that fears that a generation of young people are growing up with their development impaired by exposure to violent video games are no more likely to be borne out than previous "moral panics" over television and other media.

The study, published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Study finds no evidence violent video games make children aggressive

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Playing violent video games is no more likely to be damaging to young children's behaviour than those considered harmless, an Oxford University study suggests. Research involving British primary schoolchildren found that the length of time young people spend playing games, rather than their content, could have an effect on their behaviour or school performance - and even then only slightly so.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Around 73% of American kids age 2-17 played video games in 2019, a 6% increase over 2018. Video games accounted for 17% of kids' entertainment time and 11% of their entertainment spending. The global video game industry was worth contributing $159.3 billion in 2020, a 9.3% increase of 9.3% from 2019.

Violent video games have been blamed for school shootings, increases in bullying, and violence towards women. Critics argue that these games desensitize players to violence, reward players for simulating violence, and teach children that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflicts.

Video game advocates contend that a majority of the research on the topic is deeply flawed and that no causal relationship has been found between video games and social violence. They argue that violent video games may provide a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings and may reduce crime. Read more background...

Pro & Con Arguments

Pro 1

Playing violent video games causes more aggression, bullying, and fighting.

60% of middle school boys and 40% of middle school girls who played at least one Mature-rated (M-rated) game hit or beat up someone, compared with 39% of boys and 14% of girls who did not play M-rated games.

Several peer-reviewed studies have shown that children who play M-rated games are more likely to bully and cyberbully their peers, get into physical fights, be hostile, argue with teachers, and show aggression towards their peers throughout the school year.
Read More

Pro 2

Simulating violence such as shooting guns and hand-to-hand combat in video games can cause real-life violent behavior.

Video games often require players to simulate violent actions, such as stabbing, shooting, or dismembering someone with an ax, sword, chainsaw, or other weapons.

Game controllers are so sophisticated and the games are so realistic that simulating the violent acts enhances the learning of those violent behaviors.

A 2015 peer-reviewed study found "compelling evidence that the use of realistic controllers can have a significant effect on the level of cognitive aggression."

Bruce Bartholow, PhD, Professor of Psychology at the University of Missouri, spoke about the effects of simulating violence: "More than any other media, these [violent] video games encourage active participation in violence. From a psychological perspective, video games are excellent teaching tools because they reward players for engaging in certain types of behavior. Unfortunately, in many popular video games, the behavior is violence."
Read More

Pro 3

Many perpetrators of mass shootings played violent video games.

Kevin McCarthy, US Representative (R-CA), stated: "But the idea of these video games that dehumanize individuals to have a game of shooting individuals and others - I've always felt that is a problem for future generations and others. We've watched from studies shown before of what it does to individuals. When you look at these photos of how it [mass shootings] took place, you can see the actions within video games and others."

An FBI school shooter threat assessment stated that a student who makes threats of violence should be considered more credible if he or she also spends "inordinate amounts of time playing video games with violent themes."

Dan Patrick, Republican Lieutenant Governor of Texas, stated: "We've always had guns, always had evil, but I see a video game industry that teaches young people to kill."
Read More

Pro 4

Violent video games desensitize players to real-life violence.

Desensitization to violence was defined in a Journal of Experimental Social Psychology peer-reviewed study as "a reduction in emotion-related physiological reactivity to real violence."

The study found that just 20 minutes of playing a violent video game "can cause people to become less physiologically aroused by real violence." People desensitized to violence are more likely to commit a violent act.

By age 18, American children will have seen 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence depicted in violent video games, movies, and television.

A Sep. 2011 peer-reviewed study found a causal link between violent video game exposure and an increase in aggression as a result of a reduction in the brain's response to depictions of real-life violence.

In a 2005 peer-reviewed study, violent video game exposure was linked to reduced P300 amplitudes in the brain, which is associated with desensitization to violence and increases in aggressive behavior.
Read More

Pro 5

By inhabiting violent characters in video games, children are more likely to imitate the behaviors of those characters and have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy.

US Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in his dissent in Brown v. ESA that "the closer a child's behavior comes, not to watching, but to acting out horrific violence, the greater the potential psychological harm."
Read More

Pro 6

Exposure to violent video games is linked to lower empathy and decreased kindness.

Empathy, the ability to understand and enter into another's feelings is believed to inhibit aggressive behavior. In a study of 150 fourth and fifth graders by Jeanne Funk, PhD, Distinguished University Professor of Psychology at the University of Toledo, violent video games were the only type of media associated with lower empathy.

Eight independent tests measuring the impact of violent video games on prosocial behavior found a significant negative effect, leading to the conclusion that "exposure to violent video games is negatively correlated with helping in the real world."

A meta-analysis of 130 international studies with over 130,000 participants concluded that violent video games "increase aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and aggressive behaviors, and decrease empathic feelings and prosocial behaviors."
Read More

Pro 7

Video games that portray violence against women lead to more harmful attitudes and sexually violent actions towards women.

A 1998 peer-reviewed study found that 21% of games sampled involved violence against women, while 28% portrayed them as sex objects.

Exposure to sexual violence in video games is linked to increases in violence towards women and false attitudes about rape, such as that women incite men to rape or that women secretly desire rape.

Carole Lieberman, MD, a media psychiatrist, stated, "The more video games a person plays that have violent sexual content, the more likely one is to become desensitized to violent sexual acts and commit them."
Read More

Pro 8

Violent video games reinforce fighting as a means of dealing with conflict by rewarding the use of violent action with increased life force, more weapons, moving on to higher levels, and more.
Read More

Pro 9

The US military uses violent video games to train soldiers to kill.

The US Marine Corps licensed Doom II in 1996 to create Marine Doom in order to train soldiers. In 2002, the US Army released first-person shooter game America's Army to recruit soldiers and prepare recruits for the battlefield.

While the military may benefit from training soldiers to kill using video games, kids who are exposed to these games lack the discipline and structure of the armed forces and may become more susceptible to being violent.

Dave Grossman, retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army and former West Point psychology professor, stated: "[T]hrough interactive point-and-shoot video games, modern nations are indiscriminately introducing to their children the same weapons technology that major armies and law enforcement agencies around the world use to 'turn off' the midbrain 'safety catch'" that prevents most people from killing.
Read More

Con 1

Studies have shown violent video games may cause aggression, not violence. Further, any competitive video game or activity may cause aggression.

A peer-reviewed study in Psychology of Violence determined that the competitive nature of a video game was related to aggressive behavior, regardless of whether the game contained violent content. The researchers concluded: "Because past studies have failed to equate the violent and nonviolent video games on competitiveness, difficulty, and pace of action simultaneously, researchers may have attributed too much of the variability in aggression to the violent content." A follow-up study tracked high school students for four years and came to the same conclusion: the competitive nature of the games led to the increased hostile behavior.
Read More

Con 2

Violent video games are a convenient scapegoat for those who would rather not deal with the actual causes of violence in the US.

Patrick Markey, PhD, Psychology Professor at Villanova University, stated: "The general story is people who play video games right after might be a little hopped up and jerky but it doesn't fundamentally alter who they are. It is like going to see a sad movie. It might make you cry but it doesn't make you clinically depressed... Politicians on both sides go after video games it is this weird unifying force. It makes them look like they are doing something... They [violent video games] look scary. But research just doesn't support that there's a link [to violent behavior]."

Markey also explained, "Because video games are disproportionately blamed as a culprit for mass shootings committed by White perpetrators, video game 'blaming' can be viewed as flagging a racial issue. This is because there is a stereotypical association between racial minorities and violent crime."

Andrew Przybylski, PhD, Associate Professor, and Senior Research Fellow and Director of Research at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, stated: "Games have only become more realistic. The players of games and violent games have only become more diverse. And they're played all around the world now. But the only place where you see this kind of narrative still hold any water, that games and violence are related to each other, is in the United States. [And, by blaming video games for violence,] we reduce the value of the political discourse on the topic, because we're looking for easy answers instead of facing hard truths."

Hillary Clinton, JD, Former Secretary of State and First Lady, tweeted, "People suffer from mental illness in every other country on earth; people play video games in virtually every other country on earth. The difference is the guns."
Read More

Con 3

Simple statistics do not support the claim that violent video games cause mass shootings or other violence.

Katherine Newman, PhD, Dean of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, explained: "Millions of young people play video games full of fistfights, blazing guns, and body slams... Yet only a minuscule fraction of the consumers become violent."

A report by the US Secret Service and US Department of Education examined 37 incidents of targeted school violence between 1974 and 2000. Of the 41 attackers studied, 27% had an interest in violent movies, 24% in violent books, and 37% exhibited interest in their own violent writings, while only 12% showed interest in violent video games. The report did not find a relationship between playing violent video games and school shootings.

Patrick M. Markey, PhD, Director of the Interpersonal Research Laboratory at Villanova University, stated, "90% of young males play video games. Finding that a young man who committed a violent crime also played a popular video game, such as Call of Duty, Halo, or Grand Theft Auto, is as pointless as pointing out that the criminal also wore socks."

Further, gun violence is less prevalent in countries with high video game use. A study of the countries representing the 10 largest video game markets internationally found no correlation between playing video games and gun-related killings. Even though US gun violence is high, the nine other countries with the highest video game usage have some of the lowest violent crime rates (and eight of those countries spend more per capita on video games than the United States).
Read More

Con 4

As sales of violent video games have significantly increased, violent juvenile crime rates have significantly decreased.

Total US sales of video game hardware and software increased 204% from 1994 to 2014, reaching $13.1 billion in 2014, while violent crimes decreased 37% and murders by juveniles acting alone fell 76% in that same period.

An Aug. 2014 peer-reviewed study found that: "Monthly sales of video games were related to concurrent decreases in aggravated assaults."
Read More

Con 5

Studies have shown that violent video games can have a positive effect on kindness, civic engagement, and prosocial behaviors.

Research shows that playing violent video games can induce a feeling of guilt that leads to increased prosocial behavior (positive actions that benefit others) in the real world.
Read More

Con 6

Many risk factors are associated with youth violence, but video games are not among them.

The US Surgeon General's list of risk factors for youth violence included abusive parents, poverty, neglect, neighborhood crime, being male, substance use, and mental health problems, but not video games.

A peer-reviewed study even found a "real and significant" effect of hot weather on homicides and aggravated assaults, showing that heat is a risk factor for violence.
Read More

Con 7

Violent video game players know the difference between virtual violence in the context of a game and appropriate behavior in the real world.

By age seven, children can distinguish fantasy from reality, and can tell the difference between video game violence and real-world violence. Video game players understand they are playing a game. Kids see fantasy violence all the time, from Harry Potter and the Minions to Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry. Their ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality prevents them from emulating video game violence in real life. Exposure to fantasy is important for kids. Fisher-Price toy company stated: "Pretending is more than play: it's a major part of a child's development. Fantasy not only develops creative thinking, it's also a way for children to deal with situations and problems that concern them."
Read More

Con 8

Violent video games provide opportunities for children to explore consequences of violent actions, develop their moral compasses and release their stress and anger (catharsis) in the game, leading to less real world aggression.

A peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that children, especially boys, play video games as a means of managing their emotions: "61.9% of boys played to 'help me relax,' 47.8% because 'it helps me forget my problems,' and 45.4% because 'it helps me get my anger out."

Researchers point to the cathartic effect of video games as a possible reason for why higher game sales have been associated with lower crime rates. [84] A peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Adolescent Research concluded that "Boys use games to experience fantasies of power and fame, to explore and master what they perceive as exciting and realistic environments (but distinct from real life), to work through angry feelings or relieve stress, and as social tools." The games serve as a substitute for rough-and-tumble play.
Read More

Con 9

Studies claiming a causal link between video game violence and real life violence are flawed.
Read More

Did You Know?

1.

Video game sales set a record in Mar. 2020, with Americans spending $5.6 billion on hardware, accessories, and content, a continuation of a years-long upward trend.

2.

The global video game industry was worth contributing $159.3 billion in 2020, a 9.3% increase of 9.3% from 2019.

3.

Around 73% of American kids age 2-17 played video games in 2019, a 6% increase over 2018 and a continuation of a years-long upward trend.

4.

An Aug. 2015 report from the American Psychological Association determined that playing violent video games is linked to increased aggression, but it did not find sufficient evidence of a link between the games and increased violence.

5.

Video games accounted for 17% of kids' entertainment time and 11% of their entertainment spending in 2019.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Do Video Games Cause Violence? 9 Pros and Cons

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Around 73% of American kids age 2-17 played video games in 2019, a 6% increase over 2018. Video games accounted for 17% of kids' entertainment time and 11% of their entertainment spending. The global video game industry was worth contributing $159.3 billion in 2020, a 9.3% increase of 9.3% from 2019.