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A brief history of blaming video games for mass murder - Polygon

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Like tens of millions of young Americans, Ian Binnie plays video games, including the wildly popular "Grand Theft Auto." But on this day, he was mowing down passersby, shooting police officers, and taking close aim at a food vendor as part of a controlled experiment at Ohio State University, where Binnie is a sophomore.

After 15 minutes of intense action, he was asked to answer questions, choose from 34 adjectives, including mean, nervous, scared, strong, to describe his feelings, and even decide how much chili powder to pour into the drink of a would-be opponent, all designed to measure any effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior.

There have been reports that the Newtown killer, Adam Lanza, spent hours playing games such as "World of Warcraft," but nothing so far links that to the rampage that left 20 children dead. Still, as the nation searches for answers, violent media are again under scrutiny.

Psychology professor Brad Bushman, a leading scholar in the field for several decades and the man behind the Ohio State research, says the effects are clearly measurable, and more so with the direct "you pull the trigger" nature of newer 3-D games.

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Can Violent Video Games Play a Role in Violent Behavior?

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Like tens of millions of young Americans, Ian Binnie plays video games, including the wildly popular "Grand Theft Auto." But on this day, he was mowing down passersby, shooting police officers, and taking close aim at a food vendor as part of a controlled experiment at Ohio State University, where Binnie is a sophomore.

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https://dotesports.com/general/news/more-people-in-united-states-play-video-games-than-ever-before-esa-reports?scrlybrkr=c667bd7f#&gid=1&pid=gallery-1

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Figure 1: Gaming vs Social Media & Depression. Social Media and Computer use were associated with significantly more depression than video games and watching TV. The numbers above correspond to differences in depression symptoms on a 28 point scale. Bars are scaled to the magnitude of depression symptoms. Longer bars are worse. The data was obtained from 3,826 adolescents with an average age of 12.7 years old. They were followed for four years.

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6 Qualities Of A Non-Toxic Employee

Top 12 Benefits of Time Tracking Software For Developers

Top 10 Qualities Of A Great Facilitator

Teens on Screens Infographic

It seems like modern kids are constantly plugged in, tapping away on their iPhones, obsessively gaming and SnapChatting. What's just as scary as how much time kids spend on screens is the effect it can have on their health. The Teens on Screens Infographic presents some ways screens may be harming kids' bodies

What a Constantly Plugged-in Life is Doing to Kids' Bodies

Children are 50% more likely to experience pain in their fingers and wrists for every hour per day they play video games.

Children who spend more time in front of scams and less time outside have narrower blood vessels in their eyes - an issue that's been linked to cardiovascular disease in adults.

Researchers have described the phenomenon that results when teens spend too much time on social networking sites as Facebook Depression.

61% of obese boys, and 63% of obese girls, reported watching television for two or more hours each day.

An estimated 12.5% of children and adolescents ages 6-19 have suffered permanent damage to their hearing from excessive exposure to noise.

84% of 18- to 24-year-olds admitted to having back pain from being slumped over their phones, known as "iPosture".

In one study, students couldn't concentrate on their homework for more than two minutes without distracting themselves with screens.

Only 20% of adolescents get the recommended nine hours of sleep on school nights, and 45% sleep fewer than 8 hours, in part due to attention-stealing devices.

While it would be impossible to rid your kids' lives of technology completely -- and you wouldn't want to, because of its many joys and benefits -- parents can take a few measures to help prevent its negative mental and physical side effects.

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Teens on Screens Infographic - e-Learning Infographics

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6 Qualities Of A Non-Toxic Employee Top 12 Benefits of Time Tracking Software For Developers Top 10 Qualities Of A Great Facilitator It seems like modern kids are constantly plugged in, tapping away on their iPhones, obsessively gaming and SnapChatting.

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NEW YORK (AP) - Do video games trigger violent behavior? Scientific studies have found no link. But the persistent theory is back in the headlines following the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas , on Saturday.

An online manifesto thought to be authored by the gunman briefly mentioned the combat game "Call of Duty." Then President Donald Trump weighed in, charging Monday that "gruesome and grisly video games" contribute to a "glorification of violence."

Trump's statements were more reserved than during his last brush with the subject in 2018, when he called video games "vicious" and summoned game-industry executives to meet at the White House , to little lasting effect.

The Entertainment Software Association, the biggest video game trade group, reiterated its position that there is no causal connection between video games and violence.

"More than 165 million Americans enjoy video games, and billions of people play video games worldwide, the group said in a statement. "Yet other societies, where video games are played as avidly, do not contend with the tragic levels of violence that occur in the U.S."

Activision Blizzard did not immediately respond to a request for comment about "Call of Duty."

WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SHOW?

"There are no longitudinal studies that show a link between violence and video games," said Benjamin Burroughs, a professor of emerging media at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "Certainly, there is no linkage to gun violence."

Burroughs said that some studies show a short-term increase in aggressive thoughts and feelings after playing video games, but nothing that rises to the level of violence.

"Plenty of gamers and get upset when they lose or feel the game was 'cheating,' but it doesn't lead to violent outputs," he said.

In 2006, a small study by Indiana University researchers found that teenagers who played violent video games showed higher levels of emotional arousal but less activity in the parts of the brain associated with the ability to plan, control and direct thoughts and behavior.

Patrick Markey, a psychology professor at Villanova University who focuses on video games, found in his research that men who commit severe acts of violence actually play violent video games less than the average male. About 20 percent were interested in violent video games, compared with 70 percent of the general population, he explained in his 2017 book "Moral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games Is Wrong."

Another study by Markey and his colleagues showed that violence tends to dip when a new violent movie or video game comes out, possibility because people are at home playing the game or in theaters watching the movie.

"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," he said. "It is like going to see a sad movie. It might make you cry but it doesn't make you clinically depressed."

WHY DOES THIS THEORY PERSIST?

The theory persists in part because politicians on both sides of the aisle have taken it up as an easy target, since it lacks a powerful lobby like, say, the National Rifle Association.

In 2013, after the shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newton, Connecticut, Vice President Joe Biden held three days of wide-ranging talks on gun violence prevention, including a meeting with video game industry executives. After the 2013 meetings wrapped, the White House called on research on the effect of media and video games on gun violence but nothing substantial came out of that.

"Politicians on both sides go after video games it is this weird unifying force," Markey said. "It makes them look like they are doing something."

Another reason, according to Markey, is that video games can look disturbing to people who aren't gamers.

"They look scary. But research just doesn't support that there's a link" to violent behavior, he said.

DO VIDEO GAMES NEED A RATINGS SYSTEM?

Actually, they already have one dating back to the 1990s. That didn't stop Trump from calling for one in 2018.

Following an outcry over violent games such as 1992's "Mortal Kombat," the Entertainment Software Ratings Board was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association to give each game a rating based on five categories ranging from "E? for "Everyone" to an "Adults Only" rating for those 18 and older.

The ratings suggest an age range and describe the possibly objectionable features of games. The "mature" rating, for example, indicates the content is "generally suitable for ages 17 and up" and that the game "may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language."

In 2011, the Supreme Court rejected a California law banning the sale of violent video games to children. The decision found that video games, like other media, are protected by the First Amendment.

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No, there's still no link between video games and violence

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NEW YORK (AP) - Do video games trigger violent behavior? Scientific studies have found no link. But the persistent theory is back in the headlines following the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas , on Saturday. An online manifesto thought to be authored by the gunman briefly mentioned the combat game "Call of Duty."

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After mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, killed 31 people in less than 24 hours, Walmart is ordering its stores to take down violent video game displays. Some Republicans ― including the president ― have blamed video games for the bloodshed, despite no evidence that they influenced either attack.

"We've taken this action out of respect for the incidents of the past week, and this action does not reflect a long-term change in our video game assortment," corporate spokesperson Tara House told HuffPost on Friday. "We are focused on assisting our associates and their families, as well as supporting the community, as we continue a thoughtful and thorough review of our policies."

House did not elaborate on why Walmart is continuing to sell guns.

On Wednesday, an image circulated on social media of Walmart's directive, which reads: "Immediate Action: Remove Signing and Displays Referencing Violence."

The memo instructs stores to turn off video game display consoles showing graphic imagery, asking employees to focus in particular on Xbox and PlayStation units. Hunting season videos playing in the Sporting Goods section are also to be switched off, and signage "referencing combat or any third-person shooter video games" is to be removed.

Apparently Walmart is telling its employees to take down displays that show violent video games, specifically shooters, as well as movies and hunting videos. pic.twitter.com/2N3t4B86tf
- Kenneth Shepard (@shepardcdr) August 7, 2019

On Saturday, a gunman killed 22 people at an El Paso Walmart. Police told The New York Times he posted a white supremacist manifesto online minutes before opening fire. The four-page hate-filled screed railed against "the Hispanic invasion of Texas," referring to immigrants as "instigators" and warning against "race-mixing."

Authorities are treating the case as domestic terrorism, and prosecutors will seek federal hate crime charges against the gunman.

On Sunday, another gunman opened fire in Dayton's downtown district, leaving nine people dead and 27 injured. Police killed the shooter seconds into his rampage.

Though Walmart stopped selling assault rifles in 2015, it remains one of the nation's largest retailers of guns and ammunition, a company spokesman told PolitiFact.

On Monday, President Donald Trump cited the accessibility of " gruesome and grisly video games " as an issue in the wake of the violence, rather than the widespread availability of firearms in America.

"It is too easy today for a troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence," he said during a White House press conference. "We must stop or substantially reduce this, and it has to begin immediately."

Describing video games as the gateway to mass shootings has become a talking point for members of the GOP who have sought to divert attention from calls for gun control and outcry over the president's history of xenophobic and racist rhetoric that critics fear is simply a dog whistle to white supremacists.

Studies on the potential link between video games and aggressive behavior have yielded mixed results, providing no absolute certainty that the pastime has substantial psychological impacts.

In February, Oxford University researchers reported that they "found no relationship between aggressive behaviour in teenagers and the amount of time spent playing violent video games."

In 2016, Dr. Whitney DeCamp, a sociology professor at Western Michigan University, came to a similar conclusion, finding that "violent video games were a poor predictor of violent behavior."

However, in 2015, the American Psychological Association stated that research showed "a direct association between violent video game use and aggressive outcomes." The following year, the American Academy of Pediatrics cautioned that more than 400 studies had found "a significant association between exposure to media violence and aggressive behavior."

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Walmart Removes Violent Video Game Displays After Shootings, Still Sells Guns

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After mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, killed 31 people in less than 24 hours, Walmart is ordering its stores to take down violent video game displays. Some Republicans ― including the president ― have blamed video games for the bloodshed, despite no evidence that they influenced either attack.

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Apex Legends' EXP Invitational tournament highlights will no longer be shown on ESPN 2 as they had previously been scheduled. According to an email obtained by Rod "Slasher" Breslau, the network decided to delay the broadcast due to the tragic mass shootings that occurred last weekend. The scheduling change has been confirmed by Polygon.

"Out of respect for the victims and all those impacted by the recent shootings, ABC will no longer air 'EXP Invitational APEX Legends at X Games' on Sunday," ESPN said in an email sent to affiliate networks. In its place, ESPN will air an episode of its E:60 series about a tragic bus crash.

ESPN's broadcast of the tournament is being rescheduled to Oct. 6 at 5 p.m. ET on ESPN 2, with reruns to follow on Oct. 15 and Oct. 27.

The EXP Invitational competition itself already aired on ESPN's streaming services, Twitch, and YouTube channels last weekend. The program on Aug. 11 would have been a collection of highlights that served as a recap of the tournament.

According to the email obtained by Breslau, the internal announcement of this schedule change was made Tuesday, Aug. 6, just one day after President Trump blamed the mass shootings in both El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, in part on violence in the media, including video games.

"We must stop the glorification of violence in our society," Trump said during a press conference on Monday. "This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. We must stop or substantially reduce this."

The Entertainment Software Association, the video game industry's largest lobbying organization, responded to President Trump's claims quickly. "More than 165 million Americans enjoy video games," said an ESA spokesperson, "and billions of people play video games worldwide. Yet other societies, where video games are played as avidly, do not contend with the tragic levels of violence that occur in the US."

Deflecting blame for mass shootings toward the video game industry is commonplace in the current administration. Meanwhile, studies have shown no link between video games and real-world violence.

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ESPN delays Apex Legends tournament broadcast after mass shootings

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Apex Legends ' EXP Invitational tournament highlights will no longer be shown on ESPN 2 as they had previously been scheduled. According to an email obtained by Rod "Slasher" Breslau, the network decided to delay the broadcast due to the tragic mass shootings that occurred last weekend.

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Why the focus on gaming?
As the country struggles to find an explanation for mass shootings, many elected officials have pointed a finger at violent video games. One of the top video game genres is "first-person shooter," where players get points for stalking and slaughtering other people; terminology from these games is being used by some of the angry young men who have perpetrated the waves of massacres that have stunned Americans. In April, after a 19-year-old indicated on the message board 8chan that he was going to shoot up a synagogue in Poway, California, another 8chan user urged him to "get a high score" - as in, kill a record number of people. Many recent shooters have idolized Anders Breivik, the killer of 77 Norwegians in 2011, who said he "trained" by playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In August, a 21-year-old white nationalist who killed 22 people in El Paso, Texas, posted a manifesto about an "invasion" of Hispanics in which he also referenced Call of Duty. In response, President Trump blamed "gruesome and grisly video games."

How violent are today's games?
Grand Theft Auto, one of the top-selling franchises ever, with 285 million games sold, is notorious for letting players "free roam" around a city (based on Los Angeles) and kill random people. The latest installment equips players with Beretta-like pistols, AK-47-like assault rifles, and an arsenal's worth of other guns. In 2003, two teenage brothers said they were acting out Grand Theft Auto 3 when they fatally shot a random motorist in Tennessee. In the gamer world, games like Call of Duty are hailed for their realistic weaponry.

Are shooters usually gamers?
Some are - the Columbine High School killers played the first-person shooter Doom - but just four of the perpetrators of 33 mass murders at U.S. schools between 1980 and 2018 were known to be video gamers. Patrick Markey, a Villanova University psychology professor who studies video games, points out that about 70 percent of U.S. high school students show interest in violent games, but just a tiny minority engage in real violence. Still, the exceptions are disturbing. Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old who killed 26 people at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, was obsessed with violent video games, including one called School Shooting. Nikolas Cruz, the shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, played eight to 15 hours of video games a day, his neighbor said: "It was kill, kill, kill, blow up something, and kill some more, all day."

Do games inspire violence?
About 40 percent of Americans think so, yet researchers have spent decades mostly failing to demonstrate such a link. Last year, German researchers divided 77 participants into three groups: One group played Grand Theft Auto V every day for two months, another group played the nonviolent Sims 3, and a control group didn't play any video games. Researchers then measured participants' aggression levels, interpersonal abilities, anxiety, and impulsivity - and found no significant differences. A Dartmouth College analysis of 24 studies that involved 17,000 adolescents came to a somewhat different conclusion: It found that playing violent video games did correlate with increased physical aggression, particularly among children already prone to antisocial behavior. Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, argues that moderate consumption of violent video games may have no effect, but playing them for hours a day can have "a cumulative negative effect" on susceptible minds, and legitimize mass violence.

What do critics propose?
States and the federal government have had limited ability to regulate video games since 2011, when the Supreme Court struck down on First Amendment grounds a California law restricting the sale of ultraviolent games to minors. Justice Antonin Scalia said those games were no more graphic than Grimm's Fairy Tales, calling the law "the latest episode in a long series of failed attempts to censor violent entertainment for minors." As a result of that ruling, politicians who blame violent video games for mass shootings can offer little in the way of policy solutions. In February, Pennsylvania lawmakers proposed a 10 percent sales tax on violent video games; the revenue would be distributed to schools working to install bulletproof glass, metal detectors, and other safety measures.

What is gaming's defense?
Advocates say video games have served as a scapegoat for real-world violence since the 1970s. They note that the highest concentration of video game players is in Japan and South Korea, where many popular titles are shockingly gory, yet those countries experience a minuscule fraction of the gun violence seen in the U.S. "What's new about the current debate," said gaming sociologist Katherine Cross, "is that the scapegoat of video gaming has never been more nakedly exposed for what it is" - a way of avoiding addressing "our nation's permissive and freewheeling gun culture."

Overlapping cultures
Three mass shooters this year announced their attacks on 8chan, which first rose to prominence in 2014 as a place to discuss video games. The message board became a hotbed for racism and misogyny before it was taken offline in the wake of the El Paso and Dayton mass shootings. In March, Brenton Tarrant, 28, posted a manifesto on 8chan before attacking two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. He live-streamed his massacre with a helmet cam, positioning the camera so the footage looked eerily similar to a first-person shooter. It quickly went viral, drawing millions of views across Facebook, Reddit, and YouTube. Tarrant's white-supremacist screed made him a hero on 8chan. In April, John Earnest, a 20-year-old from San Diego, defaced a mosque with pro-Tarrant slogans before attacking a synagogue and killing one person. Earnest later posted a statement to 8chan, saying, "I've only been lurking for a year and a half, yet what I've learned here is priceless. Tarrant was a catalyst for me personally." The fact that Earnest had a "score" of only one dead, however, drew derision on 8chan, with one poster saying, "What the f--- shooting style is this. Garbage."

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Why the focus on gaming? As the country struggles to find an explanation for mass shootings, many elected officials have pointed a finger at violent video games. One of the top video game genres is "first-person shooter," where players get points for stalking and slaughtering other people; terminology from these games is being used by some of the angry young men who have perpetrated the waves of massacres that have stunned Americans.

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Click the play button to watch the video at the top of the article

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This article is LONG! You should skim it and perhaps click some of the links, but DO NOT get bogged down reading the whole thing!

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In the wake of two mass shootings earlier this month in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, the societal role of video games grabbed a familiar media spotlight. The El Paso shooter briefly referenced Call of Duty, a wildly popular game in which players assume the roles of soldiers during historical and fictional wartime, in his "manifesto." And just this small mention of the video game seemed to have prompted President Donald Trump to return to a theme he's emphasized before when looking to assign greater blame for violent incidents.

"We must stop the glorification of violence in our society," he said in an August 5 press conference. "This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence."

Trump's statement suggesting a link between video games and real-world violence echoed sentiments shared by other lawmakers following the back-to-back mass shootings. It's a response that major media outlets and retailers have also adopted of late; ESPN recently chose to delay broadcasting an esports tournament because of the shootings - a decision that seems to imply the network believes in a link between gaming and real-world violence. And Walmart made a controversial decision to temporarily remove all video game displays from its stores, even as it continues to openly sell guns.

But many members of the public, as well as researchers and some politicians, have counterargued that blaming video games sidesteps the real issue at the root of America's mass shooting problem: a need for stronger gun control. The frenzied debate over video games within the larger conversation around gun violence underscores both how intense the fight over gun control has become and how easily games can become mired in political rhetoric.

But this isn't a new development; blaming video games for real-world violence - any kind of real-world violence - is a longstanding cultural and political habit whose origins date back to the 1970s. It's also arguably part of a larger recurring wave of concern over any pop culture that's been perceived as morally deviant, from rock 'n' roll to the occult, depending on the era. But as mass shootings continue to occur nationwide and attempts to stop them by enacting gun control legislature remain divisive, video games have again become an easy target.

The most recent clamor arose from a clash among several familiar foes. In one corner: politicians like Trump who cite video games as evidence of immoral and violent media's negative societal impact. In another: people who play video games and resist this reading, while also trying to lodge separate critiques of violence within gaming. In another: scientists at odds over whether there are factual and causal links between video games and real-world violence. And in still another: members of the general public who, upon receiving alarmist messages about games from politicians and the news media, react with yet more alarm.

What is new, however, is that recent criticism of the narrative that video games lead to real-world violence seems particularly intensified, and it's coming not just from gamers but also from scientists, some media outlets, even mass shooting survivors: David Hogg, who became a gun control advocate after surviving the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, unveiled a new March for Our Lives gun control initiative in August, pointedly stating in his announcement on Twitter, "We know video games aren't to blame."

And on all sides is a sense that frustration is growing because so little has changed since the last time we had this debate - and since the time before that and the time before that.

There's no science proving a link between video games and real-world violence. But that hasn't quelled a debate that's raged for decades.

Historically, video games have played a verifiable role in a handful of mass shootings, but the science linking video games to gun violence is murky. A vast body of psychology research, most of it conducted before2015, argues strenuously that video games can contribute to increases in aggression. Yet much of this research has been contested by newer, contradictory findings from both psychologists and scholars in different academic fields. For example, Nickie Phillips, a criminologist whose research deals with violence in popular media, told me that "most criminologists are dismissive of a causal link between media and crime," and that they're instead interested in questions of violence as a social construct and how that contributes to political discourse.

That type of research, she stressed, is likely to be less flashy and headline-grabbing than psychology studies, which are more focused on pointing to direct behaviors and their causes. "Social meanings of crime are in transition," Phillips said. "There's not a single variable. As a public, we want a single concrete explanation as to why people commit atrocities, when the answers can be very complex."

The debate over the science is easy to wade into, but it obscures just how preoccupied America is with dangerous media. The oldest moral panic over a video game may be the controversy over a 1976 game called Death Race, which awarded players points for driving over fleeing pedestrians dubbed "gremlins." The game became mired in controversy, even sparking a segment on 60 Minutes. Interestingly, other games of the era that framed their mechanics through wartime violence, like the 1974 military game Tank, failed to cause as much public concern.

In his 2017 book Moral Combat: Why the War on Violent Video Games Is Wrong, psychologist Patrick Markey points out that before concerned citizens fixated on video games, many of them were worried about arcades - not because of the games they contained, but because they were licentious hangouts for teens. (Insert " Ya Got Trouble " here.) By the 1980s, "Arcades were being shut down across the nation by activist parents intent on protecting their children from the dangerous influences lurking within these neon-drenched dungeons," Markey writes.

Then came the franchise that evolved arcade panic into gameplay panic: Midway Games' Mortal Kombat, infamous for its gory "fatality" moves. With its 1992 arcade debut, Mortal Kombat sparked hysteria among concerned adults that led to a 1993 congressional hearing and the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB. The fighting game franchise still incites debate with every new release.

"Like people were really going to go out and rip people's spines out," Cypheroftyr, a gaming critic who typically goes by her internet handle, told me over the phone regarding the mainstream anxiety around Mortal Kombat in the 1990s. Cypheroftyr is an avid player of shooter games and other action games and the founder of the nonprofit I Need Diverse Games.

"I'm old enough to remember the whole Jack Thompson era of trying to say video games are violent and they should be banned," she said, referencing the infamous disbarred obscenity lawyer known for a strident crusade against games and other media that has spanned decades.

Cypheroftyr pointed out that after the Columbine shooting in April 1999, politicians "were trying to blame both video games and Marilyn Manson. It just feels like this is too easy a scapegoat."

Politicians have long seized on the idea that recreational fantasy and fictional media have an influence on real-world evil. In 2007, for example, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) blamed "music and movies and TV and video games" for being full of "pornography and violence," which he argued had influenced the Columbine shooters and, later, the 2007 Virginia Tech shooter.

Video games seem especially prone to garnering political attention in the wake of a tragedy - especially first-person shooters like Call of Duty. A stereotype of a mass shooter, isolated and perpetually consuming graphic violent content, seems to linger in the public's consciousness. A neighbor of the 2018 Parkland shooter, for instance, told the Miami Herald that the shooter would play video games for up to 12 to 15 hours a day - and although that anecdotal report was unverified, it was still widely circulated.

A 2015 Pew study of 2,000 US adults found that even though 49 percent of adult Americans play video games, 40 percent of Americans also believe in a link between games and violence - specifically, that "people who play violent video games are more likely to be violent themselves." Additionally, 32 percent of the people who told Pew they play video games also said they believe gaming contributes to an increase in aggression, even though their own experience as, presumably, nonviolent gamers would offer at least some evidence to the contrary.

"I find it more plausible that America's long-standing culture of gun violence has affected video games ... than the other way around" -game developer Naomi Clark

One person who sees a correlation between violent games and a propensity for real-world violence is Tim Winter. Winter is the president of the Parents Television Council, a nonpartisan advocacy group that lobbies the entertainment industry against marketing graphic violence to children. He spent several years overseeing MGM's former video game publishing division, MGM Interactive, and moved into advocacy when he became a parent. Growing up, his children played all kinds of video games, except for those he considered too graphic or violent.

In a phone interview, Winter told me his view aligns with the research supporting links between games and aggression.

"Anyone who uses the term 'moral panic' in my view is trying to diminish a bona fide conversation that needs to take place," Winter said. "It's a simple PR move to refute something that might actually have some value in the broader conversation."

During our conversation, he compared the connection between violent media and harmful real-world effects to that between cigarettes and lung cancer. If you consume in moderation, he argues, you'll probably be fine; but, over time, exposure to violent media can have "a cumulative negative effect." (In fact, studies of infrequent smokers have shown that their risk of coronary disease is roughly equal to that of frequent smokers, and their risk of cancer is still significantly higher than that of nonsmokers.)

"What I believe to be true is that the media we consume has a very powerful impact on shaping our belief structure, our cognitive development, our values, and our opinions," he said.

He added that it would be foolish to point to any one act of violence and say it was caused by any one video game - that, he argued, "would be like saying lung cancer was caused by that one specific cigarette I smoked."

"But if you are likely to smoke packs a day over the course of many years, it has a cumulative negative effect on your health," he continued. "I believe based on the research on both sides that that's the prevailing truth."

The debate endures because gun control isn't being addressed - and games are an easy target

Like many people I spoke with for this story, Winter believes that the debate about gun violence has remained largely at a standstill since Columbine, while the number of mass shootings nationwide has continued to increase.

"If you look at the broader issue of gun violence in America, you have a number of organizations and constituencies pointing at different causes," he said. "When you look back at what those arguments are, it's the same arguments that have been made going back to Columbine. Whether it's gun control, whether it's mental illness, whether it's violence in media culture - whatever the debate is about those three root causes, very little progress has been made on any of them."

The glorification of violence is so culturally embedded in American media through TV, film, games, books, and practically every other available medium that there seems to be very little impetus to change anything about America's gun culture. We can define " gun culture" here as the addition of an embrace of gun ownership and a nationwide oversupply of guns to what Phillips described as " a culture of violence " - one in which violence "becomes our go-to way of solving problems - whether that's individual violence, police violence, state violence."

"There's a commodification of violence," she said, "and we have to understand what that means."

Naomi Clark, an independent game developer and co-chair of New York University's Game Center program, agreed. "I find it more plausible that America's long-standing culture of gun violence has affected video games, as a form of culture, than the other way around," she told me in an email. "After all, this nation's cultural traditions and attachments around guns are far older than video games."

In light of incidents like Walmart's removal of video game displays after the recent mass shootings while continuing to advertise guns, the connection between the shootings and America's continued valorization of guns feels extremely stark. "We could ban video games tomorrow and mass shootings would still happen," Cypheroftyr told me.

"What's new about the current debate is that the scapegoat of videogaming has never been more nakedly exposed for what it is," gaming sociologist Katherine Cross wrote in an email, "with Republicans and conservatives manifestly fearful of blaming systematic white supremacism, Trump's rhetoric, or our nation's permissive and freewheeling gun culture for the recent rash of terrorism."

Because of the sensitivity around the issue of gun control, it's easy for politicians to score points with constituents by focusing a conversation on games and sidestepping other action. "Politicians often blame video games because they are a safe target," Moral Combat author Markey told me in an email. "There isn't a giant video game lobby like other potential causes of mass shootings (like the NRA [National Rifle Association]). So [by targeting games], a politician can make it appear they are doing something without risking losing any votes."

And the general public is often susceptible to this rhetoric, both because it's emotional and because it may feed what they think they already know about games - even if that's not a lot. "The narrative that violence in video games contributes to the gun violence in America is, I think, a good example of a bad idea that seems right to people who don't look too closely at the facts," Zak Garriss, a video game writer and designer who's worked on a wide range of games, told me in an email.

"Video games are a global industry, dwarfing other entertainment industries in revenue in markets comprised of gamers from the UK, Germany, France, Japan, the US, and basically anywhere there's electricity. Yet the spree shooting phenomenon seems to be seriously and uniquely a US issue right now. It's also worth noting that the ratings systems across these countries vary, and in the case of Europe, are often more liberal in many regards than the US system," Garriss said.

He also pointed out that this conversation frequently overshadows the important, innovative work that many games are engaged in. "Games like Stardew Valley, Minecraft, or Journey craft experiences that help people relax, detox after a day, bond with friends," he said. "Games like Papers, Please, That Dragon Cancer, or Life Is Strange interrogate the harder and the darker elements of the human experience like love, grief, loneliness, and death."

In other words, a conversation that focuses on games and guns alone dismisses the vital cultural role that video games play as art. "Play video games and you can jump on giant mushrooms, shoot a wizard on the moon, grow a farm, fall in love, experience nearly infinite worlds really," Garriss told me. "If games have a unifying organizing principle, I'd say it's to delight. The pursuit of fun."

He continued: "To me, the tragedy, if there is one, in the current discourse around video games and violence, lies in failing to see the magic happening in the play. As devs, it's a magic we're chasing with every game. And as players, I think it's a magic that has not just the potential but the actual power to bring people together, to aid mental health, to make us think, to help us heal. And to experience delight."

But for some members of the public, games' recreational, relaxational, and artistic values might be another thing that make them suspect. "If they don't play games or 'aged out of it,' they might see them as frivolous or a waste of time," Cypheroftyr says. "It's easy to go, 'Oh, you're still playing video games? Why are you wasting your life?'"

That idea - that video games are a waste of time - is another longstanding element of cultural assumptions around games of all kinds, Clark, the game developer, told me. "Games have been an easy target in every era because there's something inherently unproductive or even anti-productive about them, and so there's also a long history of game designers trying to rehabilitate games and make them 'do work' or provide instruction."

All of this makes it incredibly easy to fixate on video games instead of addressing difficult but more relevant targets, like NRA funding and easy access to guns. And that, in turn, makes it a complicated proposition to extricate video games from conversations about gun violence, let alone limit the conversation around violent games to people who might actually be in a position to create change, like the people who make the games in the first place.

Yet what's striking when you drill down into the community around gaming is how many gamers agree with many of the arguments politicians are making. As a fan of shooter games, Cypheroftyr told me she routinely plays violent games like Call of Duty and the military action role-playing game (RPG) The Division. "I'm not out here trying to murder people," she stressed. But like the Parents Television Council's Winter, Cypheroftyr and many of the other people I spoke with agree that the gaming industry needs to do a lot more to examine the at times shocking imagery it perpetuates.

Many members of the gaming community are already discussing game violence

Multiple people I spoke with expressed frustration that the conversation about video games' role in mass shootings is obscuring another, very important conversation to be had within the gaming community about violent games.

Clark told me that the public's lack of nuance and an insistence on a binary reading of the issue is part of the problem. "Most people are capable of understanding that causes are complex," she said, "that you can't just point to one thing and say, 'This is mostly or entirely to blame!'"

But she also cautioned that the gaming community's reactionary defensiveness to this lack of nuance also prevents many video game fans from acknowledging that games do play a role within a violent culture. "That complexity cuts both ways," she told me. "Even though it's silly to say that 'games cause violence,' it's also just as silly to say that games have nothing to do with a culture that has a violence problem."

"Even though it's silly to say that 'games cause violence,' it's also just as silly to say that games have nothing to do with a culture that has a violence problem" -game developer Naomi Clark

That culture is endemic to the gaming industry, added Justin Carter, a freelance journalist whose work focuses on video games and culture.

"The industry does have a fetishization of guns and violence," Carter said. "You look at games like Borderlands or Destiny and one of the selling points is how many guns there are." The upcoming first-person shooter game Borderlands 3, he pointed out, boasts "over a billion" different guns from its 12 fictional weapons manufacturers, all of which tout special perks to get players to try their guns. These perks serve as marketing both inside and outside the game; the game's publisher, 2K Games, invites players to exult in violence using language that speaks for itself:

Deliver devastating critical hits to enemies' soft-and-sensitives, then joy-puke as your bullets ricochet towards other targets. ...

Step 1: Hit your enemies with tracker tags. Step 2: Unleash a hail of Smart Bullets that track towards your targets. Step 3: Loot!

Deal guaranteed elemental damage with your finger glued to the trigger ...

"There are very few [action/adventure] games that give you options other than murdering people," Cypheroftyr said. "Games don't do enough to show the other side of it. You shoot someone, you die, they die, you reset, you reload, and nothing happens."

"I know that if I shoot people in a game it's not real," she added. "99.9 percent of people don't need to be told that. I'm not playing out a power fantasy or anything, but I've become more aware of how most games [that] use violence [do so] to solve problems."

An insistence from game developers on blithely ignoring the potential political messages of their games is another frustration for her. "All these game makers are like, there's no politics in the game. There's no message. And I'm like ... did you just send me through a war museum and you're telling me this?!"

The game Cypheroftyr is referencing is The Division 2, which features a section where players can engage in enemy combat during a walkthrough of a Vietnam War memorial museum. While she loves the game, she told me the fact that players use weapons from the Vietnam War era while in a war museum belies game developers' frequent arguments that such games are apolitical.

Another game Cypheroftyr has found disturbing in its attempt to background politics without any real self-reflection is the popular adventure game Detroit Become Human, which displays pacifist Martin Luther King Jr. quotes alongside gameplay that allows players to choose extreme violence as an option. "You can take a more pacifistic approach, but you may not get the ending you want," she explained.

She noted, too, that the military uses video games for training as part of what's been dubbed the " military-entertainment complex," with tactics involving shooter games that some ex-soldiers have referred to as "more like brainwashing than anything." The US Army began exploring virtual training in 1999 and began developing its first tactics game a year later. The result, Full Spectrum Command, was a military-only version of 2003's Full Spectrum Warrior. Since then, the military has used video games to teach soldiers everything from how to deal with combat scenarios to how to interact with Iraqi civilians.

The close connection between games and sanctioned real-world violence, i.e., war, is hard to deny with any plausibility. "When someone insists that these two parts of culture have absolutely nothing to do with each other," Clark said, "it smacks of denial, and many game developers are asking themselves, 'Do I want to be part of this landscape?' even if they have zero belief that video games are causing violence."

For all the gaming industry's faults when it comes to frankly addressing gaming's role in a violent culture, however, many people are quick to point out that critiques of in-game violence can also come from the video games themselves. In Batman: Arkham Asylum, for example, researchers Christina Fawcett and Steven Kohm recently found that the game "directly implicate[s] the player in violence enacted upon the bodies of criminals and patients alike." Other games shift the focus away from the perpetrators to the victims - for example, This War of Mine is a survival game inspired by the Bosnian War that focuses not on soldiers but on civilians dealing with the costs of wartime violence.

But acknowledging that critiques of violent games are coming from within the gaming community doesn't play well as part of the gun control debate. "It's far too easy to scapegoat video games as low-hanging fruit instead of addressing the real issues," Cypheroftyr said, "like the ease with which we can get weapons in this country, and why we don't do more to punish the perpetrators [of gun violence]." She also cites the cultural tendency to excuse masculine aggression early on with a "b"boys will be boys" mentality - which can breed the kind of entitlement that leads to more violence later on.

All these factors combine to make the conversation around violent video games inherently political and part of a larger ongoing debate that ultimately centers on which media messages are the most responsible for fueling real-world violence.

The conversation surrounding violent games implicates violent gaming culture itself - which, in turn, implicates politicians who rail against games

Games journalist Carter told me he feels the gaming community needs to, in essence, reject the whole debate entirely because at this point in its life cycle, it's disingenuous.

"We've been through enough shootings that you know the playbook, and it's annoying that gamers and people in the industry will take this as a position that needs defending," he told me. "It's not a conversation worth having anymore solely on post-traumatic terms."

Discussions about video game violence need to be held mainly within the games community, Carter said, and held "with people who are actually interested in figuring out a solution instead of politicians looking to pass off the blame for their ineptitude and greed."

But some gamers told me they don't trust the gaming community to frame the conversation with appropriate nuance. All of them cited Gamergate's violent male entitlement and the effect that its subsequent bleed into the larger alt-right movement's misogyny and white supremacy have had on mainstream culture at large.

"The framing of that rhetoric that began in Gamergate as part of the 'low' culture of niche internet forums became part of the mainstream political discourse," criminologist Phillips pointed out. "The expression of their misogyny and the notion of being pushed out of their white male-dominated space was a microcosm of what was to come. We're talking about 8chan now, but [the growth of the alt-right] was fueled by gaming culture." She points to Gamergate as an example of the complicated interplay between gaming culture, online communities full of toxic, violent rhetoric, and the rise of online extremism that's increasingly moving offline.

Gaming sociologist Cross agreed. "At this moment, there is urgent need to shine a light on video game culture, the fan spaces that have been infiltrated by white supremacists looking to recruit that minority of gamers who rage against 'political correctness,'" she told me.

"We treat video games as unreal, as unserious play, and that creates a shadow over gaming forums and fan communities that has allowed toxicity to take root. It's also allowed neo-Nazis to operate mostly unseen. That is what needs to change."

The resulting shadow over gaming has spread far and wide - and found violent echoes in the rhetoric of Trump himself. "Look at what the person in the very highest office of the US is cultivating," Cypheroftyr said. "Toxic masculinity, this idea that men, especially white men, have been fed that they're losing 'their' country."

"While video games do not influence us in a monkey-see-monkey-do manner, they do, like all media, shape how we see the world," Cross argues. "Republicans, in broaching that possibility, open themselves up to the critique that their leader, who makes frequent use of both old media and social media, might also be influential in a toxic way."

And this, ultimately, may be why the current debate around video games and violence feels particularly intense: The extremes of toxic gaming culture are fueling the attitudes of toxic alt-right culture, which in turn fuels the rhetoric of President Trump and many other right-wing politicians - the same rhetoric that many white supremacist mass shooters are using to justify their atrocities.

So when Trump rails against violence in video games, as he's now done multiple times, he's protesting a fictionalized version of the real-life violence that his own rhetoric seems to tacitly encourage. If we are to accept the argument that media violence as represented by games is capable of bringing about real-world violence, then surely no media influence is more powerful or full of dangerous potential than that wielded by the president of the United States.

In 2018, Vice's gaming vertical Waypoint devoted a week to " guns and games"; in a moving piece outlining the intent of the project, editor Austin Walker observed that unlike real-world violence, "in big-budget action games, and especially games that give the player guns and plentiful ammunition, violence is cheap and endlessly repeatable."

Yet now, barely a year later, mass shootings and other incidents of real-world violence have also begun to seem endlessly repeatable. Perhaps that is why, at last, the urgency of shifting our cultural focus from fixing violence in games to fixing violence in the real world feels like it is finally outstripping the incessant debate.

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The frustrating, enduring debate over video games, violence, and guns

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We asked players, parents, developers, and experts to weigh in on how to change the conversation around gaming.

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Warner Bros has confirmed it plans to release Mortal Kombat X next year, the latest edition in a video game series that has stoked controversy and allured fighting fanatics for more than 20 years.

It will be the first title offered on the "next-gen" PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles - and if the trailer is anything to go by there's little doubt it will display the game's gruesome attacks in greater detail than ever before, causing fresh fuss.

Even so, it will prove difficult to trigger the scale of outrage that accompanied the original game.

In the summer of 1993, the Nintendo executive Howard Lincoln had come up with a controversial solution to an unavoidable problem.

His company, renowned for creating entertainment that is cherished by children and trusted by parents, was preparing to release Mortal Kombat, considered one of the most violent games ever, on the Super Nintendo console.

It was the equivalent of Disney distributing Reservoir Dogs, American Psycho on Sesame Street.

Mortal Kombat was admired by critics but inevitably better known for its unashamed glorification of murder.

It allowed combatants to rip the heart out of a vanquished foe, or tear the head off a fallen opponent, and hold the appendage up as a trophy.

The game encouraged players to do this with the infamous message "Finish him!" that would repeatedly flash on the screen when a bout was over.

How could a game like this, regardless of how popular it was, be sold on shelves next to Super Mario World?

Go green

Months after Mortal Kombat's initial release across arcades in October 1992, and before its port onto the Super Nintendo, Mr Lincoln met Acclaim chief executive Gregory Fischbach to offer a solution.

"Lincoln told us we needed to change the blood from red to green, which I thought was pretty stupid," Mr Fischbach tells the BBC.

Not only that, but the game's fatalities would be edited, and various background details - such as heads impaled on spikes - would be completely removed. Mr Fischbach believes such decisions were rash, but was unable to block them.

"To my mind, Mortal Kombat was comic-book violence, but some people got upset about it. People looked at it as though we were selling it to nine-year-old children."

The wider issue was that Mortal Kombat had arrived during an era of transition for the games industry.

What was considered a child's pursuit had begun to serve the interests of young adults and teenagers. Those audience clashes had naturally begun to manifest.

"It was the beginning of video games coming of age," says Mr Fischbach.

"At one point in time, games were just meant for children, and nobody really took them seriously. But it was with the launch of Mortal Kombat that people who controlled the media began to look at it differently."

Even though games such as Mortal Kombat, Doom and Night Trap were created for mature audiences, crucially there was no law preventing young people from accessing them.

This led to thunderous denunciations from politicians and news media anchors alike.

"Part of the problem at the time was that the biggest distributor of games in the US was Toys R Us. The positioning in the marketplace was that games were designed for children, and not teenagers or young adults."

Blood money

Nintendo's efforts to censor Mortal Kombat failed to put a lid on the controversy.

Rival company Sega had also published the game on its own system, the Genesis (known as the Mega Drive in the UK), and via a cheat code allowed gamers to enjoy the gore-fuelled glories of the arcade original.

According to Blake Harris, author of Console Wars, Sega's gamble paid off enormously.

"The net result was that the Sega Genesis version of Mortal Kombat outsold the Super Nintendo version five-to-one," he tells the BBC.

It was the Genesis version that also caught the eye of one young Mortal Kombat fan who happened to be the son of a Capitol Hill aide.

According to Mr Harris, this simple connection is what could have triggered the political outrage against violent video games.

"Bill Andresen, a former chief of staff to Senator Joe Lieberman, was asked by his son to buy Mortal Kombat. But when Andresen saw the game, he showed it to Lieberman, who was appalled by it."

Reform calls

On 1 December 1993, Mr Lieberman gathered the Washington press corps to expose what he believed was the corrupting influence of video games on young minds.

He played several VHS tapes, showcasing some of the goriest elements of games such as Mortal Kombat and Night Trap, and announced his intention to introduce a game age-ratings body.

"Few parents would buy these games for their kids if they knew what was in them," he said at the time.

"We're talking about video games that glorify violence and teach children to enjoy inflicting the most gruesome forms of cruelty imaginable."

John Tobias, one of the four developers who created Mortal Kombat, believed the reaction was harsh.

"Their lobbying never felt sincere. To me it always felt like scapegoating an industry they knew nothing about to pander for votes," he tells the BBC.

"Anyone who listened to the testimony or the questioning that went on and who knew anything about games understood that.

"Video games were not and never will be the great destructor of society they were trying to paint them to be."

One week after Mr Lieberman's press conference, the senator chaired a subcommittee on violent video games, insisting that the industry must introduce a system of self-regulation if it wanted to avoid state regulation.

Within five months, the games industry established the pioneering Entertainment Software Rating Board, and one of its first acts was to assign Mortal Kombat a "mature" rating, meaning it was illegal for minors to purchase it.

Moral panic

These events, spurred by moral panic, painted the games industry in its most unflattering light, but nevertheless established a ratings code that is still adhered to today.

Mortal Kombat 10, announced today, is certain to be the next entry in the series designated an M-rating.

On reflection, Mr Fischbach believes the ratings reform "was the right thing to do".

He says: "It allowed game creators and publishers to focus on what they do, and allowed information to be displayed on game packaging that wasn't there before."

But Mr Harris believes that, however beneficial the outcome, the calls for game age ratings was not as driven by the public as often suggested.

"I think the outrage was mostly from the media. I think parents, for the most part, still didn't realise what video games were," he says.

"I could be wrong, but I spent three years researching this, and not once did I get the sense that people were spurred on by angry calls or angry letters from the parents.

"I mean, Lincoln told me that he got numerous angry letters from parents, but it was people complaining about Nintendo censoring their games. They didn't like the green blood. I think that tells you how much this issue was media-driven."

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

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Mortal Kombat: Violent game that changed video games industry

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Warner Bros has confirmed it plans to release Mortal Kombat X next year, the latest edition in a video game series that has stoked controversy and allured fighting fanatics for more than 20 years.

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Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech

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In recent years, major debates have emerged about the societal impact of video games and the effect they have on the people who play them. Among the disputes: whether men predominate in gaming; whether games portray women and minorities poorly; whether violent games promote aggressive behavior; and whether games encourage positive attributes such as problem-solving skills, communication and teamwork.

A new survey from Pew Research Center covers these and other issues. The key results:

Equal numbers of men and women ever play video games, although men are twice as likely to call themselves "gamers"

About half of American adults (49%) "ever play video games on a computer, TV, game console, or portable device like a cellphone," and 10% consider themselves to be "gamers."

A majority of American adults (60%) believe that most people who play video games are men - a view that is shared by 57% of women who themselves play video games. But the data illustrates that in some ways this assumption is wrong: A nearly identical share of men and women report ever playing video games (50% of men and 48% of women).

However, men are more than twice as likely as women to call themselves "gamers" (15% vs. 6%). And among those ages 18 to 29, 33% of men say the term "gamer" describes them well, more than three times the proportion of young women (9%) who say the same.

Four-in-ten adults believe that violence in video games is related to violent behavior

Americans are relatively divided over whether there is a possible link between violent games and actual violence. A slight majority of the public (53%) disagree with the statement "people who play violent video games are more likely to be violent themselves." But 40% agree that there is a relationship between video game violence and violent behavior. Some 32% of those who play video games themselves see a connection between games and violence, along with 26% of self-identified gamers. Women are more likely than men to agree (by a 47% to 31% margin) that people who play violent games are more likely to be violent themselves.

Among the general public, attitudes toward games are complex and often uncertain

The public is closely split on some other major debates surrounding the content of games and their impact on users. For instance, a quarter of all adults (26%) think most video games are a waste of time, while 24% think most games are not a waste of time. One-third think some games are a waste of time while others are not. And 16% of the public is unsure what to think about this issue.

A similar pattern is evident on the question of whether or not "most games help develop good problem solving and strategic thinking skills." Some 17% of adults think this is true of most games, while 16% think this is not true of most games. Additionally, 47% think this is true of some games but not others, and 20% are not sure.

Asked whether games promote teamwork and communication, 23% of adults do not think most games promote these traits - more than double the 10% who think most games do promote these qualities. Some 37% think some games but not others promote teamwork and communication, while 28% say they are unsure. Similarly, 30% of adults do not think most games are a better form of entertainment than TV, almost triple the 11% who think this is true.

The public is much less certain on other aspects of gaming. Fully 47% of all adults are unsure if most video games portray minorities poorly, while 40% are unsure if most video games portray women poorly.

Compared with those who do not play video games, game players are more likely to agree with the positives and disagree with the negatives associated with games

Those who play video games themselves are more likely than non-game players to think positively about gaming:

25% of those who play games (and 39% of self-identified gamers) think most video games help develop good problem solving and strategic thinking skills, compared with just 8% of those who do not play games.

17% of those who play video games (and 34% of those who call themselves gamers) think most games are a better form of entertainment than TV. This compares with just 5% of those who do not play games.

15% of video game players (and 28% of self-described gamers) think most games promote teamwork and communication. Just 6% of those without gaming experience agree.

Game players are also particularly likely to disagree with negative portrayals of video games:

35% of those who play video games (and 53% of those who identify as gamers) think most games are not a waste of time. This compares with just 13% of those who do not play video games.

33% of those who play video games (and 46% of self-described gamers) do not think minorities are portrayed poorly in most games. At the same time, 9% of game players (and 10% of gamers) think most games do portray minorities poorly. Fully 61% of those who do not play video games are unsure what to think on this issue.

26% of those who play video games (and 35% of self-identified gamers) do not think women are portrayed poorly in most games. Meanwhile, 16% of game players (and 24% of self-identified gamers) think most games do portray women poorly. A majority of those who do not play video games (55%) are unsure what to think on this topic.

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In recent years, major debates have emerged about the societal impact of video games and the effect they have on the people who play them. Among the disputes: whether men predominate in gaming; whether games portray women and minorities poorly; whether violent games promote aggressive behavior; and whether games encourage positive attributes such as problem-solving skills, communication and teamwork.

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Is Playing Violent Video Games Related to Teens’ Mental Health?

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New research indicates that video games are not as bad as we once feared.

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Violent Videogames Aren’t Ruining Your Kids—but It’s Good to Discuss Them

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With children spending more time than ever playing videogames during the pandemic, parents have nagging concerns about the effects on developing minds, and researchers are examining the nuances.

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Video Games and Children: Playing with Violence

Playing video games has become a popular activity for people of all ages. Video gaming is a multibillion-dollar industry bringing in more money than movies and DVDs. On average, girls spend more than an hour per day playing video games and boys spend more than two hours. Teens often spend even more time than younger children. Video games have become very sophisticated and realistic. Some games connect to the internet, which can allow children and adolescents to play games and have discussions with unknown adults and peers.

While some games have educational content, many of the most popular games emphasize negative themes and promote:

The killing of people or animals

The use and abuse of drugs and alcohol

Criminal behavior, disrespect for authority and the law

Sexual exploitation and violence toward women

Racial, sexual, and gender stereotypes

Foul language and obscene gestures

Store-bought video games are evaluated by the Electronic Software Ratings Board (ESRB) and rated for their appropriateness for children and teens. The ratings are featured prominently on the game packaging.

Studies of children exposed to violent media have shown that they may become numb to violence, imitate the violence, and show more aggressive behavior. Younger children and those with emotional, behavioral or learning problems may be more influenced by violent images.

In moderation, playing age-appropriate games can be enjoyable and healthy. Some video games may promote learning, problem solving and help with the development of fine motor skills and coordination. However, there are concerns about the effect of video games on young people who play videogames excessively.

Children and adolescents can become overly involved with videogames. They may have difficulty controlling the amount of time they play. They may resist their parents' attempts to limit their time playing video games. Spending excessive time playing these games can lead to:

Less time socializing with friends and family

Poor social skills

Time away from family time, school work, and other hobbies

Lower grades

Less reading

Less exercise and becoming overweight

Decreased sleep and poor quality sleep

Aggressive thoughts and behaviors

Tips for Parents
Parents can help their children enjoy these video games appropriately and avoid problems by:

Avoiding video games in preschool-aged children

Checking the ESRB ratings to select appropriate games-both in content and level of development

Playing videogames with their children to share the experience and discuss the game's content

Setting clear rules about game content and playing time, both in and outside the home

Monitoring online interactions and warning children about potential dangers of Internet contacts while playing games online

Allowing video game playing only in public areas of the home, not in the child's bedroom

Remembering that you are a role model for your children including which video games you play and how long you play them

Enforcing total screen time limits

Ensuring video games are only played after homework and chores are done

Encouraging participation in other activities, particularly physical activities

If you continue to have concerns about your child's gaming habits or if your child is having difficulty with mood or behavior, ask your child's pediatrician, family physician or school counselor to help arrange a referral to a trained and qualified mental health professional.

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video games and children playing with violence

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Video Games and Children: Playing with Violence

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Video gaming (playing video games) has become a popular activity for people of all ages.

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Parents worry that video games are bad for kids, but the evidence on how and why they may be harmful has been confusing.

"Most of popular media puts the most emphasis of concern on aggression," says psychologist Jay Hull from Dartmouth College. "But aggression is just the tip of the iceberg."

So Hull looked at other negative behaviors that could be affected by gaming, including binge drinking, smoking cigarettes and unprotected sex. His study found that teenagers who regularly play violent video games such as Manhunt and the Grand Theft Auto series are more likely to take those risks.

The study was published Monday in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Previously Hull led a study that looked at the relationship between violent video games and reckless driving habits. Playing games that promote "acting evil" may distort a teen's sense of right and wrong, Hull says. In that study he found that teens who played violent video games were more likely to drive recklessly, such as cutting people off while on the highway. Both studies, he says, conclude that video games alter a teen's sense of self.

"They might think 'I've done much worse things in these games,' " he told Shots. "They're less likely to find things as being wrong that other people would find wrong."

But teenagers who played aggressive games that had noble protagonists were not as likely to engage in risky behaviors, the latest study found. That included Spiderman II, in which the player is a web-slinging vigilante with good motives, rather than a thug for hire.

In another study published this week, scientists looked at both the negative and positive effects of video games.

One hour or less of video game play per day is associated with children and teenagers ages 10 to 15 being happier and more satisfied than those who do not play at all, a study published Monday in Pediatrics found. But the study also found that kids who played in excess of three hours daily were less satisfied with their lives and had more difficulties both socially and personally than nongamers.

"If there was a magic dose, it would be less than one hour," says Andrew Przybylski, an experimental psychologist from the University of Oxford who led the study. And "if there was a dangerous dose, it would be more than three hours."

His study looked at survey responses from nearly 5,000 children in the Understanding Society UK Household Longitudinal Study. Unlike many studies in this field, this study looked at both the positive and the negative effects of video game playing.

The impact of video games on a child's social well-being is modest at best, Przybylski says, accounting for only 2 percent of a child's psychological and social function. Other factors, such as family life, play much bigger roles, he says.

Neither study proves that the video games are the cause of changes of behavior or emotions, says James Ivory, an associate professor at Virginia Tech who analyzes the effects of video games. He was not involved in either study.

Rather, he says that both studies support the idea that video-game play can be used to understand a teenager's family and environment. Teens who do not play video games at all may be socially isolated, Ivory says, and parents who allow teens to play violent adult games might be less focused on preventing risky behaviors.

"If a parent is just worried that their kid is playing Grand Theft Auto, and not worried about other factors that influence their kids," Ivory says, "then they're looking the wrong way."

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Playing Video Games Can Help Or Hurt, Depending On Whom You Ask

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Playing video games for an hour a day may make children happier and more satisfied, one study says. But another finds that playing violent games is associated with risky behaviors.

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Violent Video Games and Young People - Harvard Health Publishing - Harvard Health

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WASHINGTON - Playing violent video games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D or Mortal Kombat can increase a person's aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior both in laboratory settings and in actual life, according to two studies appearing in the April issue of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Furthermore, violent video games may be more harmful than violent television and movies because they are interactive, very engrossing and require the player to identify with the aggressor, say the researchers.

"One study reveals that young men who are habitually aggressive may be especially vulnerable to the aggression-enhancing effects of repeated exposure to violent games," said psychologists Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D., and Karen E. Dill, Ph.D. "The other study reveals that even a brief exposure to violent video games can temporarily increase aggressive behavior in all types of participants."

The first study involved 227 college students who completed a measure of trait aggressiveness and reported their actual aggressive behaviors (delinquency) in the recent past. They also reported their video game playing habits. "We found that students who reported playing more violent video games in junior and high school engaged in more aggressive behavior," said lead author Anderson, of Iowa State University. "We also found that amount of time spent playing video games in the past was associated with lower academic grades in college."

In the second study, 210 college students played either a violent (Wolfenstein 3D) or nonviolent video game (Myst). A short time later, the students who played the violent video game punished an opponent (received a noise blast with varying intensity) for a longer period of time than did students who had played the nonviolent video game.

"Violent video games provide a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations," said Dr. Anderson. "In the short run, playing a violent video game appears to affect aggression by priming aggressive thoughts. Longer-term effects are likely to be longer lasting as well, as the player learns and practices new aggression-related scripts that can become more and more accessible for use when real-life conflict situations arise."

"One major concern is the active nature of the learning environment of the video game," say the authors. "This medium is potentially more dangerous than exposure to violent television and movies, which are known to have substantial effects on aggression and violence."

Article: "Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life," Craig A. Anderson, PhD, Iowa State University of Science and Technology and Karen E. Dill, PhD, Lenoir-Rhyne College, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 78, No. 4.

Reporters: Karen E. Dill, PhD, can be reached by telephone at (828) 328-7209
The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 159,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 53 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 59 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.

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Violent video games can increase aggression

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The engrossing, interactive nature of violent video games may increase aggression by priming aggressive thoughts.

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Some blame violent video games for school shootings, increases in bullying, and violence towards women, arguing that the games desensitize players to violence, reward players for simulating violence, and teach children that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflicts, while others argue that…

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Click the play button to listen to this 3-minute interview

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Video games have long been blamed for gun violence in the U.S. - from Columbine to Saturday's mass shooting in El Paso. Scientific studies have shown no connection, so why is the claim still made?

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

When President Trump spoke today about the shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, he said this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace.

CORNISH: Trump is not the only politician to bring up the supposed connection between video games and mass shootings, but researchers have never proven that one leads to the other. NPR's Andrew Limbong has more on how this myth has been perpetuated.

ANDREW LIMBONG, BYLINE: There is no evidence so far that either shooter this weekend was a fan of video games, violent or otherwise, but that didn't stop Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy from saying this on Fox News yesterday.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

KEVIN MCCARTHY: The idea of these video games to dehumanize individuals, to have a game of shooting individuals and others - I've always felt that it's a problem for future generations.

LIMBONG: A few hours earlier on the same channel, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick referenced the El Paso shooter's alleged manifesto, glossing over the paragraphs about immigration, Hispanics, interracial relationships, and instead taking a small reference to the game "Call Of Duty" out of context.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DAN PATRICK: This manifesto - he talks about living out his super soldier fantasy on "Call Of Duty."

LIMBONG: In fact, what the alleged murderer wrote was that he was doing just the opposite - hitting a soft target. Andrew Przybylski is an experimental psychologist and director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute in England. Last February, he released a study looking at the links between video games and aggressive behavior among teens.

ANDREW PRZYBYLSKI: Mainly, we found a whole bunch of nothing, so we found pretty convincing evidence that it didn't really matter what kinds of games teenagers played. Boys and girls, violent games, nonviolent games - that wasn't really a useful piece of information about whether or not a parent saw aggressive behaviors in their young person.

LIMBONG: The question itself - do video games cause violent acts? - has been asked for as long as video games have been around, but it grew in popularity right after the Columbine shooting.

PATRICK MARKEY: Because the shooters played "Doom," they became this link.

LIMBONG: Patrick Markey is a research psychologist at Villanova University and author of the book "Moral Combat: Why The War On Violent Video Games Is Wrong."

MARKEY: We actually see in the research world this explosion of studies examining violent video games and acts of aggression.

LIMBONG: What these studies found is a slight increase in annoying behavior immediately after playing a violent video game but no actual violence. Markey says it's also historically a bipartisan distraction used by politicians who know video gamers aren't necessarily as vocal a voting block as, say, gun owners.

MARKEY: If you're going to go after kind of a boogeyman, it makes sense to go after a boogeyman that doesn't have a lot of political power behind it. So if you're a politician and you want to look like you're doing something, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, it's easier to go against video games because, again, they don't have that political backing like things like the NRA that might be much more difficult to take on.

LIMBONG: Markey also says there's research out there that suggests the race of the suspect plays a part, too.

MARKEY: When a minority commits crimes, some people assume, oh, it's because they're a minority. That must be why they did it. But when a nice white kid from the suburbs commit these crimes, they look for these causes. And they say, oh, it must be video games. It can't be because they were this good child. There's something that must be evil that infected them.

LIMBONG: Whatever that something evil was, the science is firm that it wasn't video games. But researchers say in asking the same question over and over again, we're stopping ourselves from learning much else about video games and the 21st century of play.

Andrew Limbong, NPR News.

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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.

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Video Games Are Still Blamed For Gun Violence Despite Studies Showing No Connection

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Video games have long been blamed for gun violence in the U.S. - from Columbine to Saturday's mass shooting in El Paso. Scientific studies have shown no connection, so why is the claim still made? AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: When President Trump spoke today about the shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, he said this.