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Violent Games Don't Cause Violence, New Study Says
In a newly published study, researchers at Texas A&M claim that playing violent video games has no correlation to school shootings, we learned today from Bit-Tech and GamePolitics.
Professor and lead researcher Christopher Ferguson found the subject worthy of interrogation due to the popular trend of blaming violent video games for incidents such as the Columbine High School shooting. Naming complex sociological conditions as the primary causes of violence, Ferguson refers to video games as a "straw man," claiming that -- by faulting video games -- "politicians can create an appearance of taking action against crime."
Founding his arguments on research by the FBI and the Secret Service, and pointing out that no evidence suggests the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois shooters played violent games, Professor Ferguson might once and for all expose that straw man for what he is. Then, maybe, we can turn our attention, and our energies, to some real problems. [From: GamePolitics via Bit-Tech]
| Yes | |
|---|---|
| No | |
| I'm not sure. |
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Comments
9
Subscribe to commentsesteeJan 26th 2009 5:21PM
If violent games do not cause violence! Why all the concern about Joe Camel?
Hello BobJan 26th 2009 6:49PM
The problem with cigarette ads is that a cigarette is something easily attainable. It's something real that people see every day. When you play a violent video game, most people can recognize that that's fantasy. You don't see people going on shooting rampages daily and it doesn't seem real. It's the people who can't figure out that the pixels on the screen aren't real that go nuts.
Master ShakeJan 27th 2009 2:08AM
Joe Camel is a perfect example of how the US government works these days - and the ban had NOTHING to do with children smoking. It was a non-issue that could be used for politicians to look like they were doing something, while in reality they did NOTHING.
DarkLightJan 26th 2009 5:51PM
You can't say yes or no, it really depends on the person.
A well educated person, will understand that violent games are outright fiction and that that stuff should not be even thought of doing in real life.
OTOH, for a crap-minded teenager (who are not uncommon today), a violent game will definitely be, if not directly a bad influence, at least an encouragement to do what he was already thinking of doing
MariJan 27th 2009 3:05PM
Video games can be a negative influence, but there is a line between a video game being a bad influence and parents being inattentive. It's not just politicians, some parents just don't want to own up to short comings. If parents cared half as much as they acted like they did the second they had a soap box they'd do what mine did. They didn't just buy us a video game or let us buy a video game without researching it and they also took the time to talk to us and knew us well enough to tell what we were mature enough to handle. Meanwhile the same parents I see griping about this sort of thing the most are the ones who let their kids rent or buy things like Resident Evil or Silent Hill (their ten year old kids) without so much as looking at the cover or, God forbid, the rating system.
And there is the real issue, there is a rating system. Most stores don't carry games that don't have them and I don't know of any store that would sell a game with a "mature" warning on it to a small child. For all the complaints I hear about this I never once have run into one of the many panic stricken parents and found that they actually had a clue what the game was about, the genre, or, dun dun dun, what it was rated.
I'm not saying everything in games is fantastic good times, and some things are just morally wrong. But I do find more fault with parents and politicians that want to go after something in order to look tougher than they are or look more involved as a parent than they are.
TeshFeb 2nd 2009 8:17PM
Oh please I play games "24/7" and i have never in my life even thought of hurting a fly. Those who assume that games are a bad influence are close minded and know nothing... Come on... Oh and plz dnt take this too personally.
splendidJun 26th 2009 11:44AM
Personally, I don't find anything wrong with video games. Each media has bad and good influence in its market. Like TV, there was a time when TV addiction was the common problem in the household and now it's video games. I've read an article which gave me new perspective on some good effects of video games specially in the times of crisis: http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1421576
skatechick91Oct 23rd 2009 1:49PM
So are there any Positive effects about violent video games?
Tedius ZanarukandoApr 21st 2010 7:36PM
There is nothing wrong with video games. It is destructive and divisive to blame video games for acts of violence or criminal acts. There is no evidence that video games have correlation to school shootings. In the religious perspective, only cults claim that violent video games desensitize players to violent acts, and there is no evidence to support their claims. I have had enough of this hot button issue. I detest people who claim that video games desensitizes players to violence, including some of my family members and some religious organizations.