Reality Check on Video Game Violence

[xa]

Thought this was interesting and proves my point even more.

Originally Posted by http://www.livescience.com/technology/051204_video_violence.html

Reality Check on Video Game Violence
By Benjamin Radford
Skeptical Inquirer
posted: 04 December 2005
10:46 am ET

The debate about violence in entertainment has surfaced once again.

In late November, a media watchdog group, the National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF), issued its annual report on video games. Not surprisingly, the institute was not happy with what it found: animated violence, profanity, and some sexual content. (Its latest report even includes a made-up word to describe the video violence, claming that "killographic and sexually explicit games are still making their way into the hands...of underage players.")

The findings caught the attention and support of several politicians, including Senators Joe Lieberman and Hillary Rodham Clinton, both of whom promised to enact legislation to stem the threat posed by video games.

Yet before rushing to craft new laws, we should make sure there is a problem to fix. Moving from the realm of advocacy and politics into science and evidence, several issues should be considered.

The issues

1) While many teens do play video games, including some violent ones, the games are hardly kids' stuff: the average video gamer is 30 years old. Most "Mature" or "Adult" rated video games are purchased—and played—by adults.

2) While some studies claim that violent entertainment may be linked in some way to violent behavior, many other studies contradict that assertion. Where are the mountains of evidence demonstrating the harmful effects of fake violence? Richard Rhodes, a writer for Rolling Stone, tackled that question and found that the alleged mountains of evidence are really molehills— and shaky ones at that.

The approximately 200 studies on media violence are remarkable primarily for their inconsistency and weak conclusions. Some studies show a correlation between television and violence; others don't. Some find that violent programming can increase aggressiveness; another finds that "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" does. Several studies, including the most-cited ones, are deeply flawed methodologically. Still, those fighting media depictions of violence cite the studies and ignore their lack of scientific validity. Rhodes notes that "The research no more supports the consensus on media violence than it supported the conclusions of the eugenics consensus eighty years ago that there are superior and inferior 'races,' with White Northern Europeans at the top."

The assertion that video games make people violent got a boost in May of 2000, when the American Psychological Association issued a press release saying that violent video games can increase aggression. That conclusion was taken from a study by two researchers, Craig Anderson of Iowa State University and Karen Dill of Lenoir-Rhyne College in North Carolina. The pair claimed that they had found a link between violent video games and aggression.

Yet an examination of what the researchers actually found shows how tentative their conclusions are. The study seems to show some association between the playing of violent video games and concurrent aggressive behavior and delinquency. Yet, as any social sciences or psychology student knows, correlation does not imply causation.

One critic of the study, British psychologist Guy Cumberbatch, noted, "[F]inding that people who enjoy violent media may also be aggressive is tantamount to observing that those who play football also enjoy watching it on television. 'The correlational nature of [this] study means that causal statements are risky at best,' the authors admit. ...All in all, Anderson and Dill's new evidence is exceptionally weak, and in its one-sided approach it has a depressingly familiar ring to it. ...[S]tudies to date have been notably biased towards seeking evidence of harm. This 'blame game' may be fun for some researchers to play, and knee-jerk reactions such as the APA's press release may be media-friendly. But we deserve better."

3) Perhaps most tellingly, video game critics fail to show where, exactly, the real-world evidence of harm lies. Assuming that teens are being exposed to bad language and animated violence, so what? Daily teen life involves some profanity, adult themes, and violent entertainment. Has the sexual material resulted in an increase in teen sex? No; the National Center for Health Statistics reported last year that fewer teens are engaging in sexual activity than in the past, and the rate dropped significantly between 1995 and 2002.

Has the video violence resulted in an increase in violent crime? No; on Oct. 17, 2005, the FBI released figures showing that the U.S. violent crime rate declined again last year. In fact, violent crime has dropped significantly over the past twenty years— just as video games have become more violent. The NIMF and Senator Lieberman even decried "graphic scenes of cannibalism" in video games.

Should America brace itself for a rise in teen cannibalism? Violent video games have been around since 1991, yet clear evidence of any harm has yet to emerge.

Overlooked fact

Amid all the concern over the violence that teens and kids see in their video games, television shows, and films, one simple fact is often overlooked: Violence and killing is considered mainstream entertainment by most Americans.

Multiple murders are entertainment every single night. Top-rated television drama shows routinely involve killings and death, from "Law & Order" to "CSI" to "The Sopranos" to "ER." While many of the murders that entertain us are fictional, others aren't. Newsmagazine shows such as "Dateline NBC" and "48 Hours" regularly feature real-life murders packaged as entertainment mysteries.

Blaming entertainment for social ills is nothing new, of course; Elvis Presley was accused of corrupting America's youth with lewd hip gyrations in the 1950s, for example, and in 1880s London the play "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" was blamed for encouraging Jack the Ripper in his crimes. In science, outside the agenda enclaves, the effects of violent entertainment and video games on behavior is very much an open question.

Benjamin Radford is managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine; he previously wrote about the video game violence debate in his book "Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us."

Frankly it just proves what the sane people have said all along, there is no correlation and people are being silly.

[NyghtcrawleR]

Kids are difinitely less phased by things today...that i think is true, whether you think it matters is something else, but could be cause for some "consequence" as you may call it

[Negative Creep]

Simply - it is just more of a typical U.S. goverment "move", trying to repress us... or something like that. I don't buy it for a second... like an earlier post said... the average gamer age is approaching 30. Gimme a break... find the blame for violence somewhere else.

I thought that this was a good article on the subject...

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6090892/p-2.html

[RadioactiveMan]

Anyone who lives in a city with multiple murders every day needs to move.

I've been watching my brother play God of War for the last couple hours. It's violent, but that doesn't make him angry. His inability to climp spinning spine-poles with knives on them is making him angry. He hasn't actually tossed my controller, though, so it's cool.

[Sgt-Miller]

Originally Posted by Negative Creep

Simply - it is just more of a typical U.S. goverment "move", trying to repress us... or something like that.

LMAO!!!!!!!

I love it when somebody throws the whole "repression" thing in to the arguement. I think it adds good humor to the thread.

Watching violent things, and playing violent video games does not affect teenagers. The only age group of children to watch out for is the real young ones that are in their imitation phase (4-7 years old).

[NyghtcrawleR]

I think thats where the argument comes in...many younger kids are playing games that are more violent like gta: san andreas. Now this is mostly bad parenting, but games like that I think have some influence over the younger kid crowd

[Negative Creep]

Originally Posted by Sgt-Miller

The only age group of children to watch out for is the real young ones that are in their imitation phase (4-7 years old).

Seeing as how I just did an essay on this subject for class, I can tell you that studies have shown that even children that young can separate video game "violence" (in whatever form it may take) from real life "violence" (what you'd see on television).

It basically just comes down to good parenting - good parents will want to know what the hell their kids are playing & what the game's rating is... and bad parents won't give a rat's azz, and go back to smoking their crack pipes out in the garage.

God bless the ESRB... they've been consistently keeping the US government's "hands" out of the video game industry.

www.esrb.org

[Sgt-Miller]

Studies are nice and all, but as a parent (1 daughter, 2 sons, and 1 step-daughter) I can tell you that little children WILL imitate anything they see. Hopefully the parents will have enough common sense to put a stop to it.

[Rod Dickmaster]

Once again we are looking for an excuse for the incredibly bad parenting that recent generations exhibit.

As for me, I resolve to play ONLY killographic video games to the exclusion of all others.

uh,oh. I think that news article caused me to use the made up word that appeared in it...

Watch out!!! Now I think I will write entire news articles with made up words!

oh, poor, poor society!

Let's put a stop to news articles NOW, before it gets worse.

OH FU<K! IT'S WORSE...


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[Sgt-Miller]

Rod, you are longer longer allowed to type. One of my eyeballs fell out while reading your last post.