Rasch 1

Dora Rasch
Mrs.Allison
Period 3
January 12, 2015!
Banned?!?!
Youve just been told by someone your favorite game has been banned in the United
States, along with dozens of others, because its too violent! So what if its violent, you think.
This is an outrage, and you want answers! Why would anything be banned for being violent?
You decide to research it, and what you find confuses you further more. Immersing in violence
causes the player to become more violent themselves, the first article you find says. Thats
stupid, you tell yourself. You decide to look into this a little more. What you find next pleasantly
surprises you; youve just clicked on a forum where people are protesting the ban. You start
skimming through the different threads: No Hard Evidence, No Ban! Blame The Gamer, Not
The Game! Games Arent The Cause, Theyre The Effect. After youve read through some of
the protests, you feel even less convinced that the ban is even remotely reasonable. You decide to
research this topic--whether violent video games cause real-life violence or not-- some more.
You think that if you find enough evidence against the ban, you might as well add to the protests.
Fortunately, this situation is fiction.. but not completely. This topic is actually very
controversial, and there are multitudes of people on both sides. The truth is, though, that the
protest forum has the right idea- completely.

No Hard Evidence, No Ban!

Rasch 2
There have been numerous studies on whether violent video games cause violence in real
life or not, more than you can imagine. We may never actually find out for sure, though, since
conducting a perfect test would involve separating a bunch of children at a young age, making
one group play violent video games, the other not, and monitoring their behavior for the entire
course of their lives... Which would be extremely unethical (and also hard to do, since the human
life is, well, as long as we live)! The researchers that are against violent video games right now
are just going off the fact that video games are violent, so they must make people who play them
violent, too, right? Well, theres been plenty of research put into this, and it shows no correlation.
There has to be data, and a new study finds no evidence that violent video games increase
antisocial behavior in youths. On the contrary, the researchers found that the playing of such
games actually had a very slight calming effect on youths with attention deficit symptoms and
helped to reduce their aggressive and bullying behavior.(science20.com) You cant ban
something just based on a strong gut feeling, you need facts to back it up! And in this case, the
facts are in favor of the other side.

Blame The Gamer, Not The Game!

Video games are being used as this generations scapegoat. Entertainment media have
always made good scapegoats for negative behaviors among young people. In the 1950s, lots of
people blamed comic books for kids acting badly. In the 1960s, rock 'n' roll made kids do drugs.
In the '80s, heavy-metal music was causing teens to commit suicide.(howstuffworks.com) The
same goes for video games now. If you see your child developing an aggressive or violent
attitude, and you think it might correlate with the games he or she plays, instead of composing
some elaborate theory about how video games are ruining your child, take those games away.

Rasch 3
Most children will not be affected by gameplay, but if they are, parents have to do something
about it. Instead of blaming the game and deciding that thats enough, act. It isnt the games
fault that the players can be irresponsible.

Games Arent The Cause, Theyre The Effect

Studies show that children that already have violent tendencies tend to choose violent
video games over others. So, when researchers look into the background of a school shooters,
notice they have played a lot of Call of Duty or Battlefield and jump to the conclusion that those
were a significant cause of the violence, they might be wrong. It may be that real-life violent
psychopaths enjoy being virtual violent psychopaths, and they choose games based on that
preference.(howstuffworks.com) Instead of being a cause, the person may have just enjoyed
murdering pixelations on a screen because he or she was violent in the first place! Its not always
right to go with the first and easiest answer to a question, especially when it comes to violence.

Are you sure?

You could say that since video games are immersive, they must affect you more- which
must cause you to become more violent. But, as stated before, there is almost no evidence that
the above is true, and actually quite a lot of research and statistics that go against it: "Annual
trends in video game sales for the past 33 years were unrelated to violent crime both concurrently
and up to four years later. Unexpectedly, monthly sales of video games were related to
concurrent decreases in aggravated assaults and were unrelated to homicides. Searches for
violent video game walkthroughs and guides were also related to decreases in aggravated
assaults and homicides two months later. Finally, homicides tended to decrease in the months

Rasch 4
following the release of popular M-rated violent video games." (gamespot.com) The truth is that
violent video games do not have any correlation with the causes of real-life violence.

In Conclusion
In the end, there is not nearly enough proof supporting that violent video games are a
cause of real life violence. There is no hard evidence to support it, and not just because of lack of
research. Even if a parent is worrying that video games are beginning to mold their childs
character, they have to take charge and put the problem to an end-- Its not the games fault that
its users are irresponsible. Even if a violent person plays video games, it doesnt mean they are
the cause of the violence, they just might be the effect. There is no reason to ban the use of
violent video games, so you can keep on playing your games with some peace of mind, they
shouldnt be leaving anytime soon.

Works Cited

"Do Violent Video Games Lead to Real Violence?" Www.ohio.com. Web. 07 Jan. 2015.
<http://www.ohio.com/lifestyle/do-violent-video-games-lead-to-real-violence-

Rasch 5
1.375519>.
"Do Violent Video Games Lead to Real Violence? - HowStuffWorks." HowStuffWorks.
Web. 04 Jan. 2015. <http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/video-game-violence.htm>.
"EasyBib: The Free Automatic Bibliography Composer." EasyBib. Web. 04 Jan. 2015.
<http://easybib.com/>. (Thanks easybib!)
"Video Games Don't Make Even Vulnerable Teens More Violent." Science 2.0. Web. 09
Jan. 2015.
<http://www.science20.com/news_articles/video_games_dont_make_even_vulnerable
_teens_more_violent-119280>.
"Violent Video Games Don't Lead to Increases In Violent Crimes, Study Finds." GameSpot.
Web. 11 Jan. 2015. <http://www.gamespot.com/articles/violent-video-games-dontlead-to-increases-in-viol/1100-6422421/>.