Video Games
About 73% of American kids age 2–17 played video games in 2019, a 6% increase over 2018. Video games accounted for 17% of kids’ entertainment time and 11% of their entertainment spending. The global video game industry was worth $159.3 billion in 2020, a 9.3% increase from 2019. [136][137]
(This article first appeared on ProCon.org and was last updated on June 8, 2021.)
History of Video Games
Violent video games have been blamed for school shootings, increases in bullying, and violence towards women. Critics argue that these games desensitize players to violence, reward players for simulating violence, and teach children that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflicts. [60][61] [80][53]
Critics of violent video games argue that playing violent games desensitizes players to real-life violence and is responsible for the increasing rates of bullying. In 2007, 32% of students aged 12–18 reported being bullied at school, compared to 5% in 1999. Some researchers are concerned that violent video games teach children that violence is an acceptable approach to solving conflicts and achieving goals. [46][47]
Video game advocates contend that a majority of the research on the topic is deeply flawed and that no causal relationship has been found between video games and social violence. They argue that violent video games may provide a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings and may reduce crime. [34][36][37]
Defenders of violent video games argue that the research has failed to show a causal link between video games and real-world violence. They argue that correlations between video games and violent behavior can be explained by youth predisposed to violence being attracted to violent entertainment. Additionally, if video games do cause youth to be violent, then one would expect juvenile violent crime to increase as more youth play violent video games. Instead, computer and video game software sales in the U.S. increased 204% from 1994 to 2014, reaching $13.1 billion in 2014, while murders by juveniles acting alone fell 76% and violent crime rates dropped 37% during that same period. [7][8][82][98][16]
The debate over violent video games can be traced back to the 1976 release of the game Death Race. The object of the game was to run over screaming “gremlins” with a car, at which point they would turn into tombstones. Controversy erupted because the gremlins resembled stick-figure humans, and it was reported that the working title of the game was Pedestrian. After protestors dragged Death Race machines out of arcades and burned them in parking lots, production of the game ceased. [40]
In 1993 public outcry following the release of violent video games Mortal Kombat and Night Trap prompted Congress to hold hearings on regulating the sale of video games. During the hearings, California Attorney General Dan Lungren testified that violent video games have “a desensitizing impact on young, impressionable minds.” Threatened with the creation of a federal regulatory commission, the video game industry voluntarily established the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) on Sep. 1, 1994, to create a ratings system. Based on the video game’s content, the ESRB assigns one of the following ratings: “Early Childhood,” “Everyone,” “Everyone 10+,” “Teen,” “Mature,” “Adults Only,” or “Rating Pending” (only for use in advertising games that are not yet rated). In a Pew Research Center 2008 survey, 50% of boys and 14% of girls aged 12–17 listed a game with a “Mature” or “Adults Only” rating in their current top three favorite games. [14][42][129][128]
The controversy over violent video games resurfaced following the massacre of 13 people at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado, on Apr. 20, 1999. The two teenage shooters were revealed to be avid players of weapon-based combat games Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. Following the shooting, 176 newspaper articles across the country focused on the allegation that video games were the cause of the tragedy. [43]
A 2005 resolution by the American Psychological Association called for the reduction of violence in video games marketed to youth because of possible links between video games and aggression towards women. In response to the discovery of disabled but accessible sexual content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, then-Senator of New York Hillary Clinton introduced a bill in 2005 to criminalize selling “Mature” or “Adults Only” rated video games to minors, arguing that video games were a “silent epidemic of desensitization.” The bill died in committee at the end of the 109th Congress. [30][15]
On Oct. 7, 2005, California passed a law that required violent video games to include an “18” label and criminalized the sale of these games to minors. The law was blocked by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and was struck down in Feb. 2009 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals citing First Amendment protections and the inability of the state to demonstrate a link between violence in video games and real-world violence. By Dec. 2008, six other state statutes and two city ordinances concerning the sale of violent video games to minors were stricken down on similar grounds. On June 27, 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7–2 in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association that the California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors violated free speech rights. In the majority opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, “A state possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm…but that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed.” [22][44]
Within hours of the Virginia Tech shooting on Apr. 16, 2007, attorney and antigame activist Jack Thompson appeared on Fox News to blame the tragedy on the violent game Counter-Strike. Other high-profile figures such as television host Dr. Phil McGraw and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney argued that video games were to blame for the shooting. However, it was later revealed by the Virginia Tech Review Panel that the shooter did not play video games. [45]
Several games have garnered significant media attention, including 2004’s JFK assassination reenactment JFK Reloaded, 2005’s Columbine shooting reenactment Super Columbine Massacre RPG!, and 2006’s RapeLay, a Japanese video game where the player stalks and rapes a mother and her two daughters. Prior to the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which went on to gross $550 million in the first five days after its Nov. 10, 2009, release, leaked footage of the game stirred enough controversy that publisher Activision issued a response defending the game’s violent imagery. Dubbed “2015’s Most Controversial Video Game” by Vice, a shooter game named Hatred featured a mass killing atmosphere with cop-killing and face-stabbing. [17][18][130]
CBS News reported on Feb. 18, 2013, that the shooter at the Dec. 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre “was motivated by violent video games and a strong desire to kill more people than another infamous mass murderer,” citing law enforcement sources. CBS also cited unnamed sources saying that the shooter was “likely acting out the fantasies of a video game as he killed 20 first graders and six adults at the school.” Connecticut State Police spokesman Lieut. Paul Vance called those reports “mere speculation” and said it was too early to know the killer’s motivation. [20][21]
In a Jan. 16, 2013, news conference about gun violence, President Barack Obama requested $10 million from Congress to fund studies about gun violence, including “the effects violent video games have on young minds.” Former Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), chairman of the appropriations subcommittee at the time, stated his opposition to the research: “The President’s request to fund propaganda for his gun-grabbing initiatives through the CDC will not be included in the FY2015 appropriations bill.” [131]
An Aug. 2015 report from the American Psychological Association determined that playing violent video games is linked to increased aggression, but it did not find sufficient evidence of a link between the games and increased violence. The organization reaffirmed this position in 2020: “There is insufficient scientific evidence to support a causal link between violent video games and violent behavior…[T]he new task force report reaffirms that there is a small, reliable association between violent video game use and aggressive outcomes, such as yelling and pushing. However, these research findings are difficult to extend to more violent outcomes.” [120][147]
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Pro 1: Playing violent video games causes more aggression, bullying, and fighting. Read More. | Con 1: Studies have shown that violent video games may cause aggression, not violence. Further, any competitive video game or activity may cause aggression. Read More. |
| Pro 2: Simulating violence such as shooting guns and hand-to-hand combat in video games can cause real-life violent behavior. Read More. | Con 2: Violent video games are a convenient scapegoat for those who would rather not deal with the actual causes of violence in the U.S. Read More. |
| Pro 3: Many perpetrators of mass shootings had played violent video games. Read More. | Con 3: Simple statistics do not support the claim that violent video games cause mass shootings or other violence. Read More. |
| Pro 4: Violent video games desensitize players to real-life violence. Read More. | Con 4: As sales of violent video games have significantly increased, violent juvenile crime rates have significantly decreased. Read More. |
| Pro 5: By inhabiting violent characters in video games, children are more likely to imitate the behaviors of those characters and have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy. Read More. | Con 5: Studies have shown that violent video games can have a positive effect on kindness, civic engagement, and prosocial behaviors. Read More. |
| Pro 6: Exposure to violent video games is linked to lower empathy and decreased kindness. Read More. | Con 6: Many risk factors are associated with youth violence, but video games are not among them. Read More. |
| Pro 7: Video games that portray violence against women lead to more harmful attitudes and sexually violent actions towards women. Read More. | Con 7: Violent video game players know the difference between virtual violence in the context of a game and appropriate behavior in the real world. Read More. |
| Pro 8: Violent video games reinforce fighting as a means of dealing with conflict by rewarding the use of violent action with increased life force, more weapons, moving on to higher levels, and more. Read More. | Con 8: Violent video games provide opportunities for children to explore the consequences of violent actions, develop their moral compasses, and release their stress and anger (catharsis) in the game, leading to less real world aggression. Read More. |
| Pro 9: The U.S. military uses violent video games to train soldiers to kill. Read More. | Con 9: Studies claiming a causal link between video game violence and real life violence are flawed. Read More. |
Pro Arguments
(Go to Con Arguments)Pro 1: Playing violent video games causes more aggression, bullying, and fighting.
60% of middle school boys and 40% of middle school girls who played at least one Mature-rated (M-rated) game hit or beat up someone, compared with 39% of boys and 14% of girls who did not play M-rated games. [2]
A peer-reviewed study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that habitual violent video game playing had a causal link with increased long-term aggressive behavior. [63]
Several peer-reviewed studies have shown that children who play M-rated games are more likely to bully and cyberbully their peers, get into physical fights, be hostile, argue with teachers, and show aggression towards their peers throughout the school year. [2][31] [60][61][67][73][76][80]
Pro 2: Simulating violence such as shooting guns and hand-to-hand combat in video games can cause real-life violent behavior.
Video games often require players to simulate violent actions, such as stabbing, shooting, or dismembering someone with an ax, sword, chainsaw, or other weapons. [23]
Game controllers are so sophisticated and the games are so realistic that simulating the violent acts enhances the learning of those violent behaviors. [23]
A peer-reviewed study found “compelling evidence that the use of realistic controllers can have a significant effect on the level of cognitive aggression.” [118]
Two teenagers in Tennessee who shot at passing cars and killed one driver told police they got the idea from playing Grand Theft Auto III. [48]
Bruce Bartholow, professor of psychology at the University of Missouri, spoke about the effects of simulating violence: “More than any other media, these [violent] video games encourage active participation in violence. From a psychological perspective, video games are excellent teaching tools because they reward players for engaging in certain types of behavior. Unfortunately, in many popular video games, the behavior is violence.” [53]
Pro 3: Many perpetrators of mass shootings had played violent video games.
Kevin McCarthy, former U.S. Representative (R-CA), states: “But the idea of these video games that dehumanize individuals to have a game of shooting individuals and others—I’ve always felt that is a problem for future generations and others. We’ve watched from studies shown before of what it does to individuals. When you look at these photos of how it [mass shootings] took place, you can see the actions within video games and others.” [146]
Many mass shootings have been carried out by avid video game players: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in the Columbine High School shooting (1999); James Holmes in the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater shooting (2012); Jared Lee Loughner in the Arizona shooting that injured Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed six others (2011); and Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people in Norway (2011) and admitted to using the game Modern Warfare 2 for training. [43][53]
An FBI school shooter threat assessment stated that a student who makes threats of violence should be considered more credible if he or she also spends “inordinate amounts of time playing video games with violent themes.” [25]
Dan Patrick, Republican Lieutenant Governor of Texas, stated: “We’ve always had guns, always had evil, but I see a video game industry that teaches young people to kill.” [145]
Pro 4: Violent video games desensitize players to real-life violence.
Desensitization to violence was defined in a Journal of Experimental Social Psychology peer-reviewed study as “a reduction in emotion-related physiological reactivity to real violence.” [51][111][112]
The study found that just 20 minutes of playing a violent video game “can cause people to become less physiologically aroused by real violence.” People desensitized to violence are more likely to commit a violent act. [51][111][112]
By age 18, American children will have seen 16,000 murders and 200,000 acts of violence depicted in violent video games, movies, and television. [110]
A peer-reviewed study found a causal link between violent video game exposure and an increase in aggression as a result of a reduction in the brain’s response to depictions of real-life violence. [52]
Studies have found reduced emotional and physiological responses to violence in both the long and short term. [55][58]
In a peer-reviewed study, violent video game exposure was linked to reduced P300 amplitudes in the brain, which is associated with desensitization to violence and increases in aggressive behavior. [24]
Pro 5: By inhabiting violent characters in video games, children are more likely to imitate the behaviors of those characters and have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy.
Violent video games require active participation and identification with violent characters, which reinforces violent behavior. Young children are more likely to confuse fantasy violence with real world violence, and without a framework for ethical decision making, they may mimic the actions they see in violent video games. [59][4]
Child development and early childhood education expert Jane Katch stated in an interview with Education Week, “I found that young children often have difficulty separating fantasy from reality when they are playing and can temporarily believe they are the character they are pretending to be.” [124]
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in his dissent in Brown v. EMA that “the closer a child’s behavior comes, not to watching, but to acting out horrific violence, the greater the potential psychological harm.” [124]
Pro 6: Exposure to violent video games is linked to lower empathy and decreased kindness.
Empathy, the ability to understand and enter into another’s feelings is believed to inhibit aggressive behavior. In a study of 150 fourth and fifth graders by Jeanne Funk, professor of psychology at the University of Toledo, violent video games were the only type of media associated with lower empathy. [32]
A study published in the American Psychological Association’s Psychological Bulletin found that exposure to violent video games led to a lack of empathy and prosocial behavior (positive actions that benefit others). [65][66]
Eight independent tests measuring the impact of violent video games on prosocial behavior found a significant negative effect, leading to the conclusion that “exposure to violent video games is negatively correlated with helping in the real world.” [61]
Several studies have found that children with high exposure to violent media display lower moral reasoning skills than their peers without that exposure. [32][69]
A meta-analysis of 130 international studies with over 130,000 participants concluded that violent video games “increase aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and aggressive behaviors, and decrease empathic feelings and prosocial behaviors.” [123]
Pro 7: Video games that portray violence against women lead to more harmful attitudes and sexually violent actions towards women.
A peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence found that video games that sexually objectify women and feature violence against women led to a statistically significant increase in rape-supportive attitudes, which are attitudes that are hostile towards rape victims. [68]
Another study found that 21% of games sampled involved violence against women, while 28% portrayed them as sex objects. [23]
Exposure to sexual violence in video games is linked to increases in violence towards women and false beliefs about rape, such as that women incite men to rape or that women secretly desire rape. [30]
Carole Lieberman, a media psychiatrist, stated, “The more video games a person plays that have violent sexual content, the more likely one is to become desensitized to violent sexual acts and commit them.” [64]
Target Australia stopped selling Grand Theft Auto V in response to customer complaints about the game’s depiction of women, which includes the option to kill a sex worker to get your money back. [70]
Pro 8: Violent video games reinforce fighting as a means of dealing with conflict by rewarding the use of violent action with increased life force, more weapons, moving on to higher levels, and more.
Studies suggest that when violence is rewarded in video games, players exhibit increased aggressive behavior compared to players of video games where violence is punished. [23][59]
The reward structure is one distinguishing factor between violent video games and other violent media such as movies and television shows, which do not reward viewers nor allow them to actively participate in violence. [23][59]
An analysis of 81 video games rated for teens ages 13 and up found that 73 games (90%) rewarded injuring other characters and 56 games (69%) rewarded killing. [71][72]
People who played a video game that rewarded violence showed higher levels of aggressive behavior and aggressive cognition as compared with people who played a version of the same game that was competitive but either did not contain violence or punished violence. [71][72]
Pro 9: The U.S. military uses violent video games to train soldiers to kill.
The U.S. Marine Corps licensed Doom II in 1996 to create Marine Doom in order to train soldiers. In 2002 the U.S. Army released first-person shooter game America’s Army to recruit soldiers and prepare recruits for the battlefield. [6]
While the military may benefit from training soldiers to kill using video games, kids who are exposed to these games lack the discipline and structure of the armed forces and may become more susceptible to being violent. [79]
Dave Grossman, retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army and former West Point psychology professor, stated: “[T]hrough interactive point-and-shoot video games, modern nations are indiscriminately introducing to their children the same weapons technology that major armies and law enforcement agencies around the world use to ‘turn off’ the midbrain ‘safety catch’” that prevents most people from killing. [77]
Con Arguments
(Go to Pro Arguments)Con 1: Studies have shown that violent video games may cause aggression, not violence. Further, any competitive video game or activity may cause aggression.
Lauren Farrar, producer for KQED Learning’s YouTube series Above the Noise, stated: “Often times after tragic mass shooting, we hear politicians turn the blame to violent video games, but the reality is that the research doesn’t really support that claim…In general, violence usually refers to physical harm or physical acts that hurt someone—like hitting, kicking, punching, and pushing. Aggression is a more broad term that refers to angry or hostile thoughts, feelings or behaviors. So everything that is violent is aggressive, but not everything that is aggressive is violent. For example, getting frustrated, yelling, talking back, arguing those are all aggressive behaviors, but they aren’t violent. The research on the effects of violent video games and behavior often looks at these milder forms of aggressive behavior.” [140]
A peer-reviewed study in Psychology of Violence determined that the competitive nature of a video game was related to aggressive behavior, regardless of whether the game contained violent content. The researchers concluded: “Because past studies have failed to equate the violent and nonviolent video games on competitiveness, difficulty, and pace of action simultaneously, researchers may have attributed too much of the variability in aggression to the violent content.” [125]
A follow-up study tracked high school students for four years and came to the same conclusion: the competitive nature of the games led to the increased hostile behavior. [126]
Con 2: Violent video games are a convenient scapegoat for those who would rather not deal with the actual causes of violence in the U.S.
Patrick Markey, psychology professor at Villanova University, stated: “The general story is people who play video games right after might be a little hopped up and jerky but it doesn’t fundamentally alter who they are. It is like going to see a sad movie. It might make you cry but it doesn’t make you clinically depressed…Politicians on both sides go after video games it is this weird unifying force. It makes them look like they are doing something…They [violent video games] look scary. But research just doesn’t support that there’s a link [to violent behavior].” [138]
Markey also explained, “Because video games are disproportionately blamed as a culprit for mass shootings committed by White perpetrators, video game ‘blaming’ can be viewed as flagging a racial issue. This is because there is a stereotypical association between racial minorities and violent crime.” [141]
Andrew Przybylski, associate professor and director of research at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, stated: “Games have only become more realistic. The players of games and violent games have only become more diverse. And they’re played all around the world now. But the only place where you see this kind of narrative still hold any water, that games and violence are related to each other, is in the United States. [And, by blaming video games for violence,] we reduce the value of the political discourse on the topic, because we’re looking for easy answers instead of facing hard truths.” [139]
Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state and first lady, tweeted, “People suffer from mental illness in every other country on earth; people play video games in virtually every other country on earth. The difference is the guns.” [142]
Con 3: Simple statistics do not support the claim that violent video games cause mass shootings or other violence.
Katherine Newman, dean of arts and sciences at Johns Hopkins University, explained: “Millions of young people play video games full of fistfights, blazing guns, and body slams…Yet only a minuscule fraction of the consumers become violent.” [84][86][87][91][92]
A report by the U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Department of Education examined 37 incidents of targeted school violence between 1974 and 2000. Of the 41 attackers studied, 27% had an interest in violent movies, 24% in violent books, and 37% exhibited interest in their own violent writings, while only 12% showed interest in violent video games. The report did not find a relationship between playing violent video games and school shootings. [35]
Patrick M. Markey, director of the Interpersonal Research Laboratory at Villanova University, stated, “90% of young males play video games. Finding that a young man who committed a violent crime also played a popular video game, such as Call of Duty, Halo, or Grand Theft Auto, is as pointless as pointing out that the criminal also wore socks.” [84]
Further, gun violence is less prevalent in countries with high video game use. A study of the countries representing the 10 largest video game markets internationally found no correlation between playing video games and gun-related killings. Even though gun violence in the U.S. is high, the nine other countries with the highest video game usage have some of the lowest violent crime rates (and eight of those countries spend more per capita on video games than the United States). [97]
Con 4: As sales of violent video games have significantly increased, violent juvenile crime rates have significantly decreased.
In 2019 juvenile arrests for violent crimes were at an all-time low, a decline of 50% since 2006. Meanwhile, video game sales set a record in Mar. 2020, with Americans spending $5.6 billion on video game hardware, accessories, and assorted content. Both statistics continue a years-long trend. [143][144]
Total American sales of video game hardware and software increased 204% from 1994 to 2014, reaching $13.1 billion in 2014, while violent crimes decreased 37% and murders by juveniles acting alone fell 76% in that same period. [82][83][133][134][135]
The number of high school students who had been in at least one physical fight decreased from 43% in 1991 to 25% in 2013, and student reports of criminal victimization at school dropped by more than half from 1995 to 2011. [106][107]
A peer-reviewed study found that, “Monthly sales of video games were related to concurrent decreases in aggravated assaults.” [84]
Con 5: Studies have shown that violent video games can have a positive effect on kindness, civic engagement, and prosocial behaviors.
Research shows that playing violent video games can induce a feeling of guilt that leads to increased prosocial behavior (positive actions that benefit others) in the real world. [104]
A study published in Computers in Human Behavior discovered that youths exposed to violence in action games displayed more prosocial behavior and civic engagement, “possibly due to the team-oriented multiplayer options in many of these games.” [103]
Con 6: Many risk factors are associated with youth violence, but video games are not among them.
The U.S. Surgeon General’s list of risk factors for youth violence includes abusive parents, poverty, neglect, neighborhood crime, being male, substance use, and mental health problems, but not video games. [118]
A peer-reviewed study even found a “real and significant” effect of hot weather on homicides and aggravated assaults, showing that heat is a risk factor for violence. [124]
Con 7: Violent video game players know the difference between virtual violence in the context of a game and appropriate behavior in the real world.
By age seven children can distinguish fantasy from reality, and can tell the difference between video game violence and real-world violence. [99][100]
Video game players understand they are playing a game. Kids see fantasy violence all the time, from Harry Potter and the Minions to Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry. Their ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality prevents them from emulating video game violence in real life. [9]
Exposure to fantasy is important for kids. Fisher-Price toy company stated: “Pretending is more than play: it’s a major part of a child’s development. Fantasy not only develops creative thinking, it’s also a way for children to deal with situations and problems that concern them.” [108]
Con 8: Violent video games provide opportunities for children to explore the consequences of violent actions, develop their moral compasses, and release their stress and anger (catharsis) in the game, leading to less real world aggression.
Violent games allow youth to experiment with moral issues such as war, violence, and death without real world consequences. A researcher at the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media wrote about her research: “One unexpected theme that came up multiple times in our focus groups was a feeling among boys that violent games can teach moral lessons…Many war-themed video games allow or require players to take the roles of soldiers from different sides of a conflict, perhaps making players more aware of the costs of war.” [2][38]
A peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that children, especially boys, play video games as a means of managing their emotions: “61.9% of boys played to ‘help me relax,’ 47.8% because ‘it helps me forget my problems,’ and 45.4% because ‘it helps me get my anger out.’ ” [37]
Researchers point to the cathartic effect of video games as a possible reason for why higher game sales have been associated with lower crime rates. [84]
A peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Adolescent Research concluded that “boys use games to experience fantasies of power and fame, to explore and master what they perceive as exciting and realistic environments (but distinct from real life), to work through angry feelings or relieve stress, and as social tools.” The games serve as a substitute for rough-and-tumble play. [36]
Con 9: Studies claiming a causal link between video game violence and real life violence are flawed.
Many studies failed to control for factors that contribute to children becoming violent, such as family history and mental health, plus most studies do not follow children over long periods of time. [10][95]
Video game experiments often have people playing a game for as little as ten minutes, which is not representative of how games are played in real life. In many laboratory studies, especially those involving children, researchers must use artificial measures of violence and aggression that do not translate to real-world violence and aggression, such as whether someone would force another person eat hot sauce or listen to unpleasant noises. [84][94]
According to Christopher J. Ferguson, a psychology professor at Stetson University, “matching video game conditions more carefully in experimental studies with how they are played in real life makes VVG’s [violent video games] effects on aggression essentially vanish.” [95][96]