By Matthew Mattie
In the aftermath of the recent school shooting that occurred at Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, people are once again debating what causes young individuals to commit such violent and aggressive acts on their peers. One of the more highly debated topics outside of gun control is whether violent video games are having a detrimental effect on such individuals, causing them to commit such heinous acts. One official close to the investigation of the Stoneman Douglas shooting commented that “the gunman was prepared to pick off students like it’s a video game.” While some may agree with such a statement, others strongly disagree. A student who survived the Stoneman Douglas shooting commented that “I grew up playing video games . . . first-person shooter games and I would never, ever dream of taking the lives of any of my peers.” Both of these comments represent the highly debated issue of whether violent video games cause aggression in children. A number of studies have been conducted to get to the bottom of this debate. The American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have conducted studies and subsequently taken firm stances against children and teenagers playing violent video games. In their studies, both organizations note that at least 85% of the video games on the market for consumers to purchase contain some form of violence. The American Academy of Pediatrics notes in their research a link between violent video games and an increase in aggressive and violent behavior among users of the video games. Additionally, the study suggests that such violent video games also lead to a decrease in prosocial behavior, empathy and moral engagement. One of the reasons behind the conclusions by these organizations is that violent video games use humans as targets and award points for “killing”.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, a study conducted by an associate professor at the Department of Psychology at Stetson University suggests that violent video games do not predict violent behavior in individuals that play such games. Instead, the study suggests that violent video games may, in fact, help reduce societal violence in individuals that play such games. The study implies that such video games keep individuals occupied in safe environments rather than being out in society causing trouble. The study utilizes evidence from an economic study which looked at violent criminal offenses in the weeks after the release of a violent video game. The evidence consists of tracked crime rates and sales of violent video games, to which it was discovered that general societal violence actually decreased during the weeks of the appearance of a new violent video game.
Just as there will always be debates, there will always be intense debates on sensitive and important issues such as these. When such unfortunate events such as school shootings occur, gun control and video games become an immediate topic of discussion as our society tries to understand what causes such horrific events. As is often the case, however, we may fail to find a solution. One area of agreement may be that parents should take an active interest in and monitoring the video games played by their children.
Student Bio: Matthew Mattie is a 3L at Suffolk University Law School. He is currently a Chief Note Editor of the Journal of High Technology. Matthew holds a B.S. in Finance and graduated with cum laude honors from Providence College in 2016.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are the views of the author alone and do not represent the views of JHTL or Suffolk University Law School.
