Game Over: Trump Says Video Games Could Cause Real Deaths. But Research Finds Scant Links Between Digital Mayhem and Violent Behavior
Representatives from the video game industry are with President Trump to discuss their product鈥檚 impact on youth violence, according to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. But likely participants say that regulating media content isn鈥檛 a solution to tragedies like the Parkland shooting, and experts have roundly dismissed the administration鈥檚 focus on gaming as fanciful.
The announcement comes as we approach the one-month anniversary of February鈥檚 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The fallout from the shooting, which has precipitated a surge of youth political activism and a renewed debate around gun rights, continues to dominate national headlines.
Trump a link between violent games and mass shootings at a White House conference on school safety in the week following the killings. Nikolas Cruz, the psychologically troubled former student who , was known to play such games as much as 15 hours a day, .
The purported brutality of both games and movies 鈥渋s really shaping young people鈥檚 thoughts,鈥 the president remarked at the conference, adding that both should be subject to ratings systems. (.) But the president has previously tweeted that the games are a dangerous influence that must be checked.
Video game violence & glorification must be stopped鈥攊t is creating monsters!
鈥 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
The alleged harmful effects of gaming have been trumpeted by advocacy groups and politicians from both parties , when concerned parents believed that arcades would seduce children into a life of truancy and drug use. After the Columbine killings in 1999, victims鈥 families , claiming that teenage killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had been warped by hours of playing gory fan favorites like Doom and Mortal Kombat. The lawsuit was later dismissed.
And yet, as media commentators have , there鈥檚 practically no evidence indicating that video games trigger violent behavior. Young people 鈥 鈥 have shot, stabbed, and throttled innumerable digital enemies in the decades since video games became available for use on home consoles; by some estimates, 90 percent of American kids are at least intermittent users. But numerous studies have failed to detect any elevated tendency of gamers toward violence.
Christopher Ferguson, a psychologist at Florida鈥檚 Stetson University, has conducted of the correlation between depictions of violence in media such as movies and video games and its occurence in the world. He has emerged as perhaps the most frequently cited skeptic of the president鈥檚 theory.
鈥淭here is very clearly no evidence to suggest that violent video games or violent movies or violent television contribute to violent crime,鈥 he said in 鈥淭hat seems to be, at this point, the consensus view among a majority of scholars.鈥
The Entertainment Software Association 鈥 a trade group representing prominent video game publishers like Capcom, Microsoft, and Nintendo 鈥 has downplaying the connection between digital and real-life violence. It argues that the national violent crime rate has plummeted since the early 1990s, even as report owning a dedicated gaming device such as a Playstation or Nintendo Switch.

If anything, the national trend over the past two decades has been toward less violence among children, not more. Researchers using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Public Health that youth fighting and violence decreased by 29 percent among all ethnic groups between 2002 and 2014. The Department of Education that the prevalence of bullying among students between 12 and 18 dropped from 28 percent to 22 percent over the same time period.
Other studies, including , have pointed to a causal relationship between child video game use and some forms of physical and verbal aggression. But between aggression and criminal violence.
Citing free speech concerns, to strike down a California law banning the sale of violent games to minors. 鈥淒isgust is not a valid basis for restricting expression,鈥 wrote Justice Antonin Scalia in the majority opinion.
In a statement released Monday, the Entertainment Software Association said it intended to make its case to the president.
鈥淰ideo games are enjoyed around the world and numerous authorities and reputable scientific studies have found no connection between games and real-life violence,鈥 the group said. 鈥淭he upcoming meeting at the White House, which ESA will attend, will provide the opportunity to have a fact-based conversation about video game ratings, our industry鈥檚 commitment to parents, and the tools we provide to make informed entertainment choices.鈥
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