Statement about Banning Violent Games
Controversies about violent games always make the gaming industry in an uproar. Game developers and publishers always must be prepared to face the obstacles that confront one of these biggest industries. An Illinois legislator Marcus C. Evans, Jr is looking to ban the sale of all violent video games in the state.
“Grand Theft Auto and other violent video games are getting in the minds of our young people and perpetuating the normalcy of carjacking.” Evans said. ( abc7.com)
Monday Community activists Early Walker also support these statements. Walker said, “Representative Evans and I have researched and concluded that these very young offenders of carjacking are greatly influenced by the Grand Theft Auto video game.” ( abc7.com)
Marcus C. Evans, Jr has been sent the bill to be reviewed again about violent games amandent.
Case Hijack Car
This action was taken with appropriate case of carhijacking increasing that occur in Chicago. Carjackings in Chicago increase to 1,362 this year, a 105% increase compared to 2019. This increasing happen in the first three weeks of 2021 and become doubled to 1,417 carjackings in 2020. The suspect of this crime expected was a group of teenager. Chicago Police Supt. David Brown said “one of the troubling aspects of these carjackings is the number of children involved in the crime. The youngest offender is just 13 years old, and the bulk of offenders have been between 15 and 20 years old.” ( chicago.suntimes.com)
Psychological relation between violent video games and violent behavior
This increasing number of crime will automatically make violent video games name bad. Especially for a game that has a similar gameplay such as Grand Theft Auto or GTA. But, is there any correlation between violent video games and violent behavior? Or evidence that can make someone play the violent games and do same that thing in the real life? Some experts can explain more detail about this.
President American Psychological Association (APA) Sandra L. Shullman wrote in her report, “Violence is a complex social problem that likely stems from many factors that warrant attention from researchers, policymakers and the public. Attributing violence to video gaming is not scientifically sound and draws attention away from other factors, such as a history of violence, which we know from the research is a major predictor of future violence.” ( Polygon.com)
Study about Correlation between Video games violent and Violent Behavior
Some studies and research also do the same thing about correlation between Video game violent and Violent Behavior. But, there is no significant evidence about the correlation. Although was small chance may occur.
History about Banning Violent Video Games
This event was nothing new in the Gaming Industry. Some cases already happen in the past and The Bill had been already decided. But, some people always want to blame violent video games as a scapegoat.
Some video game such as Mortal Kombat was the first video game that gave some realistic violence. Along with Night Trap and Doom were give violence action too. Even the genre of the game was different. This issue had been already done by Congressional Hearings in 1993 and all those game stay in stores. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) also support the decision about the government regulation.
In 1998 another same cases happen again, GTA game released the game and cause controversy because the game allow player to drive prostitutes around town, evade the feds, and run drugs and porn, and in the process, kill lots of people. And some peoples bring in up this issue again.
Professional statement about violent games
When we talk about video games, the player of the game will become the most important part especially for professional e-sport player that play the game so many hours. Mike Rufail as a retired e-sport player, founder and Chief Gaming Officer Envy Gaming said, “I played Call of Duty about eight hours a day on average for six straight years and I have never felt the need to enact any kind of violence in my life.” ( Time.com)
Professional Apex Legends player Tim “Dummy” Olson agrees. “I just feel like I have seen nothing but positivity from the video game community, and there’s so much it adds to.” ( Time.com)
Violence is a complex problem. You can’t blame a single one factor that can cause the big issue in it. It is like a long chain that connects each other. When you fix just one source that can cause the problem, you can’t actually fix the problem itself. You must find all this source to solve that problem. Another source was said by Tim Winter as a President of the Parents Television Council even link violent behavior with gun issues. “If you look at the broader issue of gun violence in America, you have a number of organizations and constituencies pointing at different causes. When you look back at what those arguments are, it’s the same arguments that have been made going back to Columbine. Whether it’s gun control, whether it’s mental illness, whether it’s violence in media culture — whatever the debate is about those three root causes, very little progress has been made on any of them.” ( vox.com)
Supreme Court Decision
All this chaos actually had been done by Supreme Court many times. But, when some sparks that relate with violent behavior, video games also affected.
Supreme Court already decided that games qualify as protected free speech, and that California’s 2005 law banning the sale of violent video games to minors without parental consent is unconstitutional. Brown vs. Entertainment Merchants Association has been winding its way up to the Supreme Court ever since California passed 2005’s Assembly Bill 1179, which regulated the sale of violent video games: the law was immediately challenged by video game companies, and both the California district court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that it was unconstitutional along the way. Today, the Supreme Court agreed 7–2 with the lower courts, and Justice Scalia’s majority opinion is thunderous in support of the proposition that video are games are to be afforded the same type of First Amendment protection as any other type of media. ( Theverge.com)
“Like the protected books, plays, and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas-and even social messages-through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot, and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player’s interaction with the virtual world). That suffices to confer First Amendment protection.” Scalia said.
Parental Effect
Violent behavior is closely related to parenting the children. Sierra Filucci, executive editor of Parenting content at Common sense media said, “We don’t for sure violent games cause violent behavior in real life. While plenty of research has been done to try to figure out if violent video games cause aggressive or violent behavior, nothing has proved definitively that it does or doesn’t.”
Filucci also said, “The research points toward exposure to violent video games being one factor that could cause aggressive or violent behavior, especially for kids who are already at risk, such as kids who experience violence at home, or who are exposed to substance abuse, or other risk factors.” ( sandiegofamily.com)
There is some study how important the role of parenting.
Parents who are anxious and emotional can impact their children’s violent video game play, according to new research. Warm and restrictive parents successfully limited children’s play. However, anxious parents had the opposite effect.
Does violent game make violent behavior? Or parenting have the most effect of violent behavior? Or Gun issue culture is the root of problem itself? We don’t for sure about it.
Full Source
Originally published at https://www.nirakuja.com on February 28, 2021.
