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In the past few years, different organizations have published studies stating that children and teenagers who play violent video games can be linked to violent behavior. The Psychological Association reported that of the 90% plus children in the US that play video games, 97% of those kids are between the ages of 12 and 17. In 2015 almost 85% of games on the market contained some form of violence. The APA (American Psychological Association) stated that there was a link “between violent video game use and both increases in aggressive behavior… and decreases in prosocial behavior, empathy, and moral engagement”. In 2016, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) warned parents against violent media as they believed it set a poor example for kids. 

 

However, there are other organizations out there that have stated the opposite, commenting that there is no correlation between video game use and violence, but instead, that kids who enjoy brutal video games have a predisposition toward aggression. One study found that no matter how bloody the game, there was no way of predicting violent behavior based on the games a child/teen played. One psychologist stated that “it is important to note that the majority of teenage boys play video games, and yet not all are predisposed to criminal behavior”. In response to a news reporter blaming a school shooting in the US on the fact that the shooter played “first-person shooter” games. 

 

Despite these arguments that violence in the media does not make you violent, there have been several extensive studies showing exactly the opposite. A study was done as far back as the 60’s has found correlations in the violence a child see’s and their reactions and actions after seeing it. The specific study showed a group of preschoolers a video of an adult beating up an inflatable doll, after watching the video the children would be left in a room with the same doll in the video, as well as other toys. As one would expect the children beat the doll exactly as they had seen in the video, and moreover the children found new ways to beat up the doll. They also played more aggressively with the other toys in the room. The study was concluded by saying that not only did children imitate aggressive behaviors that they saw (such as in movies, or video games), but that it caused the children to act more aggressively. 

 

To add onto that, in another study done in 2017, a group of children was shown either a movie with a man with a gun or the same movie with the gun edited out. They were then released into a room with some toy guns and other objects. The scientists also hid a real 0.38 caliber handgun (not loaded) just to see how the children who found the gun might react if they saw it. 83% of the children in the study found the gun. Of that 83 %, 27% immediately informed the experimenter who took the gun away. 42% played with the gun. Importantly, none of the children who watched the movie without the gun pulled the trigger; the kids who watched the movie with the gun were more likely to pull the trigger. What’s really scary is that of those children who had watched the movie with the gun, a large majority of them would imitate what they had seen the actor in the movie does. They pointed the gun out the window at people walking down the street, and another child pointed the gun at another child’s temple and pulled the trigger. 

 

What’s absolutely terrifying about this research is that it suggests that violent media can cause aggressive behavior in children, and this is highly problematic as today there is always something on the news, in a movie, in a video game including violent gun activity. The world is slowly spiraling downhill, as there are more and more terrorist attacks, school shootings and police brutality stories every day, and knowing that children, can learn aggressive behavior from a young age, is where we see the impacts this violence in the media can have on society. This isn’t new news, these statistics and studies have been around since the 1960’s, so why do we continue to desensitize citizens, and make violence a part of everyday life?