Did you know that more than 90% of video games rated E10+ are violent and as much as 97 percent of kids aged 12-17 in the USA play these video games? These violent video games are mainly associated with causing real-life violence; however, there is not much evidence that supports this. On the other hand, there is scientific evidence that shows that video games do not cause real-life violence. Video games with violent content do not cause people to have violent or aggressive behavior but rather can have the effect of stopping violent crimes.
One example of why violent video games do not cause people to have violent behavior is that video games have a positive impact on society. It causes us to become better thinkers, be more creative, more curious, and bring people closer together. In an online poll, over 40% of the answers said that gaming improves emotional well-being. Around two-thirds of gamers said that they made 5 friends while playing games and 37% said that they made even more friends than that. Since these games have such positive effects on players and bring people together to make new friends, it proves that video games do not cause people to be more violent. Instead, it shows that video games are beneficial to people and can help them be more social.
Another reason why video games don’t cause violence is that video games are shown to have no effect on violence in other parts of the world. South Korea and Japan both spend more money per person than the United States and they both have big gaming communities; Japan has large video game companies such as Nintendo, Sega, and Sony while South Korea has a huge competitive gaming industry. If video games truly do cause violence, then Japan and South Korea should have many instances of mass shootings or large acts of violence. However, Japan and South Korea have one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the world and large violent incidents are very rare. Seeing how there is not much violent crime in some places in the world where video games are played much more than in the United States, we can see that video games do not have a direct relation to real-life violence and more violence is caused by other non-video game factors.
The final reason why video games do not cause aggressive or violent behavior in real life is that video games actually stop violent crimes. A study in 2016 showed that the number of violent crimes decreased after the release of popular violent video games. Another showed that there was a dramatic decrease in violent crimes after 1995 when the first PlayStation was released and there was a 40-year low in 2010. This is because the people that would normally cause trouble out in the streets would be too busy inside playing video games. The decrease in homicides and aggressive assaults would last for around 3 months after the release of the game. This proves that violent video games don’t cause people to be more violent in real life but in fact, do the opposite and significantly decrease the number of violent crimes by providing an outlet for releasing stress and giving people something better to do.
Violent video games do not cause people to have violent or aggressive behaviors. There are many reasons for this. Video games actually have a positive impact on society. They help people get together and be more creative. Video games are also shown to not have an effect on violence in other parts of the world. The United States has a large amount of violence and isn’t even the main consumer of video games. Japan and South Korea both have huge gaming communities that are larger than the US and they have among the lowest rates of violent crimes. Video games are also the cause of large decreases in homicides and other violent crimes. Every time a new popular violent game is released, there is a decrease in violent crimes for around 3 months. By using these pieces of evidence, we can dismiss the popular belief that video games cause real-life violence and instead conclude that video games have no direct relation with real-life violence but rather may have the opposite effect of decreasing violence and crimes in society.
