Do Violent Video Games Influence Violent Behavior?

VGU.TV's Matt Mobley discusses the President’s request to conduct research on violent video games.

[matrixman92]

can we just stop with these articles...its getting really old now

[TacoTaru]

There has been violent behavior since we figured out how to use a club. How many people were slaughtered before there ever was a gun or a video game?

[Old McGroin]

100% agreed. People have been killing people since the the origin of people in general without the influence of movie or video game violence. The reason this topic is so popular at the moment is because of the recent shootings in the US. If guns were not so freely available to basically anybody who wants a gun in the US then these shootings would not have happened. Simple.

To the people who believe that free gun ownership actually reduces gun violence in the US, are you fcuking serious?!! Seriously, these people really believe that the more people have access to guns the less gun crime there will be?! Bloody Americans SMH :( These people might want to study simple maths. The less something is available the less it can be used.

[hazardman]

The problem is not easy as you think dude. Bloody Wanker!! Thers like a billion guns on the streets you start taking guns away it let the bad guys do whatever they want crime would run rampant IMO. We have the fucking right the bare arms soon as you start taking our civil liberties your looking at revolt which leads to civil war or a movement by the american people.. sorry if were not using a battons for a weapons. Yeah battons vs semi auto. Fucking English smh!! And if you ain't english fuck it anyway..I'm an American and won't stand for your insults on my people. The American government is run by a shadow government..these politicians are just puppets. Fuck it this topic just get me upset I love my country but our government is shady! So bad that certain states don't even want to be part of the union anymore!!

[dennett316]

@Hazardman, they want stricter controls for guns so less crazy people have access to the types of guns that are being more and more commonly used for mass killings. They don't want to take them away entirely.
Your comment about bad guys running rampant is typical of the climate of fear created in the States. The NRA have conditioned you to fear the mythical bad guys that will come to get you, yes YOU, if those liberal lefties take your guns away (again, not what's being proposed).
Despite the number of guns already in the US....crime already runs rampant. Want to know why there are so many guns on the streets? Because it's been amazingly easy to buy them in the US for decades upon decades. You think all those illegal guns just materialise out of thin air?

[TacoTaru]

I see we have spineless dwellers of happy happy land here who think that all the bad guys will leave everyone alone if we just disarm ourselves. Too much public education going on here.

[ArmrdChaos]

I think they need to ask these ignorant congressmen how many of them grew up playing cowboys and indians pointing their fingers and shooting at one another. I didn't see anyone back then bitching about how it promotes genocide. Video games are the easy scape goat because of the lack of a strong legal defense or lobbyists. Nothing more than politicians looking to put a notch on their belt in order to attract the votes of lazy/irresponsible parents. If they want to outlaw violent video games then they might as well do away with paintball also...same exact thing only in a virtual environment and a whole lot safer/cheaper.

[Old McGroin]

@ hazardman

I'm not English, why all the hate for the English? Actually, better not set you off because looking at your rant it looks like you could be yet another American gun nut ready to snap at any second and shoot up a few 10 year old children just because you feel like it.

@ TacTaru

I'd rather live in happy happy land than in a country where I genuinely have to worry about whether or not my 10 year old child will make it home from school alive. Or where I would have to consider wearing a bullet proof vest to high school or the Goddamn cinema. And if you think the "bad guys" are twiddling their thumbs just because you have the right to bear arms have a look at this article: http://www.presstv.ir/usdet...
More than 1,000 people have died by the gun in the US since the mass shooting in Connecticut and that was only 1 MONTH ago. According to this article on average nearly 100,000 people are shot or killed with a gun in the US EVERY year. On average there are 87 gun deaths in the US EVERY DAY with an average of 183 people injured by guns on top of that. And these are only the reported stats. How many extra people die every year in the US by the gun that aren't reported?

And check out this fact: The slaughter of children by gunfire in the United States is 25 TIMES the rate of the 20 next largest industrial countries in the world COMBINED.

Maybe the people defending their right to bear arms could elaborate a little bit on who exactly the "bad guys are? Because it looks to me like ordinary US citizens are doing a pretty good job of blowing each other away without any help from the "bad guys".

[TheGOODKyle]

The simplest answer is NO

A little more engaging answer is HELL NO

A 17 minutes vid proving videos games don't lead to violent behavior is a lot more complex.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[pixelsword]

Games are a release, not a suppressor. You watch someone fight, you want to fight. You simulate fighting, it gratifies your desire to fight on many levels.

You watch someone have sex, you want to have sex. You simulate sex (masturbation), it gratifies your desire for having sex on many levels.

Games release tension, not compound it.

[2pacalypsenow]

Does porno create rapists?

[jon1234]

yes they do.... i just finished playing dead space, im going out and killing every god damn thing i see, i dont want anything to turn into a necromorph.........

[aLucidMind]

There is a correlation, but anyone who claims that violent video games is a causation doesn't know what the hell they're talking about.

[level 360]

I have to agree but only up to a point. And by point I mean by how the parents' style of upbringing and the entire family's mental capacity to deal with day-to-day living as well as the environment - the neighborhood, their friends etc.

So really you have to take in a lot of factors to tell the magnitude of how violence influences kids and their parents.

[Jek_Porkins]

Nope, there was violence way before video games, movies, music and television. In fact, back in the wild west there were more killings and violence in small towns then there are now in huge cities.

Everyone just looks to a scapegoat and video games are an easy target. I remember when I was younger and had a Myspace account and my parents would always see the news where someone was abducted and used Myspace, my folks would flip out and think it was a dangerous thing.

The media loves to use fear mongering, scared people are easy to manipulate and control.