Study shows that video games do not make troubled youth more violent

When a kid shoots up a school or gets in some sort of trouble with the law, the first thing many adults in society want to do is blame violent video games for that kid's behavior. Well, now, scientists have done a study at Stetson University that shows no evidence that violent video games have any effect on the behavior of these troubled youth.

[Excalibur]

Of course they don't, stop trying to blame everything except bad parenting.

Bottom line Video games have ratings just like movies, music, books and so on, letting your eight year old play an M rated game shows lack of parenting skills, do you let that child watch movies such as Natural Born Killers, listen to Marilyn Manson all while reading the latest copy of Penthouse?

If so THAT is the problem with the child, lack of discipline.

[GarrusVakarian]

Exactly. Plus, you cant just assume all kids are all at the same maturity level. Some kids shouldn't be allowed to play violent videogames where others would be fine playing them because they understand the differences between fiction and reality, its all down to parenting.

Another annoying thing, why do suits always bash on videogames when the gore and violence in movies and tv is MUCH worse seeing as it can look pretty much real?

[Whitefire]

Knowing the difference between reality and games doesn't mean your child should start killing people in games.

[GarrusVakarian]

@ Whitefire

Well it worked for me, and my friends, and many other gamers.

[Anon1974]

What we should be focusing on is how, in terms of shootings, do kids get their hands on guns and ammunition? Videogames are simply a scapegoat, just as comics were at one point, Saturday morning cartoons, heavy metal, rap, etc. And why are children allowed to consume media intended for adults?

[raWfodog]

Sometimes you can have good parents and still have bad seeds. Sometimes people are just born with screws loose.

[ExPresident]

I'm all for blaming parents when their children have access to content they are not mature enough to see (whether it be be on a personal level or based on the rating on the front of the game. Oddly enough I'm willing to bet a rather large percentage of people who use this site play games above their age level based on the rating, ie CoD or other FPS games, along with the GTA games.

That being said you could find another study done somewhere else that argued the opposite point.

[Caleb_H]

The games have ratings for a reason.

[Zodiac]

And there are studies that show the exact opposite. Studies for anything have two sides. You are only going to believe the study that supports your stance. Everyone does it.

It's the same thing with medications. Studies for and against the need of some meds for certain problems.

Example: Adderall and Prozac for ADHD and Anxiety. Nobody will ever agree on which side is right.

There are studies that show that not all children who were physically and verbally abused will grow up with sever mental scars. The lists go on and on.

So, has everyone picked their sides? Fight.

[Excalibur]

And amazingly we didn't start hearing about these kinds of issues with kids until the government took the belt out of the parents hands and started stuffing all those drugs into kids mouths.

When I was growing up there was no such thing as attention deficit disorder because the belt was an attention getter.

The only thing my parents stuffed in my mouth was soap if I got caught with a foul mouth.

[JunioRS101]

Do you know the government went as far as to propose a sin tax on video games? Like alcohol and cigarettes? Like wtf do you think you're doing up there on capitol hill? quit fiddling your dicks and do some real legislation that helps the people not rob us of our money

[Shadonic]

SCIENCE!!!

[andron]

It's basic logic really. If "violent" movies and games made people more violent we'd be having epidemic levels of violence on our hands...