Video Game Violence
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Since their inception in the 1970s,
video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
s have often been criticized by some for
violent Violence is characterized as the use of physical force by humans to cause harm to other living beings, or property, such as pain, injury, disablement, death, damage and destruction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines violence a ...
content. Politicians, parents, and other activists have claimed that violence in video games can be tied to violent behavior, particularly in children, and have sought ways to regulate the sale of video games. Studies have shown no connection between video games and violent behavior. The
American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
states that while there is a well-established link between violent video games and aggressive behaviors, attributing acts of violence to violent video gaming "is not scientifically sound."


Background

Since the late 1990s, acts of violence have been highly publicized, where it is often assumed that suspects may have a history of playing violent video games. The 1999
Columbine High School massacre A school shooting and attempted bombing occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 13 students and one teach ...
created a
moral panic A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usually perpetuated by moral e ...
around video games, spurring research to see if violent video games lead to aggressive behaviors in real life. Some research finds that violent video game use is correlated with, and will not cause, increases in aggression and decreases in
prosocial behavior Prosocial behavior is a social behavior that "benefit other people or society as a whole", "such as helping, sharing, donating, co-operating, and volunteering". The person may or may not intend to benefit others; the behavior's prosocial benef ...
. Other research argues that there are no such effects of violent video games. This link between violent video games and antisocial behavior was denied by the president of the
Interactive Digital Software Association The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade association of the video game industry in the United States. It was formed in April 1994 as the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) and renamed on July 21, 2003. It is based in ...
in 2005 in a
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
interview. In the interview, he stated that the problem is "vastly overblown and overstated" by people who "don't understand, frankly, this industry". Others have theorized that there are positive effects of playing video games, including prosocial behavior in some contexts, and argue that the video game industry has been used as a
scapegoat In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designate ...
for more generalized problems affecting some communities. A primary concern about a potential relationship between violence and video games is that a significant portion of gamers are young, and as such, particularly impressionable. A large-scale study conducted in 2022 suggested that at least a quarter of all gamers are between 10 and 20 years of age. Additionally, a survey of 1,102 children between 12 and 17 years of age found that 97% are video game players who have played on the last day, of which 14% of girls and 50% of boys favored games with an "M" (mature) or "AO" (adult-only) rating—and 25% of parents do not check the censor's rating on a video game before allowing their child to purchase it.


History


Before video games

Elements of the type of
moral panic A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usually perpetuated by moral e ...
that came with video games after they gained popularity had previously been seen with
comic book A comic book, comic-magazine, or simply comic is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panel (comics), panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and wri ...
s. Through the 1950s, comics were in their
Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during wh ...
, having become a widely popular form of media. As the media expanded, some artists and publishers took more risks with violent and otherwise questionable content.
Fredric Wertham Fredric Wertham (; born Friedrich Ignatz Wertheimer, March 20, 1895 – November 18, 1981) was a German–American psychiatrist and author. Wertham had an early reputation as a progressive psychiatrist who treated poor black patients at his Lafa ...
, a psychiatrist, wrote ''
Seduction of the Innocent ''Seduction of the Innocent'' is a book by German-born American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a harmful form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. The book was tak ...
'' in 1954, which outlined his studies asserting that violent comics were a negative form of literature and led to
juvenile delinquency Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior younger than the statutory age of majority. These acts would be considered crimes if the individuals committing them were older. The term ...
. Even though some of Wertham's claims were later found to be based on inaccurate studies, the book created a
moral panic A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", usually perpetuated by moral e ...
that put pressure on the comic book industry to regulate their works. Later in 1954, the comic industry issued the
Comics Code Authority The Comics Code Authority (CCA) was formed in 1954 by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation. The CCA enabled comic publishers to self-regulate the content of American comic book, comic books in the ...
(CCA) which put strict regulations on content that could appear in comic books sold at most stores, eliminating most violence and other mature content via self-censoring. The mainstream comic industries waned as comics had lost their edge, while an underground market for the more adult comics formed. The comic industry did not recover from Comics Code Authority regulations until the 1970s, when adherence to the Authority was weakened. By the 2000s, the Authority was generally no longer considered. Modern trends of targeting violence in video games have been compared to these events in the comic industry, and video game industry leaders have specifically avoided the use of self-censorship that could impact the performance of the industry. Pinball machines had also created a moral panic in the post-World War II United States, as the teenage rebels of the 1950s and 1960s would frequently hang around establishments with pinball machines, which created fear across the
generation gap A generation gap or generational gap is a difference of opinions and outlooks between one generation and another. These differences may relate to beliefs, politics, language, work, demographics and values. The differences between generations can ...
of older Americans unsure of the intents of this younger crowd. To some, it appeared to be a form of gambling (which led to machines being labeled "For Amusement Only"), while more religious people feared pinball was a "tool of the devil". Because of this, many cities and towns banned pinball machines or implemented strict licensing requirements which were slowly lifted in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Notably,
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
's ban on pinball machines lasted until 1976, while Chicago's was lifted in 1977. The appearance of video games in the early 1970s overlapped with the lifting of bans on pinball machines, and when youth were drawn to arcade games, the same concerns that were initially leveled at pinball machines as gambling machines and immoral playthings were also made about video games.


1970s–1980s

After ''
Pong ''Pong'' is a 1972 sports video game developed and published by Atari for arcades. It is one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but B ...
'' exploded onto the arcade game market, arcade game manufacturers were aware of the attention that video games were getting and tried to position games as entertainment aimed at adults, selling units preferably to bars and lounges. This gave them more leeway with content, but still which drew criticism from some. Two arcade games had already drawn attention for amoral content prior to 1976. Atari's '' Gotcha'' in 1973, a maze game, initially shipped with two joystick units that were covered in pink domes as to represent women's breasts, but which were removed in later makes. The 1975 '' Shark Jaws'', also by Atari, was an unlicensed adaption of the film '' Jaws'' and attempted to play on the film's violent context, though here, the player was hunted by the shark. As arcade games spread into more locations, the ease for children to access the games also elevated concerns about their potential impacts. The 1976 arcade game '' Death Race'' is considered the first game to be targeted for its violent content. The game, like ''Shark Jaws'', was an unlicensed adaption of the 1975 film '' Death Race 2000'', a violent film centered on driving. Within the game, the player was challenged to drive a car and run over simulated
gremlin A gremlin is a mischievous fictional creature invented at the beginning of the 20th century to originally explain malfunctions in aircraft, and later in other machinery, processes, and their operators. Depictions of these creatures vary widely. ...
s scoring points for doing so. Besides the game's simulated content, the game cabinet was also adorned with imagery of death. The game caught the attention of an
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
writer, Wendy Walker, who had contacted the game's manufacturer, Exidy, with her concerns that the game was excessively violent. Walker's concerns spread through other media organizations, including the
National Safety Council The National Safety Council (NSC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, public service organization promoting health and safety in the United States. Headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, NSC is a member organization, founded in 1913 and granted a congress ...
, who accused the game of glorifying the act of running people over when at the time they were trying to educate drivers about safe driving practices. While some arcades subsequently returned the ''Death Race'' machines due to this panic, sales of the game continued to grow due to the media coverage. It was recognized that many other competing arcade games at the time, like '' Cops 'n' Robbers'', '' Tank 8'', and ''
Jet Fighter Fighter aircraft (early on also ''pursuit aircraft'') are military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the air ...
'', all games equally about violent actions, saw little complaint.
Nolan Bushnell Nolan Kay Bushnell (born February 5, 1943) is an American businessman and electrical engineer. He established Atari, Inc. and the Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre chain. He has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consu ...
of Atari said that "We
Atari Atari () is a brand name that has been owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by French holding company Atari SA (formerly Infogrames) and its focus is on "video games, consumer hardware, licensing and bl ...
had an internal rule that we wouldn't allow violence against people. You could blow up a tank or you could blow up a flying saucer, but you couldn't blow up people. We felt that that was not good form, and we adhered to that all during my tenure." United States
Surgeon General Surgeon general (: surgeons general) is a title used in several Commonwealth countries and most NATO nations to refer either to a senior military medical officer or to a senior uniformed physician commissioned by the government and entrusted with p ...
C. Everett Koop Charles Everett Koop (October 14, 1916 – February 25, 2013) was an American pediatric surgeon and public health administrator who served as the 13th surgeon general of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from 1982 to 1989. According ...
was one of the first to raise concerns about the potential connection of video games to youth behavior. In 1982, Koop stated as a personal observation that "more and more people are beginning to understand" the connection between video games and mental and physical health effects on youth, though that at that time, there was not sufficient evidence to make any conclusion.


1990s


''Mortal Kombat'' and congressional hearings (1993–1994)

The fighting game ''
Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of fighting game, fighting video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The original ''Mortal Kombat (1992 video game), Mortal Kombat'' arcade game spawned Lis ...
'' was released into arcades in 1992. It was one of the first games to depict a large amount of blood and gore, particularly during special moves known as " Fatalities" used to finish off the losing character. Numerous arcade games that used high amounts of violent content followed in ''Mortal Kombat'' wake. However, as these games were originally exclusive to arcade machines, it was generally possible to segregate them away from games aimed for younger players. Eventually, there was significant interest from home console manufacturers in licensing ''Mortal Kombat'' from
Midway Games Midway Games Inc. (formerly Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known simply as Midway) was an American video game company that existed from 1958 to 2010. Midway's franchises included ''Mortal Kombat'', ''Rampage (franchise), Ra ...
, particularly from
Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
for its
Sega Genesis The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master Sys ...
platform and
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
for the
Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...
. At the time, Sega and Nintendo were in the midst of a console war to try to gain dominance in the United States market. Sega's licensed version of ''Mortal Kombat'' retained all the gore from the arcade version (though required a use of a cheat code to activate it), while Nintendo had a version developed that removed most of the gore, recoloring the blood as grey "sweat" and otherwise toning down the game. Sega's version drastically outsold Nintendo's version and intensified the competition between the two companies. The popularity of ''Mortal Kombat'', along with the full-motion video game '' Night Trap'' and the light gun shooting game Lethal Enforcers, gained attention from U.S. Senators
Joe Lieberman Joseph Isadore Lieberman (; February 24, 1942 – March 27, 2024) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013. Originally a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Dem ...
and
Herb Kohl Herbert Hiken Kohl (February 7, 1935 – December 27, 2023) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and Democratic politician from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served 24 years as a United States senator from Wisconsin, from 1989 to 2013, and ...
. This resulted in two congressional hearings in 1993 and 1994 to discuss the issues of violence and video games with concerned advocacy groups, academics, and the video game industry. Sega, Nintendo, and others were criticized for lacking a standardized content rating system, and Lieberman threatened to have Congress pass legislation requiring a system that would have government oversight if the industry did not take its own steps. By the time of the second hearing, Sega, Nintendo, and other console manufacturers had outlined their agreed-upon approach for a voluntary rating system through the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB), which was in place by the end of 1994. This also led to the establishment of the Interactive Digital Software Association, later known as the
Entertainment Software Association The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade association of the video game industry in the United States. It was formed in April 1994 as the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) and renamed on July 21, 2003. It is based in ...
(ESA), a trade group for the video game industry that managed the ESRB and further supported trade-wide aspects such as government affairs.


Jack Thompson lawsuits (1997)

Disbarred American attorney Jack Thompson has criticized a number of video games for perceived obscenity and campaigned against their producers and distributors. He argues that violent video games have repeatedly been used by teenagers as "murder simulators" to rehearse violent plans. He has pointed to alleged connections between such games and a number of school massacres.


Columbine High School massacre (1999)

The
Columbine High School massacre A school shooting and attempted bombing occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 13 students and one teach ...
on April 20, 1999, reignited the debate about violence in video games. Among other factors, the perpetrators,
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold Eric David Harris (April 9, 1981 – April 20, 1999) and Dylan Bennet Klebold ( ; September 11, 1981 – April 20, 1999) were American high school seniors and mass murderers who perpetrated the Columbine High School massacre at Columbine ...
, were found to be avid players of violent games like '' Doom''. The public perceived a connection between video games and the shooting, leading to a Congressional hearing and President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
ordering an investigation into school shootings and how video games were being marketed to youth. The report, released in 2004 by the
United States Secret Service The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security tasked with conducting criminal investigations and providing protection to American political leaders, thei ...
and the
United States Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a cabinet-level department of the United States government, originating in 1980. The department began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and ...
, found that 12% of perpetrators in school shootings had shown interest in video games. In the aftermath of the Columbine shooting, previous school shootings were re-evaluated by media and connections were drawn between Columbine and the
1998 Westside Middle School shooting The Westside Middle School shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on March 24, 1998, at Westside Middle School in unincorporated Craighead County, Arkansas, near the city of Jonesboro. Thirteen-year-old Mitchell Johnson and eleven-year-ol ...
. Although video games had not been identified as a factor at the time of the Westside shooting, media discussions of Columbine pointed to Westside as a similar case in that the two student perpetrators had often played '' GoldenEye 007'' together and had enjoyed playing
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
games prior to the shooting.


2000s


''Grand Theft Auto III'' and further lawsuits

In 2001,
Rockstar Games Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, using the assets Take-Two had previously acquired from BMG Interactive. Foun ...
released the
PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October, in Europe on 24 Novembe ...
game '' Grand Theft Auto III''. The game gave the player control of a protagonist named Claude in a contemporary urban setting taking on missions within the city's criminal underworld. The game was one of the first
open world In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the Gamer, player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. Notable games in this category include ''The Legend of Zelda (video game ...
games and allowed the player to have nearly free control of how they completed missions, which included gunplay, melee combat, and reckless driving. The game was widely successful, selling over two million units within six months. Its popularity led several groups to criticize the violence in the game, among other factors. Rockstar subsequently released two follow-up games, '' Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'' in 2002 and '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'' in 2004, the latter becoming controversial for the sexually explicit ''Hot Coffee'' mod. After this incident, the government decided to take action. In 2005, California banned the sale of violent video games to minors. In the years that followed, a number of fatal murders and other crimes committed by young adults and youth were found to have ties to ''Grand Theft Auto III'' and later games that followed in its footsteps. Jack Thompson became involved in trying to sue Rockstar, its publisher
Take-Two Interactive Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993. The company owns three major Imprint (trade name), publishing labels, Rockstar Games, Zynga and 2K ...
, and
Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
on behalf of the victims for large amounts of damages, asserting that the violence in these games led directly to the crimes. Thus these companies were responsible for said crimes. These cases ultimately did not lead to any action against Rockstar, as they were either voluntarily withdrawn or dismissed before judgment. Thompson agreed to no longer seek legal action against Take-Two's games and ultimately became an activist to highlight the issues of violence in video games. The events of this period were made into a
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
docudrama, '' The Gamechangers'', which was first broadcast in September 2015.


Winnenden school shooting (2009)

The shooter in the Winnenden school shooting on March 11, 2009, in Winnenden, Germany, was found to have had interest in video games like ''
Counter-Strike ''Counter-Strike'' (''CS'') is a series of multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video games, in which opposing teams attempt to complete various objectives. The series began on Windows in 1999 with the release of the first game, '' Counte ...
'' and ''
Far Cry 2 ''Far Cry 2'' is a 2008 first-person shooter developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A top-down shooter version for mobile phones was developed and published by Gameloft. It is ...
''. In the weeks that followed, politicians and concerned citizens tried to pressure the government into passing legislation to ban the sale of violent video games in the country, though this never came to pass.


''Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2'' "No Russian" (2009)

The 2009 first-person shooter '' Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2'' included a controversial mission in its story mode called "No Russian". In the mission, the player takes on the role of a
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
agent who has embedded himself among a Russian
ultranationalist Ultranationalism, or extreme nationalism, is an extremist form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its specific ...
terrorist group; the leader of the group warns them to speak "no Russian" to give away their origins. The mission allows the player to participate in a terrorist attack at a Moscow airport, during which they may fire indiscriminately on civilians and security alike. Participation in the mission is not mandatory: a disclaimer before the mission begins warns the player about the violent content and gives the option to skip the level. If the player chooses to play the level, they are not required to participate in the shooting in order to complete the level. The level ends when the terrorist group's leader kills the player-character in order to frame the attack as the work of the United States, leading to a world war. The existence of the level leaked before the game's release, forcing publisher
Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
and developer
Infinity Ward Infinity Ward, Inc. is an American video game developer. They developed the video game '' Call of Duty'', along with seven other installments in the ''Call of Duty'' series. Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West established Infinity W ...
to respond to journalists and activists that were critical of the concept of the mission. Activision defended the level's inclusion in the finished game, emphasizing that the mission was not representative of the rest of the game and that initial assessments had taken the level out of context. Even with the full game's release, "No Russian" was still criticized, with some stating that video games had yet to mature. The mission is considered a watershed moment for the video game industry, in how certain depictions of violence can be seen as acceptable while others, like "No Russian", are considered unacceptable.


2010s


''Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association'' (2011)

To address violent video games, several U.S. states passed laws that restricted the sale of mature video games, particularly those with violent or sexual content, to children. Video game industry groups fought these laws in courts and won. The most significant case came out of a challenge to a California law passed in 2005 that banned the sale of mature games to minors as well as requiring an enhanced content rating system beyond the ESRB's. Industry groups fought this and won, but the case ultimately made it to the
Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
. In ''Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association'', the Supreme Court ruled that video games were a protected form of speech, qualifying for
First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...
protections, and laws like California's that block sales on a basis outside of the
Miller test The ''Miller'' test, also called the three-prong obscenity test, is the United States Supreme Court's test for determining whether speech or expression can be labeled obscene, in which case it is not protected by the First Amendment to the Unite ...
were unconstitutional. Justice
Antonin Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectual an ...
, who wrote the majority opinion, considered that violence in many video games was no different from that presented in other children's media, such as ''
Grimm's Fairy Tales ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', originally known as the ''Children's and Household Tales'' (, , commonly abbreviated as ''KHM''), is a German collection of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, Jacob Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm, first publish ...
''.


Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting (2012)

The
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting On December 14, 2012, a mass shooting occurred at Newtown Public Schools, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, United States. The perpetrator, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot and killed 26 people. The victims were 20 children bet ...
occurred on December 14, 2012. The perpetrator, Adam Lanza, was found to have a "trove" of video games, as described by investigating officials, including several games considered to be violent. This discovery started a fresh round of calls against violent video games in political and media circles, including a meeting on the topic between U.S. Vice President
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
and representatives from the video game industry. The
National Rifle Association of America The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent Gun politics in the United States, gun rights ...
blamed the video game industry for the shooting, identifying games that focused on shooting people in schools.


Munich Olympia Mall shooting (2016)

The 2016 Munich shooting occurred on July 22, 2016, in the vicinity of the Olympia Shopping Mall in the Moosach District of
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
, Bavaria, Germany. The perpetrator, David Sonboly, killed 9 people before killing himself when surrounded by police. As a result, the German Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maizière, claimed that the "intolerable extent of video games on the internet" has a harmful effect on the development of young people. His statements were criticized by media specialist Maic Mausch, who said with regards to Maiziere's statement that "No sensible scientist can say that with such certainty. And if no scientist can do it, no minister can do that."


Parkland school shooting (2018)

The
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting On February 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, part of the Miami metropolitan area, Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 18 ot ...
occurred on February 14, 2018, in
Parkland, Florida Parkland is a city in northern Broward County, Florida, United States. It is a suburb of Miami and located north of the city. As of the 2020 census, the population of Parkland was 34,670. Parkland is part of the Miami metropolitan area, which ...
. In the aftermath, Kentucky Governor
Matt Bevin Matthew Griswold Bevin (; born January 9, 1967) is an American businessman and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 62nd governor of Kentucky from 2015 to 2019. He is currently the CEO of Neuronetrix Solutions, LLC. Bo ...
declared that the country should re-evaluate "the things being put in the hands of our young people", specifically "quote-unquote video games" that "have desensitized people to the value of human life". A month later, President
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
called for several industry representatives and advocates to meet in Washington, D.C. to discuss the impact of violent video games with him and his advisors. Industry leaders included Michael Gallagher, ESA president; Patricia Vance, ESRB president; Robert Altman, CEO of ZeniMax Media; and Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take-Two, while advocates included Brent Bozell, of the Media Research Center and Melissa Henson of the
Parents Television Council The Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC), formerly the Parents Television Council (PTC), is an American media advocacy group founded by Conservatism in the United States, conservative political pundit L. Brent Bozell III in 1995, which ...
. While the video game industry asserted the lack of connection between violent video games and violent acts, their critics asserted that the industry should take steps to limit youth access and marketing to violent video games in ways similar to the approaches taken for alcohol and tobacco use.


Suzano school shooting (2019)

The Suzano school shooting occurred on March 13, 2019, at the Professor Raul Brasil State School in the Brazilian municipality of Suzano,
São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...
. The perpetrators, Guilherme Taucci Monteiro and Luiz Henrique de Castro, managed to kill five school students and two school employees before Monteiro killed Castro and then committed suicide. As a result, Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourão claimed that young people are addicted to violent video games, while also claiming that the work routine of Brazilian parents made it harder for young people to be raised properly. As a result, the hashtag #SomosGamersNãoAssassinos ("#WeAreGamersNotMurderers") gained popularity in Brazil.


August 2019 shootings

Two mass shootings occurring within a day of each other, one in El Paso, Texas and another in Dayton, Ohio, in August 2019 provoked political claims that video games were partially to blame for the incidents. U.S. President Donald Trump stated days after the shootings, "We must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace". House Minority Leader
Kevin McCarthy Kevin Owen McCarthy (born January 26, 1965) is an American politician who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 55th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from January until he was Remova ...
also blamed video games for these events, stating, "I've always felt that it's a problem for future generations and others. We've watched from studies, shown before, what it does to individuals, and you look at these photos of how it took place, you can see the actions within video games and others." News organizations and the video game industry reiterated the findings of the past, that there was no link between video games and violent behavior, and criticized politicians for putting video games to task when the issues lied within proper
gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms and ammunition by civilians. Most countries allow civilians to own firearms, bu ...
.


Halle synagogue shooting (2019)

The Halle synagogue shooting occurred on October 9, 2019, in Halle,
Saxony-Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a States of Germany, state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the List of German states ...
, Germany, continuing in nearby Landsberg. The suspect, identified by the media as Stephan Baillet, was influenced by far-right ideology and managed to live-stream his attack on
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
and Twitch. In the process of the attack, he managed to kill two people before being subdued by police. Given the live-streamed nature of the attack, German Minister of the Interior
Horst Seehofer Horst Lorenz Seehofer (born 4 July 1949) is a German politician who served as Minister for the Interior, Building and Community under Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. A member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), he served as the ...
claimed that "many of the perpetrators or the potential perpetrators come from the gaming scene" with regards to incidents like the shooting in Halle. His comments received widespread criticism from German gamers and politicians, such as SPD general secretary
Lars Klingbeil Lars Klingbeil (; born 23 February 1978) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) serving as the Vice Chancellor of Germany and Federal Minister of Finance since 6 May 2025. He has served as the SPD's Co-Leader since 2021, to ...
, who stated that "The problem is right-wing extremism, not gamers or anything else."


2020s


School shooting in Torreon, Mexico (2020)

Hours after a school shooting in
Torreón Torreón () is a city and seat of Torreón Municipality in the Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, state of Coahuila. The city's population is 720,848 inhabitants, making it the second largest city in the state of Coahuila. Also Torreón is par ...
,
Coahuila Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Coahuila de Zaragoza, is one of the 31 states of Mexico. The largest city and State Capital is the city of Saltillo; the second largest is Torreón and the thi ...
, Mexico, in January 2020, the governor of that state, Miguel Ángel Riquelme Solís, stated that the 11-year-old shooter was wearing a T-shirt with the logo of ''
Natural Selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generation ...
'', a mod for the game ''
Half-Life Half-life is a mathematical and scientific description of exponential or gradual decay. Half-life, half life or halflife may also refer to: Film * Half-Life (film), ''Half-Life'' (film), a 2008 independent film by Jennifer Phang * ''Half Life: ...
,'' and claimed he could have been influenced by the game. The governor's comment sparked a debate about the link between violence and video games. Erik Salazar Flores of the College of Psychology of the
National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...
(UNAM) stated that blaming video games for violence is an "easy way out" for authorities who wish to ignore the complexity of the problem. Dalila Valenzuela, a sociologist from Autonomous University of Baja California said that while video games can influence children's behavior, their parents are most directly responsible.


Nahel Merzouk protests (2023)

In June 2023, Nahel Merzouk, a 17-year-old of North African descent, was killed by police in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre. As protests and riots gripped France in the aftermath, President
Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...
criticized what he called the "intoxicating effect" of video games and social media for the civil unrest gripping the country.


Studies

The policy statement of the
American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
(APA) related to video games states "Scant evidence has emerged that makes any causal or correlational connection between playing violent video games and actually committing violent activities". The APA has acknowledged that violent video games strongly correlates with aggressive behavior, as well as anti-social behavior, but distinguishes between aggression and violence. A 2015 APA review of current studies in this area described the link between violent video games and aggressive behavior as "both as an increase in negative outcomes such as aggressive behavior, cognition, and affect and as a decrease in positive outcomes such as prosocial behavior, empathy, and sensitivity to aggression." However, the APA recognized the studies tended to be disproportionate to normal demographics. Further, the APA issued a policy statement in 2017 aimed at politicians and media to urge them to avoid linking violent video games with violent crimes, reiterating the subject of their findings over the years. In a follow-up statement in 2020, the APA reaffirmed that there remains insufficient evidence to link video games to violent behavior. They had found that there was "small, reliable association between violent video game use and aggressive outcomes, such as yelling and pushing," but could not extend that to more violent activities. Christopher Ferguson, a professor at
Stetson University Stetson University is a private university in DeLand, Florida, United States. Established in 1883 as DeLand Academy, it was later renamed John B. Stetson University in honor of John B. Stetson. The university's main campus in DeLand spans 175 ...
and a researcher on the connection between violent video games and violent behavior, has stated that " ere's not evidence of a correlation, let alone a causation" between videogames and violence. Ferguson's more recent studies have shown that there is no predictive behavior that can be inferred from the playing of violent video games. A longitudinal study published in '' Molecular Psychiatry'' in 2021 found no significant changes in semantic accessibility to aggressive words, frustration tolerance, empathy, or prosocial behavior between those who played a violent video game and those who played a non-violent video game daily for two months. Similarly, a 2023 study published in ''
eLife ''eLife'' is a not-for-profit, peer-reviewed, open access, scientific journal, science publisher for the Biomedicine, biomedical and life sciences. It was established at the end of 2012 by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Max Planck Society, ...
'' found that playing violent video games, specifically "
Grand Theft Auto V ''Grand Theft Auto V'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto, ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 2008's ''Grand Theft Auto IV'', and ...
," does not decrease empathy in players. The research used
fMRI Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area o ...
and behavioral tests to measure empathy and found no significant evidence of reduced empathetic responses or emotional reactions to violence in players.


Negative effects of violent video games

Theories of negative effects of video games tend to focus on players' modeling of behaviors observed in the game. These effects may be exacerbated due to the interactive nature of these games. The most well-known theory of such effects is the cognitive neo-association theory (also referred to as Script Theory), which proposes that playing violent video games may create cognitive scripts of aggression which will be activated in incidents in which individuals think others are acting with hostility. Playing violent video games, thus, becomes an opportunity to rehearse acts of aggression, which then become more common in real life. The ''General Aggression Model,'' a meta-theoretical framework to understand how various theories work together to explain aggressive behaviors, incorporates various theories suggesting that the simulated violence of video games may influence players' thoughts, feelings and physical arousal, affecting individuals' interpretation of others' behavior and increasing their own aggressive behavior. Some scholars have criticized the general aggression model, arguing that the model wrongly assumes that aggression is primarily learned and that the brain does not distinguish reality from fiction. Some recent studies have explicitly claimed to find evidence against the effect of short-term exposure to violent video games on aggression. Parents can protect their children from violence used in video games by limiting game usage and privileges. Some biological theories of aggression have specifically excluded video game and other media effects because the evidence for such effects is considered weak and the impact too distant. For example, the ''catalyst model'' of aggression comes from a diathesis-stress perspective, implying that aggression is due to a combination of genetic risk and environmental strain. The ''catalyst model'' suggests that stress, coupled with antisocial personality are salient factors leading to aggression. It does allow that proximal influences such as family or peers may alter aggressiveness but not media and games.


Research methods

Research has focused on two elements of the effects of video games on players: the player's health measures and educational achievements as a function of game play amounts; the players' behavior or perceptions as a function of the game's violence levels; the context of the game play in terms of group dynamics; the game's structure which affects players' visual attention or three dimensional constructional skills; and the mechanics of the game which affects hand–eye coordination. Two other research methods that have been used are experimental (in a laboratory), where the different environmental factors can be controlled, and non-experimental, where those who participate in studies simply log their video gaming hours.


Scientific debate

A common theory is that playing violent video games increases aggression in young people. Various studies claim to support this hypothesis. Other studies find no link. Debate among scholars on both sides remains contentious, and there is argument about whether consensus exists regarding the effects of violent video games on aggression.


Primary studies

In 1998, Steven Kirsh reported in the journal ''
Childhood A child () is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking ...
'' that the use of video games may lead to acquisition of a '' hostile attribution bias''. Fifty-five subjects were randomized to play either violent or non-violent video games. Subjects were later asked to read stories in which the characters' behaviour was ambiguous. Participants randomized to play violent video games were more likely to provide negative interpretations of the stories. Another study done by Anderson and Dill in 2000 found a correlation in undergraduate students between playing violent video games and violent crime, with the correlation stronger in aggressive male players, although other scholars have suggested that results from this study were not consistent, and that the methodology was flawed. In 2001, David Satcher, the
Surgeon General of the United States The surgeon general of the United States is the operational head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States. T ...
, said "We clearly associate media violence to aggressive behavior. But the impact was very small compared to other things. Some may not be happy with that, but that's where the science is." A 2002 US
Secret Service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. For i ...
study of 41 individuals who had been involved in school shootings found that twelve percent were attracted to violent video games, twenty-four percent read violent books and twenty-seven percent were attracted to violent films. Some scholars have indicated that these numbers are unusually low compared to violent media consumption among non-criminal youth. In 2003, a study was conducted at Iowa State University assessing pre-existing attitudes and violence in children. The study concerned children between ages 5 and 12 that were assessed for the typical amount of time they played video games per week and pre-existing empathy and attitudes towards violence. The children played a violent or non-violent video game for approximately 15 minutes. Afterwards, their pulse rates were recorded, and the children were asked how frustrating the games were on a 1-10 scale. Last, the children are given drawings ( vignettes) of everyday situations, some more likely to have aggressive actions following the depiction, while others an empathetic action. Results show that there were no significant effects of video game playing in the short term, with violent video games and non-violent video games having no significant differences, indicating that children do not have decreased empathy from playing violent video games. Conversely, children who play more violent video games over a long period of time were associated with lower pre-existing empathy, and also lower scores on the empathy inducing vignettes, indicating long-term effects. It is possible that video games had not primed children for the particular aggression scenarios. This data could indicate desensitization in children can occur after long-term exposure, but not all children were affected in the same way, so the researchers deduced that some children may be at a higher risk of these negative effects. It is possible that fifteen minutes is not quite long enough to produce short-term cognitive effects. In 2003, Jeanne B. Funk and her colleagues at the Department of Psychology at the
University of Toledo The University of Toledo (UToledo or UT) is a Public university, public research university in Toledo, Ohio, United States. It is the northernmost campus of the University System of Ohio. The university also operates a Health Science campus, ...
examined the relationship between exposure to violence through media and real-life, and desensitization (reflected by loss of empathy and changes in attitudes toward violence) in fourth and fifth grade pupils. Funk found that exposure to video game violence was associated with lowered empathy and stronger proviolence attitudes. Another study from 2003, by John Colwell at the University of Westminster, found that violent video game playing was associated with reduced aggression among Japanese youth. The
American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
(APA) released an official statement in 2005, which said that exposure to violent media increases feelings of hostility, thoughts about aggression, suspicions about the motives of others, and demonstrates violence as a method to deal with potential conflict situations, that comprehensive analysis of violent interactive video game research suggests such exposure increases aggressive behavior, thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal, and decreases helpful behavior, and that studies suggest that sexualized violence in the media has been linked to increases in violence towards women, rape myth acceptance and anti-women attitudes. It also states that the APA advocates reduction of all violence in videogames and interactive media marketed to children and youth, that research should be made regarding the role of social learning, sexism, negative depiction of minorities, and gender on the effects of violence in video games and interactive media on children, adolescents, and young adults, and that it engages those responsible for developing violent video games and interactive media in addressing the issue that playing violent video games may increase aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviors in children, youth, and young adults, and that these effects may be greater than the well documented effects of exposure to violent television and movies. They also recommend to the entertainment industry that the depiction of the consequences of violent behavior be associated with negative social consequences and that they support a rating system which accurately reflects the content of video games and interactive media. The statement was updated in 2015 (see below.) Some scholars suggested that the APA's policy statement ignored discrepant research and misrepresented the scientific literature. In 2013 a group of over 230 media scholars wrote an open letter to the APA asking them to revisit and greatly amend their policy statement on video game violence, due to considering the evidence to be mixed. Signatories to the 2013 letter included psychologists Jeffrey Arnett, Randy Borum,
David Buss David Michael Buss (born April 14, 1953) is an American evolutionary psychologist at the University of Texas at Austin, researching human sex differences in mate selection. He is considered one of the founders of evolutionary psychology. Biog ...
, David Canter, Lorenza Colzato, M. Brent Donnellan, Dorothy Espelage, Frank Farley, Christopher Ferguson, Peter Gray, Mark D. Griffiths, Jessica Hammer, Mizuko Ito, James C. Kaufman, Dana Klisanin, Catherine McBride-Chang,
Jean Mercer Jean Mercer is an American developmental psychologist and professor emerita of psychology at Stockton University. Founder of the advocacy group Advocates for Children in Therapy, she is known as an advocate for adopted children and those wh ...
, Hal Pashler,
Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychology, cognitive psychologist, psycholinguistics, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psycholo ...
, Richard M. Ryan, Todd K. Shackelford, Daniel Simons, Ian Spence, and Dean Simonton, criminologists Kevin Beaver, James Alan Fox, Roger J.R. Levesque, and Mike A. Males, game design researchers Bob De Schutter and Kurt Squire, communications scholar Thorsten Quandt, and science writer
Richard Rhodes Richard Lee Rhodes (born July 4, 1937) is an American historian, journalist, and author of both fiction and nonfiction, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' The Making of the Atomic Bomb'' (1986), and most recently, ''Energy: A Human History ...
. In 2005, a study by Bruce D. Bartholow and colleagues at the
University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...
,
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
,
Vrije Universiteit The (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the othe ...
, and
University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...
using event related potential linked video game violence exposure to brain processes hypothetically reflecting desensitization. The authors suggested that chronic exposure to violent video games have lasting harmful effects on brain function and behavior. In 2005, a study at
Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...
, the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, and
Vrije Universiteit The (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the othe ...
by Nicholas L. Carnagey and colleagues found that participants who had previously played a violent video game had lower
heart rate Heart rate is the frequency of the cardiac cycle, heartbeat measured by the number of contractions of the heart per minute (''beats per minute'', or bpm). The heart rate varies according to the body's Human body, physical needs, including the nee ...
and
galvanic skin response Electrodermal activity (EDA) is the property of the human body that causes continuous variation in the electrical characteristics of the skin. Historically, EDA has also been known as skin conductance, galvanic skin response (GSR), electroderm ...
while viewing filmed real violence, demonstrating a physiological desensitization to violence. In 2007, a study at the
Swinburne University of Technology The Swinburne University of Technology (or simply Swinburne) is a public university, public research university in Melbourne, Australia. It is the modern descendant of the Eastern Suburbs Technical College established in 1908, renamed Swinburne ...
found that children had variable reactions to violent games, with some becoming more aggressive, some becoming less aggressive, but the majority showing no changes in behavior. In 2008, a longitudinal study conducted in Japan assessed possible long-term effects of video game playing in children. The final analysis consisted of 591 fifth-graders aged 10–11 across eight public elementary schools, and was conducted over the course of a year. Initially, children were asked to complete a survey which assessed presence or absence of violence in the children's favorite video games, as well as video game context variables that may affect the results and the aggression levels of the children. Children were assessed again for these variables a year later. Results reveal that there is a significant difference in gender, with boys showing significantly more aggressive behavior and anger than girls, which was attributed by the authors to boys' elevated interest in violent video games. However, the interaction between time spent gaming and preference for violent games was associated with reduced aggression in boys but not girls. The researchers also found that eight context variables they assessed increased aggression, including unjustified violence, availability of weapons, and rewards. Three context variables, role-playing, extent of violence, and humor, were associated with decreased aggression. It is unknown if the observed changes from the two surveys are actually contextual effects. The researchers found that the context and quality of the violence in video games affects children more than simply presence and amount of violence, and these effects are different from child to child. In 2008, the Pew Internet and American Life Project statistically examined the impact of video gaming on youths' social and communal behaviors. Teens who had communal gaming experiences reported much higher levels of civic and political engagement than teens who had not had these kinds of experiences. Youth who took part in social interaction related to the game, such as commenting on websites or contributing to discussion boards, were more engaged communally and politically. Among teens who play games, 63% reported seeing or hearing "people being mean and overly aggressive while playing," 49% reported seeing or hearing "people being hateful, racist or sexist while playing", and 78% reported witnessing "people being generous or helpful while playing". In 2009, a report of three studies conducted among students of different age groups in Singapore, Japan, and the United States, found that prosocial mostly nonviolent games increased helpful prosocial behaviour among the participants. In 2010, Patrick and Charlotte Markey suggested that violent video games only caused aggressive feelings in individuals who had a preexisting disposition, such as high neuroticism, low agreeableness, or low conscientiousness. In 2010, after a review of the effects of violent video games, the Attorney General's Office of Australia reported that even though the Anderson meta-analysis of 2010 was the pinnacle of the scientific debate at that time, significant harm from violent video games had not been persuasively proven or disproven, except that there was some consensus that they might be harmful to people with aggressive or psychotic personality traits."Literature review on the impact of playing violent video games on aggression"
Australian government 2010.
The attorney general considered a number of issues including: * Social and political controversy about the topic. * Lack of consensus about definitions and measures of aggression and violent video games (for example, whether a cartoon game has the same impact as a realistic one). * Levels of aggression may or may not be an accurate marker for the likelihood of violent behaviour. * The playing of violent video games may not be an
independent variable A variable is considered dependent if it depends on (or is hypothesized to depend on) an independent variable. Dependent variables are studied under the supposition or demand that they depend, by some law or rule (e.g., by a mathematical function ...
in determining violent acts (for example, violent behaviour after playing violent video games may be age dependant, or players of violent video games may watch other violent media). * Studies may not have been long or large enough to provide clear conclusions. In 2010, researchers Paul Adachi and Teena Willoughby at
Brock University Brock University is a public university, public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is the only university in Canada in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the centre of Canada's Niagara Peninsula on the Niagara Escarpment. The ...
critiqued experimental video game studies on both sides of the debate, noting that experimental studies often confounded violent content with other variables such as competitiveness. In a follow up study, the authors found that competitiveness but not violent content was associated with aggression. In 2011, a thirty-year study of 14,000 college students, published by the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
which measured overall empathy levels in students, found that these had dropped by 40% since the 1980s. The biggest drop came after the year 2000, which the authors speculated was due to multiple factors, including increased societal emphasis on selfishness, changes in parenting practices, increased isolation due to time spent with information technology, and greater immersion in all forms of violent and/or narcissistic media including, but not limited to, news, television and video games. The authors did not provide data on media effects, but referenced various research of the topics. In 2011, in a
longitudinal study A longitudinal study (or longitudinal survey, or panel study) is a research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables (e.g., people) over long periods of time (i.e., uses longitudinal data). It is often a type of observationa ...
of youth in Germany, von Salisch found that aggressive children tend to select more violent video games. This study found no evidence that violent games caused aggression in minors. The author speculated that other studies may have been affected by "single responder bias" due to self-reporting of aggression rather than reporting by parents or teachers. In 2012 a Swedish study examined the cooperative behavior of players in '' The Lord of the Rings Online''. The authors argued that attempts to link collaborative or aggressive behavior within the game to real life behavior would rely on unwarranted assumptions regarding equivalencies of forms of cooperation and the material conditions of the environment in-game and out-of-game. One study from Morgan Tear and Mark Nielsen in 2013 concluded that violent video games did not reduce or increase prosocial behavior, failing to replicated previous studies in this area. In 2013, Isabela Granic and colleagues at
Radboud University Nijmegen Radboud University (abbreviated as RU, , formerly ) is a public university, public research university located in Nijmegen, Netherlands. RU has seven faculties and more than 24,000 students. Established in 1923, Radboud University has consistentl ...
, the Netherlands, argued that even violent video games may promote learning, health, and social skills, but that not enough games had been developed to treat mental health problems. Granic et al. noted that both camps have valid points, and a more balanced perspective and complex picture is necessary. In 2014, Ferguson and Olson found no correlation between video game violence and bullying or delinquency in children with preexisting
attention deficit disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple con ...
or depressive symptoms. In 2014, Villanova professor Patrick M. Markey conducted a study with 118 teenagers suggesting that video games have no influence on increased aggression of users; however, he did find that when used for the right amount of time (roughly 1 hour) video games can make children nicer and more socially interactive. This information was provided by the teens' teachers at their local schools. A 2014 study by Andrew Przybylski at Oxford University examined the impact of violent content and frustration on hostility among video game players. In a series of experiments, Przybylski and colleagues demonstrated that frustration, but not violent content, increased player hostility. The authors also demonstrated that some previous "classic" violent video game experiments were difficult to replicate. One longitudinal study from 2014 suggested that violent video games were associated with very small increases in risk taking behavior over time. In 2015, the
American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
released a review that found that violent video games caused aggressive behavior, with Mark Appelbaum, the chair of the task force that conducted the review, saying that "the link between violence in video games and increased aggression in players is one of the most studied and best established in the field." However, Appelbaum also characterized the size of the correlation as "not very big". The same review found insufficient evidence of a link between such video games and crime or delinquency. Critics, including Peter Gray and Christopher Ferguson, expressed concerns about methodological limitations of the review. Ferguson stated that "I think (the task force members) were selected because their opinions were pretty clear going in." At least four of the seven task force members had previously expressed opinions on the topic; critics argued this alone constitutes a conflict of interest, while a task force member defended that "If it were common practice to exclude all scientists after they render one conclusion, the field would be void of qualified experts". A 2015 study examined the impact of violent video games on young adults players with
autism spectrum disorders Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing di ...
(ASD). The study found no evidence for an impact of playing such games on aggression among ASD players. These results appeared to contradict concerns following the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting that individuals with ASD or other mental conditions might be particularly susceptible to violent video game effects. One study from 2016 suggested that "sexist" games (using games from the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series as exemplars) may reduce empathy toward women. Although no direct game effect was found, the authors argued that an interaction between game condition, masculine role norms, gender and avatar identification produced enough evidence to claim causal effects. Comments by other scholars on this study reflect some concerns over the methodology including a possible failure of the randomization to game conditions (see comments tab). In 2016, a preregistered study of violent video game effects concluded that violent video games did not influence aggression in players. The preregistered nature of the study removed the potential for the scholars to influence the results of the study in favor of the hypothesis and suggests that preregistration of future studies may help clarify results in the field.


Meta-analyses

Because the results of individual studies have often reached different conclusions, debate has often shifted to the use of
meta-analysis Meta-analysis is a method of synthesis of quantitative data from multiple independent studies addressing a common research question. An important part of this method involves computing a combined effect size across all of the studies. As such, th ...
. This method attempts to average across individual studies, determine whether there is some effect on average, and test possible explanations for differences between study results. A number of meta-analyses have been conducted, at times reaching different conclusions. A 2001 meta-analysis reviewing the relationship between video game violence and aggression in teenagers (n = 3,033) found a significant and positive correlation, indicating that high video game violence does lead to greater aggression among teenagers. Another meta-analysis conducted the same year by John Sherry was more skeptical of effects, specifically questioning whether the interactivity of video games made them have more effect than other media. Sherry later published another meta-analysis in 2007, again concluding that the influence of video game violence on aggression was minimal. Sherry also criticized the observed dose-response curve, reporting that smaller effects were found in experimental studies with longer exposure times, where one might expect greater exposure to cause greater effects. In 2010, Anderson's group published a
meta-analysis Meta-analysis is a method of synthesis of quantitative data from multiple independent studies addressing a common research question. An important part of this method involves computing a combined effect size across all of the studies. As such, th ...
of one hundred and thirty international studies with over 130,000 participants. He reported that exposure to violent video games caused both short-term and long-term aggression in players and decreased empathy and pro-social behavior. However, other scholars criticized this meta-analysis for excluding non-significant studies and for other methodological flaws. Anderson's group have defended their analysis, rejecting these critiques. Rowell Huesmann, a psychology and social studies academic at the University of Michigan wrote an editorial supporting the Anderson meta-analysis. A later re-analysis of the Anderson meta-analysis suggested that there was greater publication bias among experiments than Anderson and colleagues had accounted for. This indicated that the effects observed in laboratory experiments may have been smaller than estimated and perhaps not statistically significant. A reply by Anderson and colleagues acknowledged that there was publication bias among experiments, but disagreed that the degree of bias was large enough to bring the effect into question. A 2015 meta-analysis of video game effects suggested that video games, including violent games, had minimal impact on children's behavior including violence, prosocial behavior and mental health. The journal included a debate section on this meta-analysis including scholars who were both supportive and critical of this meta-analysis. The original author also responded to these comments, arguing that few coherent methodological critiques had been raised. In 2016, Kanamori and Doi replicated the original ''Angry Birds'' meta-analysis and concluded that critiques of the original meta were largely unwarranted. In 2018, a meta-analysis of the relationship between violent video game play and physical aggression over time found that "violent video game play is positively associated with aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect, as well as negatively associated with empathy for victims of violence and with prosocial behavior". A 2020 meta-analysis of long-term outcome studies concluded that evidence did not support links between earlier playing of violent games and later aggression. The authors found an overall correlation of , and stated that better quality studies were less likely to find evidence for effects than poorer quality studies.


fMRI studies

The extent to which video games have a long-term effect on the brain is disputed. Some scientists have attempted to use
functional magnetic resonance imaging Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area o ...
to study this hypothesis. Some studies suggested that participants who engaged with VVGs displayed increases in the functioning of their
amygdala The amygdala (; : amygdalae or amygdalas; also '; Latin from Greek language, Greek, , ', 'almond', 'tonsil') is a paired nucleus (neuroanatomy), nuclear complex present in the Cerebral hemisphere, cerebral hemispheres of vertebrates. It is c ...
and decreases in the functioning of their
frontal lobe The frontal lobe is the largest of the four major lobes of the brain in mammals, and is located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere (in front of the parietal lobe and the temporal lobe). It is parted from the parietal lobe by a Sulcus (neur ...
. Some scholars argue that the effect on the frontal lobe may be similar to the deactivation seen in disruptive behavior disorders. However, potential funding conflicts of interest have been noted for some of these studies. During the Brown Vs. EMA legal case, it was noted that the studies conducted by Kronenberger were openly funded by "The Center for Successful Parenting", which may mean a conflict of interest."Arnold Schwarzenegger. Edmund G. Brown Jr. v. Entertainment Merchants Association, and Entertainment Software Association"
/ref> Further, other studies have failed to find a link between violent games and diminished brain function. For example, an fMRI study by Regenbogen and colleagues found no link between violent video games and a diminished ability to differentiate between real and virtual violence. Another study from 2016 using fMRI found no evidence that VVGs led to a desensitization effect in players. In a recent BBC interview, Dr. Simone Kuhn explained that the brain effects seen in prior fMRI studies likely indicated that players were simply able to distinguish between reality and fiction and modulate their emotional reaction accordingly, not becoming desensitized.


Studies on the effect on crime

In 2008, records held by the US
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is an office of the United States Department of Justice and a component of the Office of Justice Programs. The OJJDP publishes the JRFC Databook on even numbered years for informati ...
and
Office of Justice Programs The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that focuses on crime prevention through research and development, assistance to state, local, and tribal criminal justice agencies, including law enforc ...
indicated that arrests for violent crime in the US had decreased since the early 1990s in both children and adults. This decrease occurred contemporaneously with increasing sales of violent video games and increases in graphically violent content in those games. Studies of violent video game playing and crime have generally not supported the existence of causal links. Evidence from studies of juveniles as well as criminal offenders has generally not uncovered evidence for links. Some studies have suggested that violent video game playing may be associated with reductions in some types of aggression, such as bullying. Studies of mass shootings have, likewise, provided no evidence for links with violent video games. A 2002 report from the US Secret Service found that school shooters appeared to consume relatively low levels of violent media. Some criminologists have referred to claims linking violent video games to mass shootings as a "myth". Some studies have examined the consumption of violent video games in society and violent crime rates. Generally, it is acknowledged that societal violent video game consumption has been associated with over an 80% reduction in youth violence in the US during the corresponding period. However, scholars note that, while this data is problematic for arguments that violent video games increase crime, such data is correlational and cannot be used to conclude video games have caused this decline in crime. Other studies have examined data on violent video games and crime trends more closely and have come to the conclusion that the release of very popular violent video games are causally associated with corresponding declines in violent crime in the short term. A 2011 study by the Center for European Economic Research found that violent video games may be reducing crime. This is possibly because the time spent playing games reduces time spent engaged in more antisocial activities. Other recent studies by Patrick Markey and Scott Cunningham have come to similar conclusions.


Public debate in US

In the early 1980s, Ronnie Lamm, the president of the
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
PTA sought legislation to govern the proximity of video game arcades to schools. In the 1990s,
Joe Lieberman Joseph Isadore Lieberman (; February 24, 1942 – March 27, 2024) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013. Originally a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Dem ...
, a US Senator, chaired a hearing about violent video games such as ''
Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of fighting game, fighting video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The original ''Mortal Kombat (1992 video game), Mortal Kombat'' arcade game spawned Lis ...
''. David Grossman, a former
West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
psychology lecturer and lieutenant colonel, wrote books about violence in the media including: '' On Killing'' (1996) and ''Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill'' (1999). He described
first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...
games as ''murder simulators'', and argued that video game publishers unethically train children in the use of weapons and harden them emotionally towards commitments of murder by simulating the killing of hundreds or thousands of opponents in a single typical video game. In 2003, Craig A. Anderson, a researcher who testified on the topic before the U.S. Senate, said, :" me studies have yielded nonsignificant video game effects, just as some smoking studies failed to find a significant link to lung cancer. But when one combines all relevant empirical studies using meta-analytic techniques, it shows that violent video games are significantly associated with: increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal; and decreased pro-social (helping) behavior." In 2005, Anderson was criticized in court for failing to give balanced expert evidence. In 2008, in '' Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do'', Kutner and Olsen refuted claims that violent video games cause an increase in violent behavior in children. They report there is a scientifically non-significant trend showing that adolescents who do not play video games at all are most at risk for violent behavior and video game play is part of an adolescent boy's normal social setting. However, the authors did not completely deny the negative influences of violent (M-rated) video games on pre-teens and teenagers: Kutner and Olson suggested the views of alarmists and those of representatives of the video game industry are often supported by flawed or misconstrued studies and that the factors leading to violence in children and adolescents were more subtle than whether or not they played violent video games.
Henry Jenkins Henry Guy Jenkins III (born June 4, 1958) is an American media scholar and Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, and Cinematic Arts, a joint professorship at the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communicatio ...
, an academic in media studies, said, :"According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. Researchers find that people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population. It's true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in America have also been game players. But young people in general are more likely to be gamers—90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do ''not'' commit antisocial acts. According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure. The moral panic over violent video games is doubly harmful. It has led adult authorities to be more suspicious and hostile to many kids who already feel cut off from the system. It also misdirects energy away from eliminating the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems to continue to fester." In 2013, Corey Mead, a professor of English at
Baruch College Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City, United States. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the colle ...
, wrote about how the U.S. military financed the original development of video games, and has long used them for both training, recruitment purposes, and treatment of
post traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster, traffic collision, ...
. He also argues that the two industries are currently intertwined into each other in a "military-entertainment complex". Writing in 2013, scholars James Ivory and Malte Elson noted that, although research on video game effects remained inconclusive, the culture of the academic field itself had become very contentious and that politicians had put pressure on scientists to produce specific research findings. The authors concluded it is improper for scholars or legislators to, at present, portray video games as a public health crisis. Research by Oxford psychologist Andrew Przybylski has shown that Americans are split in opinion on how video game violence links to gun violence. Przybylski found that older people, women rather than men, people who knew less about games and who were very conservative in ideology were most likely to think video games could cause gun violence. Several groups address video game violence as a topic that they focus on. Groups such as Parents Against Violence, Parents Against Media Violence and One Million Moms take stances aimed at limiting the violence in video games and other media. Video games, particularly violent ones, are often mentioned as a cause for major gun crimes in the wake of school shooting by young adults. For example, Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old shooter at the
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting On December 14, 2012, a mass shooting occurred at Newtown Public Schools, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, United States. The perpetrator, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot and killed 26 people. The victims were 20 children bet ...
, was found to have numerous video games in his possession, leading for some people to blame video games for the shooting; however, the State Attorney did not link video game to the event in their final report of the incident, though identified that
video game addiction Video game addiction (VGA), also known as gaming disorder or internet gaming disorder, is generally defined as a behavioural addiction involving problematic, compulsive use of video games that results in significant impairment to an individual' ...
may have been connected. In February 2018, following the
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting On February 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, part of the Miami metropolitan area, Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 18 ot ...
in Florida, President
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
, among others, said "the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people's thoughts". Rhode Island state representative Robert Nardolillo also proposed legislation to tax violent video games (those rated "Mature" or higher by the ESRB) to use funds for supporting mental health programs in the state. Following the Stoneman Douglas shooting event, President Trump arranged to meet with several video game industry professionals on March 8, 2018; in attendance beyond Trump and other Congressmen included Mike Gallagher, the president and CEO of the ESA; Pat Vance, the president of the ESRB; Strauss Zelnick, CEO of Take Two Interactive, Robert Altman, CEO of
ZeniMax Media ZeniMax Media Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Rockville, Maryland. The company was founded in 1999 by Christopher Weaver and Robert A. Altman as the parent company for Weaver's video game publisher Bethesda Softworks. ...
; Brent Bozell, founder of the Media Research Center; and Melissa Hanson, program manager for the
Parents Television Council The Parents Television and Media Council (PTMC), formerly the Parents Television Council (PTC), is an American media advocacy group founded by Conservatism in the United States, conservative political pundit L. Brent Bozell III in 1995, which ...
. The meeting was not designed to come to a solution but only for the invited parties to present their stance on video games and their relationship to violent activity as to try to determine appropriate steps in the future. At the start of the meeting, the President showed the attendees a short 88-second video of numerous violent video game segments put together by his staff, including the infamous " No Russian" level from '' Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2'', which featured the player watching and potentially participating in a massacre of civilians in an airport. The White House later released the video to YouTube, where it quickly became popular due to the controversy over the relationship between video games and real-life violence; despite being unlisted shortly after being uploaded, it has reached about 1.6 million views as of 2023. The video is still accessible via URL, and media outlets like IGN included links to the original in their responses to the matter. Games for Change made a short response video with 550.000 views titled "#GameOn".


Nation factors


Australia

Video games are rated in Australia by the
Australian Classification Board The Australian Classification Board (ACB or CB) is an Australian Government of Australia, government Statute, statutory body responsible for the classification and censorship of films, television programmes, video games and publications for ex ...
(ACB), run out of the federal Attorney-General's Department. ACB also oversees ratings on films and applies the same ratings system as to video games. Broadly, the ratings system is based on a number of factors including violence. The ACB can refuse to classify a film or game if they felt the content was beyond allowable guidelines for the strictest ratings. Titles refused classification by ACB are thus illegal to sell within Australia and assess fines for those that attempted to import such games, while allowing titles with more mature ratings to be sold under regulated practices. Prior to 2011, video games could only qualify up to a "MA15+" rating, and not the next highest tier of "R18+" which were allowed for film. Several high-profile games thus were banned in Australia. The ACB agreed to allow video games to have R18+ ratings in 2011, and some of these games that were previously banned were subsequently allowed under R18+.


References

Ferguson, C. J., & Olson, C. K. (2014). Video Game Violence Use Among "Vulnerable" Populations: The Impact of Violent Games on Delinquency and Bullying Among Children with Clinically Elevated Depression or Attention Deficit Symptoms. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43(1), 127–136. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-013-9986-5 Lee, E.-J., Kim, H. S., & Choi, S. (2021). Violent Video Games and Aggression: Stimulation or Catharsis or Both? Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(1), 41–47. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2020.0033


External links

* {{Media and human factors Moral panic *