We’ve all heard the horror stories of the various shootings that happen in the U.S. — a troubled youth committing a horrifying action does fall onto the mental health and lifestyle of these individuals, it’s easy for society to be manipulated into assuming there’s a direct link between violence and video games, which isn’t fair.
That isn’t to say that video games aren’t violent. Ever since the Entertainment Software Rating Board was created in 1994, the sole purpose of the organization has been to review and analyze video games to guarantee they are suitable and appropriate for various audiences.
Ratings for video games include: E for everyone, E 10+, T for teen (13+), M for mature (17+) and A for adults only (18+).
Where discrepancies appear is when uninformed parents assume that, by definition, an E 10+ through T is OK for their child. Parents deal with similar situations when it comes to movies. A PG-13 movie is generally rated to be appropriate for every 13-year-old, yet not every PG-13 movie is appropriate for every 13-year-old.
According to Library Technology Reports, games like Grand Theft Auto are some of the top played games for middle school youth.
It’s easy for younger audiences to get access to video games that aren’t appropriate for their age — and this comes in many different forms. Through social pressure, younger people can be encouraged to ask for a game that everyone else is playing.
Parents may buy the game with little thought, and this is commonly how children are exposed to graphic themes present in mature games. It’s not the fault of the child that they are exposed to mature themes. Rather, it falls onto the parent for a lack of understanding of what their child is exposed to.
There’s more to blame on our situation than just video games. Society is also at fault for contributing to the over-saturation of graphic media.
However, it’s easy to argue that video games provide a streamlined source of violence. With gaming being as popular as it is, it reaches a large demographic. Yet that argument holds no bearing when one considers that other sources contain just as graphic content — if not more.
Further research from Library Technology Reports showed that “boys who didn’t regularly play video games were more likely than even boys who played M-rated games to get into fights.”
Most people who enjoy gaming are those that use video games to cope with the daily stresses of life. Getting out of work and loading up a game is no different from grabbing a beer to take the edge off. Unfairly subjecting gamers into the violent minority only hurts those around us when we should encourage acceptance and community at CSU.
The misunderstanding and hate subjected toward the gaming community not only hurts the uninformed, but the people behind the controller. While I cannot deny that popular shooters may desensitize gamers from the real world acts, it’s not enough to generalize that someone picking up a controller to relax is the same as someone picking up a gun to harm people.
Being exposed to violent themes is simply not enough to turn a person into a violent criminal. Exposure to these themes can desensitize these acts of crime and violence and make the act of them easier, but this is not a fair generalization to put on video games as a whole.
Multiculturalism and the Media 