Why Violent Video Games should not be Banned: Scientific Perspective

Should Violent Video Games Be Banned? A Question of Influence on Youth

There is a large debate between professionals and everyday people about whether or not the newer violent video game content rubs off onto children and teens of this decade. Parents have been experiencing problems with their children’s behavior, and they seem to blame video games, but professionals think otherwise. They say that because of the graphics and foul language the children and young adults are exposed to in these video games, the children try to apply it to their real life and do not realize they are in the wrong.

The professionals state that parents are blaming video games when the problem is the parents. Professionals think that if they did not want their children to play video games because of a behavior shift, then they would simply remove the video games from the scenario.

Their summarized argument would be that if a parent has a problem with a video game, then they should not expose their children and young adults to the graphics of a rated video game. In February 2018, President Donald Trump had a meeting with a few school safety officials, and in that meeting, he mentioned the problem with video games and teenagers’ recent behavior problems. He was sure to mention the problems with recent teenage gun violence as well. However, in September 2018, Dr. Romeo Vitelli, who obtained a Ph.D. in psychology, wrote an article on the Psychology Today website. In his article, he seemed to strongly believe that violent video games have no effect on a child's or a teenager’s mental health.

Violent Video Games: Impact or Coincidence?

While looking at this prompt through the scientific lens, it will require a large portion of facts from people who obtain their medical doctorate degrees instead of people who obtain government official titles. Viewing this topic through the scientific lens can also be easy. Behavior is a topic that involves someone’s mental health. This has lots to do with the brain and the way that it controls your body as well. In terms of bias, there will be problems with avoiding it because many of the sources that are written by doctors and medical professionals lean towards the side of the argument that states that violent video games have nothing to do with the behavior among young people. However, there may be a few professionals that are on the opposite side that have opposing research to prove otherwise, but there may not be enough.

Video Games and Their Effects: An Endless Debate

If you are an average person, you would think that video games are addictive to a child, along with the thousands of parents in the United States alone. But the big guys in the white coats are saying otherwise. According to Doctor Romeo Vitelli, researchers have proven that the link between teenagers’ mental health and violent video games is nonexistent. This is why there was a 7 to 2 vote that there was no real evidence to prove that video games did not lead to misbehavior among youth. This vote was very disappointing to many children advocates and was not believed by many parents. One of the biggest problems would be that for every argument we have towards the side that video games lead to violence, there is a counterargument and a huge rebuttal.

For example, when President Donald Trump was in a school safety meeting, he mentioned that kids are watching movies and playing video games that are considered ok as long as they do not involve sex, but they still involve murder. He thought that most of the school shootings conducted by students always lead back to the video games that the pupil was involved with while growing up. However, his statement was shut down by a school shooting survivor by the name of Chris Grady, that said he was a big fan of video games and still is, but he would never think of committing a school shooting.

The Dilemma: Should Violent Video Games Be Banned?

The craziest thing about all of this is that you would think it's obvious. Basic science would say that when someone is addicted to something, and you see their normal attitude or views on things changing, it is because of that thing they are addicted to. The truth is that it is going to get harder and harder to get the truth out of professionals, especially when those professionals are being bribed or paid by people in the government and the officials in the game-making field to steer away from making people believe that video games are responsible for teenage behavior.

What makes these things confusing is that when you look at charts and polls, you see that video games do, in fact, make a large difference in children's behavior. According to procon.com, “60% of middle school boys and 40% of middle school girls who played at least one Mature-rated (M-rated) game hit or beat up someone, compared with 39% of boys and 14% of girls who did not play M-rated games”. What leads this debate to a confusing level is that an average person can see one thing when looking at polls and surveys, but then we have a set of professionals that are saying that what we see is not true. It turns the obvious into the most unobvious. You would think that video games are not good because the effects that they have on a child's or a teenager’s brain are not good at all, not to mention the physical fitness that a child can have if they are on video games all of the time.

For example, a teenage boy was playing a video game for five days straight, and he collapsed, according to Becky Oskin. All of the major signs that are screaming to people to avoid video games and the warnings are being blocked by the people that everyone puts their trust in. However, not every doctor believes that video games cannot be addictive. Some of them have seen the addictive and impulsive behavior resulting from excessive video game use.

References: 

1. Vitelli, Romeo. "Violent Video Games and Youth Behavior: Is There a Link?" Psychology Today, 15 September 2018, 

2. ProCon.org. "Video Games - ProCon.org." ProCon.org, 6 July 2021, https://videogames.procon.org/.

3. "President Trump Meets with School Safety Officials." C-SPAN, 22 February 2018,

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