Censorship, Videogames, and the Media and the Family yearly report (full video link)

[A Black Falcon]

Let's look at the facts, MOST kids aren't killing each other. It is a minority, a very small minority, going around killing. It's still bad and must be dealt with, but things that the majority of kids do should be pretty much ruled out as the cause of the actions of this minority. Most kids don't kill, but most kids HAVE played "murder sims". Thus, without any evidence to back them up, these people have no scientific claim to the idea that these games cause violence.

This is actually only partially true. I'd recommend watching the presentation, DJ... Leiberman does kind of say that, but the NIMF guy does not. He says that playing these games does not directly cause violence. What it does is influence the kids, desensitize them to violence, etc... and because they are children, they do not fully have their senses of right and wrong yet. This has been scientifically proven... even teenagers' brains are not fully developed yet. So it's plausible that for some playing very violent games could have an impact on their thoughts... so you are asking the wrong question. It's not "I just played Doom so now I'm going to shoot up the school!", but that playing the games might over time influence them towards more violent behavior. Is this correct? It likely is. Media does influence people, and young people are definitely more easily influenced. As for games in specific, the main difference is that you are playing it yourself and not just viewing it so that it is more interactive and more "real"... is it more dangerous than movies or music? Not by much, no, I wouldn't say that. Maybe slightly at best. But it's not less so either, and stuff like movies and music have been said many times to be problematic here...

Now, one thing that has to be considered is how over time every generation says "what is new is bad" and then later it is accepted. Does society get less moral? On the whole no... this leads one to think that the "problem" won't be solved by simply banning everything you dislike. That's avoiding the issue, not solving things...

Now when I hear "a study" on the news, I groan. They offer no information on this study at all. Was it done by some very disciplined scientists, or some high school students looking for an A? Was the test double-blind, as all psych tests have to be, or a survey of random people (which has no real scientific merit)? Now, the first question there isn't really relevent to the accuracy of the test, I'm just saying they don't provide ANY data on it at all. I could post all manner of "studies" of my own that amount to mere anecdotal stories about kids I've seen walking around various malls, and that would have about the same merit as these studies for all I know. Rather, instead of spending time looking at the actual test, they just interview anyone who would say "oh I totally agree", and notably these people really don't have the right background to really have the right to an opinion about it.

Actually watch and/or read their report... this isn't a study per se like you suggest, but a report on the industry.

Anyway, I'll only say what I think is most likely. It's either some special condition or situation that only applies to this minority (genetics for example), or a lot of factors that only happen to coincide with this minority (like for example not JUST violent games or a bad upbringing alone, but rather both at once which would be rarer). I have no proof, but these are a lot more logical than the claim that violent media, which everyone has been exposed to, is the sole reason this happens.

People can be, by nature, violent... doesn't it stand to reason that violent media would draw that out or emphasize that this is a trait worth using more, especially among people who do not have their full adult sense yet (and as I said, a study proved that teenagers have not fully developed mentally yet)...

Now, I'm obviously not arguing for censorship and banning like New Zealand. I'm arguing for parental controls (parents really should know what their children are playing), parents talking to their children about it (a stupid thing I know and those antidrug ads make it sound kind of dumb, but I'm sure there are plenty of studies that prove it helps at least a little...), stores not selling games to underage people (if it must go to the point of having to use an ID to buy a M-rated game (like to watch an R-Rated film) to keep away censorship then I'd have to say that it should be done...)... stuff like that...