Majority of Americans believe video games increase violence

[Matthew DeCarlo]

According to a new survey, most Americans believe violent video games make people more violent in reality. Rasmussen Reports asked 1,000 US adults a series of heavily debated questions about violent games and discovered that 54% of the participants blame such titles for increased violence in society. The results also showed that 69% of those polled are either "somewhat concerned" or "very concerned" about the level of violence in today's games.

Meanwhile, 65% believe states should have the power to prohibit the distribution of violent titles to minors -- something that the Supreme Court is currently debating. Conversely, only 5% of respondents think the government should be chiefly responsible for regulating the amount of sex and violence children are exposed to in video games, while 71% say it's the duty of parents -- though that last tidbit varies between those with and without kids.

Parents are more likely to claim responsibility, whereas those without children say it's up to the game industry to make safe games. It's also interesting that adults with children are less worried about violent games than those without, and unsurprisingly, the study found that the older you are, the more likely you are to be concerned about game violence. We imagine most of you are bloodthirsty hipsters, but what's your take on the state of violent games?

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/41168-majority-of-americans-believe-video-games-increase-violence.html

 

[KG363]

Has anyone seen Penn & Teller's BS on Video games and violence? Find a way to watch it now.

 

[PaulWuzHere]

It's the parents responsibility to know what their children are doing and what they are exposed to. Should people blame pharmaceutical companies if their kids are abusing drugs? No

Wake up America. Turn off the T.V. sometimes and talk to your family and see whats going on. Little Johnny probably shouldn't be playing L4D2 at age 10.

 

[KG363]

paulwuzhere said:
Little Johnny probably shouldn't be playing L4D2 at age 10.

Nothing wrong with that. I was playing moral combat as early as I can remember. Games don't make you violent. In fact, school violence is down 50% since the mid 1990's which is attributed to the rise in violent video games

 

[pgbsamurai]

A friend of mine brought up a good point. Think of all of the stories of video games leading an individual to violence. Now think of all of the individuals that have participated in sports riots in the past year....

Which do you think causes more violence?

No one talks about banning sports though, do they?

 

[Guest]

54% is hardly most, if it was an election it would be a recount there is so little difference

and 1000 people is not really even a survey, what areas did this cover?

Kel

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Fair enough guest, the title has been adjusted to "Majority of.."

 

[LNCPapa]

I'm a parent with two children and my 6 year old daughter plays quite a lot of video games on all the major platforms including the PC. I control what games she gets to play and I make sure she's not exposed to anything too violent. As for the violent content that she has seen I spend plenty of time going over fantasy and reality. As a matter of fact, even with her cartoons I spend plenty of time making sure she understands the difference - so she doesn't go bash someone in the head with something because she saw it happen on Sponge Bob. It's completely up to the parents to control what influences their children. If there are external things that you have no control over their exposure to then it's up to the parent to explain why these things are not appropriate behavior in a civilized population.

And for what it's worth I play plenty of violent games - just not around my kids.

 

[TomSEA]

So I'm curious as to how many of these parents who believe this have actually sat down and played a game themselves. I'm sure most are just sheep being told this is "evil" by their local politician and/or religious leader.

It's all in the parenting, folks. Has nothing to do with a game.

 

[Guest]

I'm really sick of hearing about how much "parents" are concerned about violent video games. If they're really afraid that their kid is so easily swayed by media (not just games) into committing real acts of violence, talking to their kid about what kind of video games they're allowed to play isn't what they should be worried about. This is a matter of censorship, and censoring is hardly ever the answer to problems. We need to educate children, not shelter them and sweep things under a rug, so while they grow up they're ready to take the world head on. The focus should not be on video games just because it seems like an easy answer. In the end, it's up to the parents how they want to raise their children, not the government. This, and many other issues, are meant to stay inside the home.

 

[Eddo22]

Did they hand pick them too? I've been playing shooters and fighting games since I was young and to be honest, hurting people is something I absolutely hate to do.

 

[Ahmed90]

why its always video games what about hmm:
- Movies ?
- TV Series ?
- Everyday NEWS ? war here war there bomb there 20 killed etcetc...
- Sport ? WWE and stuff like that ?
- Cartoons ? even in cartoons there is some cartoons with violence and evil stuff ...

 

[Guest]

There are movies out there that are violent as hell (SAW for example)

And there are love movies our there

Drama, Action, Mystery, Horror, PORN

Yes porn is legal and there is TONS of it out there

There's is nonstop sex or sexual themes in commercials and tv shows.

You choose what you want to be exposed to.

Do you want to go to church, or go to a strip club? Both legal. Both you can choose from.

THere are different genres of video games too.

As an adult, we can choose what we want.

As for children, you control what they play just like you control what they watch.

The question is, do we hand over this control to the government or the parents?

DOn't let government take away your freedoms.

We are already restricted in so many ways, including having to pay crazy taxes on all sorts of things.

The capitalist, military-industrial complex would love to take over your lives and control you.
Cause it would make the rich elite even richer!

They are looking for excuses.

In fact, creating excuses from thin air.

Lying

Just so they have an excuse to invade your home and privacies just like they invade innocent countries that really have no WMD's, just precious oil they can steal. Or opium..

 

[PaulWuzHere]

It's the parents responsibility to know what their children are doing and what they are exposed to. Should people blame pharmaceutical companies if their kids are abusing drugs? No

Wake up America. Turn off the T.V. sometimes and talk to your family and see whats going on. Little Johnny probably shouldn't be playing L4D2 at age 10.

 

[dividebyzero]

69%...I wonder if these Americans are also part of these demographics?...

20% of American's think the Sun revolves around the Earth.
68% of American's believe in Angels.
52% of American's believe Jesus speaks to them, while 70% believe Satan is real, 47% think the New Testament is older than the Old Testament (probably due to Jesus trolling the 52% he speaks to) and 20% believe in alien abductions while 25% of American's don't believe in the theory of evolution...probably because they know we're descended from aliens!

 

[KG363]

Here's a link to the Penn & Teller BS
There's bad language so if it bugs you don't watch

And you have to press play twice. The first time will just open an ad.

http://www.megavideo.com/?v=1R2Y7O0V

 

[TeamworkGuy2]

It is the parents duty.
With that out of the way, I want to say that some video games are far more violent than real life. The vast majority of people will never see in real life the kinds of acts committed in L4D2, SAW, Dead Rising, Assassin's Creed, or Gears of War.
Why would we expose ourselves or young people to these kinds of acts? Soldiers who come home from war are often extremely shaken up and mentally injured by what they saw and did, why are we doing the same thing to ourselves?..

 

[Johny47]

Matthew said:
Fair enough guest, the title has been adjusted to "Majority of.."

And was this poll for gamers only? because ALOT(majority =P) of non gamers will blame violent video games or films because they're not gamers and that's just it.

I've been playing violent games and watching violent films since a really young age(ever since I saw my mam and dad watching the first Terminator on VHS hahaha =D) but I don't think I'm a violent person(I could be haha) but I believe it's the discipline.

If parents say what mine did to me, for example, you can watch these films as long as you don't repeat any of it(bad language mainly) if I did I would get seriously grounded.

And that should lead onto another topic about the parents being the most responsible for buying/letting their kids play violent games.

Finally... I'm not American I'm Cymraeg/Welsh but everyone has different beliefs =)

 

[Zecias]

im skeptical to trust any statistics without actually seeing the process they go through to get to the conclusion. there are so many ways the survey could be biased and 1000 isn't even close to enough people. u need a sample size of 15,000 to make variation minimal.

video games really only make kids 13 and under violent because they are more easily influenced(even then, most kids aren't going to try and play GTA in real life).

 

[madboyv1]

Doom, Wolfenstein, and Duke Nukem have made me a ruthless Nazi Killer who eats demons on the side while chewing bubble gum, and I'm all out of gum.

 

[Xero07]

maybe rather then asking random adults they should poll prisoners convicted of a violent crime. Not as easy but might be more meaningful as far as how many have a strong history of violent gaming. Of course in either case there are plenty examples of people playing violent games that don't ever exibit violent action.

 

[Superpeter]

Bottom line: Maturity is your ability to choose your responses (responsibility) regardless and in light of any stimuli. It's a part of growing. This is a silly discussion, although as a discussion, I can understand. I can't believe our scarce tax dollars are being spent on this.

 

[Acespaces]

I strongly agree and was gonna type the same thing but you saved me the time.

 

[negroplasty]

what about the 50% or more of the US population that suffer from undiagnosed mental retardation ?

 

[Nima304]

It's both the game industry's responsibility to make safe games, and the parent's responsibility to know what games to buy and not buy for their children.