MOVIEGUIDE®, the definitive family guide to movies and entertainment, has joined scientists at the American Psychological Association (APA) in demanding less violence in video games.
“The entertainment industry should reduce the level of violence in video games,” Dr. Ted Baehr, publisher of MOVIEGUIDE®, said.
“Scientific studies indicate not only that exposure to violence in video games increases aggressive thoughts, aggressive behavior and angry feelings among youth, but also that exposure to violence in other forms of entertainment does so,” he noted.
Last month, the APA reported similar results in a press release and made a similar demand. The APA added that exposure to video game violence reduces helpful behavior and increases physiological arousal in children and adolescents.
Dr. Baehr strongly disputed arguments from the Entertainment Software Association (ESA).
“Their arguments are disingenuous at best and deliberately deceptive at worst,” he said.
For example, on their website, the ESA says that youth crime rates in the United States have dropped since 1983 and the mid-1990s when there was an increase in the use of firearms by youths.
“This so-called evidence is misleading,” Dr. Baehr said. “US crime statistics from the FBI and the US Dept. of Health & Human Services in 2002 and 2001 (the latest years available) reveal that the proportion of youths involved in violent behavior and the rates of violent offending have not declined since the mid-1990s. Also, youth arrest rates for aggravated assault were more than 65 percent higher in 2002 than 1983.”
Dr. Baehr said he found it “strange” that the ESA website cites the 2001 report on youth violence from the Department of Health & Human Services but neglects to mention these facts.
He added that the ESA website also neglects to mention that the Dept.'s report found “strong evidence” that exposure to media violence can increase children's aggressive behavior in the short term. The report also concluded, “Research to date justifies sustained efforts to curb the adverse effects of media violence on youths.”
“The ESA arguments about crime statistics are also misleading because they are anecdotal,” Dr. Baehr said. “We can find plenty of anecdotal evidence showing the opposite.”
For example, several of the school killers in the late 1990s, including the Columbine High School killers, were fans of playing very violent video games, like DOOM, Baehr noted. This summer in Norwich, England, a young father, now 21, who became irritable if he was interrupted playing computer games, was convicted of manslaughter of one of his twin infant sons, who died in January 2004. Last winter in Alabama, a teenager who played an extremely violent video game for months was accused of murdering three people, including two police officers.
According to Dr. Leonard Holmes, a clinical psychologist, research shows that graphically-oriented video games where the game's characters model violence and players rehearse violent behaviors can lead to an increase in real world violence, but that this may not be true of other video games, such as role playing games.
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