Argumentative Essay: Do Video Games Cause Violence?

Do video games cause violence? Violence in our real world caused by playing a video game that has guns in it or even death. Some people say they do and others don't. Here are my three reasons why video games do not, have not, and will not cause violence.

Video games, specifically home consoles, came to the US on October 18th 1985. The NES. Most games around that time were all bright and cheerful looking games such as Mario, Kirby, Legend Of Zelda, and Pokemon a few years later on the Gameboy. But as other game developers appeared, new types of games were made. The shooter genre and fighting genre of games came mostly on the Xbox and PS systems with a couple exceptions being on a Nintendo console(Doom, Goldeneye, Smash bros). Now shooter games

and just games in general are very very popular. Handheld and console. Now, parents are concerned that these fictional video games are causing the violence in their kid’s life.

The truth is, video games don’t cause violence. According to Procon.org, The US sales of video games all together from 1994 to now increased a whole 204% while violence level decreased by 37% in that same time period. Though, people could say that 60% of boys and 40% of girls that have played a violent video game at least once have gotten into a fight at some point. (opposingviewpoints.org) However, this statistic cannot trace a fight or fights back to someone playing a violent video game. Even before video games came to be, kids and teens still fought other people.

This topic has even made it to the supreme court. Argued on November 2, Governor Brown of California wanted all violent video games to be illegal to sell because he thought they caused this violence. But of course, he lost this case with an almost Unanimous decision of 7-2. This decision was made the next year on June 27, 2011. (supremecourt.org). Though 90% of pediatricians agree with Brown, that games cause violence,(Procon.org) it’s still very unreliable since we do not know if any of the pediatricians are reliable. If they have studied this before being asked or if they just went with the general thought or idea of the parents that brought the “problem” up.

Lastly, Video games have been proven to release more violence and anger than it creates.

An article on Procon.org says, “A peer-reviewed study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that children, especially boys, play video games as a means of managing their emotions: "61.9% of boys played to 'help me relax,' 47.8% because 'it helps me forget my problems,' and 45.4% because 'it helps me get my anger out.". If anything, shooting games help people more than hurt people because they get to release their anger and problems on Fictional characters. PIxels on a screen instead of real people. Isn’t that better? Some might say that casual players that aren’t angry could become mad from the game either by hackers, “campers” or the difficulty. However, there are no studies from reliable sources that say those reasons have caused actual violence. There have been many fake or unreliable articles about this. Wouldn’t parents encourage their kids to play a shooter game if they got angry? According to them they shouldn't because they are violent, causing this anger that people have to be used on someone else.

In conclusion, Game sales continue to up while violence continues to go down, it can help you with anger or your problems from your day instead of increasing rage, and it is ruled by the supreme court that it doesn’t. But so what? Why is this information important if people 5 years later are still trying to prove that video games do cause violence? Shouldn’t people be asking why parents give their 7 year old kids these shooting games that have been rated by the ESRB at a game for people 13 years old or

older.