If Violent Video Games Caused Youth Violence I Would Have Killed You All

It seems like this site is about 10 years too late but better late than never? Anyone respectable Gen Xer will tell you that video games don’t cause violence, anger causes violence. My POV is that if you are inclined to violence video games will fuel that.

But why is this important? Because video games is a huge, I mean HUGE business.

97% of 12-17 year olds in the US played video games in 2008, thus fueling an $11.7 billion video game industry. In 2008, 10 of the top 20 best-selling video games in the US contained violence.

ProCon is a non-profit dedicated to “promoting critical thinking” and has recently started a new website Video Games – ProCon to look at whether violent video games cause youth violence.

Because of that you won’t find one main Pro or Con but a view of both sides.

Did You Know?

* Sales of video games have more than quadrupled from 1995-2008, while the arrest rate for juvenile murders fell 71.9% and the arrest rate for all juvenile violent crimes declined 49.3% in this same period.

* The 2008 study Grand Theft Childhood reported that 60% of middle school boys that played at least one Mature-rated game hit or beat up someone, compared to 39% of boys that did not play Mature-rated games.

* In 2008, 298.2 million video games were sold in the US, totaling $11.7 billion in revenue. Six of the top ten best-selling video games included violence, with four of the games carrying a “Mature” rating recommended for persons aged 17 and older.

via PR Newswire

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