5 Reasons Violent Video Games Are Not the Problem

Dear Biden: Consider These 5 Things Before you Tax Violent Video Games

Note: If this is inflammatory, please comment. This deserves discussion.

Two days ago, Vice-President Joe Biden stoked the fires of internet hate by insisting that a tax be put on violent video games. This stirred up some old bile and the everlasting cesspool of pundits is clamoring to get their uneducated and non-gamer say. Truth is, violent games are not the issue. Violent games do not cause violent behavior. Here are 5 reasons why violent video games are fine:

1. The problem is competition, not violence. Look at football players.

Competitive activities inherently encourage aggressive tendencies. This is not limited to video games, but really applies to all highly competitive games. American football and basketball players rank among the most violent professional athletes. In fact, the amount of domestic violence cases reported each year related to American football players is staggering. In the past year alone, 21 of 32 NFL teams have had members reported for domestic abuse.

Additionally, soccer fans in the UK are notorious for extremely violent acts of hooliganism. Soccer hooligans rack up significantly more violent acts per year than gamers in both quantity and quality.

Before we tax violent video games, we should consider taxing these statistically more violent other sport games that are also so much more popular and prevalent in our culture.

2. Most violent acts are carried out by mentally unstable individuals.

In almost every single case violent video games are blamed, the individual involved was mentally unstable or ill. Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Columbine, the list goes on. All these incidents are said to be caused by violent video games and yet less attention is given to the fact that all these aggressions are also linked to mental instability and, often, abusive and irresponsible parenting. Adam Lanza had sensory integration disorder and Asperger’s syndrome and was often left alone by his irresponsible mother for days on end. Oh, let’s not forget that his mother was a firearms enthusiast. Maybe poor parenting is a huge issue here… 

3. Poor Parenting

Face it: some parents out there are just terrible at being parents. I’m sorry if this comes as a shock to you, but: Your ability to reproduce does not qualify you to raise another human being. A large issue in all incidents where violent games are blamed, poor parenting tends to be at the crux of the issue. If the parents are there at all, usually they are ignorant and close-minded and occasionally just plain cruel. I would go more into this point, but don’t want to point fingers in fear of libel. If you want more info, do a little research on your own.

4. Ignored Ratings Systems

Most parents are fine, but are simply clueless when it comes to the rating systems that are already in place. They irresponsibly buy their kids games above the recommended age ratings. If a parent is going to buy a child a game, that mom or dad should actually pay attention and be more invested in what they’re buying their children. If parents are expected to be aware of choking hazards, it is reasonable to expect parents to be aware of exposing children to violence. Besides, why aren’t we being critical of retailers that sell adult themed games to underage gamers? Maybe the retailers, like BestBuy and GameStop, should be held more accountable.

If you are concerned about youth being exposed to violence in the first place, a tax isn’t going to do anything. Cigarettes are heavily taxed AND have enormous warnings on the boxes but that doesn’t stop most smokers. Even if you disagree with my other points, know that there are systems already in place and it is up to responsible parents and retailers to pay attention to ESRB and PEGI rating systems. 

5. Violent games reflect violent life. Correlation is not causation.

Violence in our society is not new, but video games are. What violent games was Adolph Hitler playing? What about Ted Bundy? Ottis Toole? Jack the Ripper? Genghis Kahn? None of these famous killers played violent video games. Some people have violent tendencies and there are plenty of non-gamers that commit horrible acts of violence and atrocity every year. Like I mentioned, athletes are statistically far more violent and aggressive than gamers. There are a whole lot of other reasons for violent behavior but video games just seem like the easy scapegoat for lawmakers to target. Remember when Marilyn Manson was accused of inciting violent acts? Again, what was Hitler listening to that made him commit genocide? Probably some polka and waltz and a string orchestra on special occasions… not death metal, that’s for sure. There are no media causes for violence; there are only social and societal causes. 

Maybe the people in our government are trying to blame video games for violence that might be caused by our poor healthcare systems (*cough* mental instability) or because of desperate financial situations due to the recession. Or, maybe all the sensationalist violence that tabloids and nightly news stations love to cover are perpetuating violent behaviors.

Conclusion

So, in conclusion, taxing violent video games is really detracting from some of the real issues here. I hope these five points help shed some light on what is going on. Finally, I’ll leave you with this thought:

Does Call of Duty seriously teach kids how to successfully purchase or steal an automatic weapon? Does it teach them how to load a weapon properly and then convince them to shoot up a mother’s day parade? No. There is something wrong with that person, not that game. And don’t try to tell me that doing something in a game is anything like doing it in real life; otherwise I should have my pilot license from all those flight simulators and SimCity has successfully prepared me to be a mayor.