Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, blamed video games for mass shootings, even though this matter has been thoroughly litigated.
Yet it still seems this myth about media causing violence, pushed by the gun industry itself, is very hard to dislodge. Perhaps it is because the context around this discussion is what some people might not know, considering how long ago this matter was addressed.
In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a case based on a California law calling for censorship authored by state senator Leland Yee. The high court overturned the law, which banned sales of mature-rated games to minors, and said video games were protected by free speech. The industry’s support for ratings led to self-regulation, where game companies could inform parents about the nature of content they bought for kids.
It’s not so hard to find evidence against RFK Jr.’s claim, which President Donald Trump also mentioned in his first term. The American Psychological Association (APA) said there is insufficient scientific evidence to support a direct causal relationship between violent video games and violent criminal behavior.
Newsweek noted that APA research published in 2019 in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture analyzed more than 200,000 news articles about 204 mass shootings over a 40-year period. That research found that video games were eight times more likely to be blamed when the shooting occurred at a school and the perpetrator was a white male than when the shooter was a Black male.
And a study in 2019 from Oxford University found there was no correlation between aggression in teens and the time spent playing violent video games. There are many other similar scientific findings.
While games can have negative effects in terms of aggression, that’s a long way from causing gun violence. The industry has turned to notions of limiting screen time, choosing age-appropriate games, and discussing content with kids to reduce the negatives.
The U.S. has some of the highest rates of gun violence in the developed world, leading some to blame the popularity of games in the U.S. But Japan is one of the largest gaming markets and it has extremely low gun violence. The same goes for South Korea, Germany and Canada.
By contrast, the U.S. has more guns than people, which correlates far more strongly with gun violence than blaming the media. The U.S. has less strict gun laws than other places, and it also has weaknesses in support systems in how it deals with poverty, inequality, mental health and community support.
In a fresh comment, Aubrey Quinn, spokesperson for the Entertainment Software Association, the group of video game companies that fought the Supreme Court case 14 years ago, said in a message to GamesBeat, “Video games do not cause real-world violence. In study after study, independent researchers have found no evidence to link video games and violent behavior.”
Back in 2011, Pat Vance (our Visionary Award winner this year), head of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, said in a statement, “ESRB welcomes the Supreme Court’s decision in this case, especially given its validation of the ESRB rating system as an effective and reliable tool that parents use to decide which video games are appropriate for their children and family.”
She added, “Today’s decision acknowledges the value and effectiveness of the ESRB rating system, the Federal Trade Commission’s positive assessment of our self-regulatory regime, and the latest research showing that game retailers overwhelmingly enforce their voluntary store policies regarding the sale of mature-rated games. In striking this law the Court has made clear that the video game industry effectively empowers parents to be the ones to decide which games are right for their children.”
And she said, “The most constructive means of ensuring that children play age-appropriate video games is to educate parents about the tools at their disposal, including ESRB’s two-part rating system (age categories and content descriptors) and rating summaries available at ESRB.org and via a free mobile app. We remain eager to work with government officials, legislators, parents’ groups and any others who wish to participate in or otherwise support these constructive efforts, which achieve the intended goal without infringing Constitutional rights.”