The potential link between violent video games and aggressive behavior is hotly contested, but one United States district attorney thinks such games don’t belong in the family home.
Ed Berberian is the DA behind a toy gun and violent video game amnesty taking place on four consecutive Saturdays during October across Marin County in California. Berberian is asking families to clear these items from their houses and will reward all participants with Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, reports the Marin Independent Journal.
The amnesty forms part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and Berberian, who previously ran a successful firearm buy-back program, says it’s about stopping the pattern of violence seen across generations.
“As we know, domestic violence incidents almost always have children present and these children develop over time imprinted images of the family violence,” Berberian said in a note to Marin County Civic Center employees. “These children then carry those experiences into their adult lives and often repeat the pattern of violence in their own family units.”
Berberian said that getting rid of toy guns and violent games offers “a chance to change today’s modeling patterns.” He added that reducing exposure to violent video games in the home may “alter how one later addresses conflict situations.”
But so far, science hasn’t proved a definitive link between video games and violence in children.
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, ruling in a landmark legal case that prevented California from banning violent video game sales to minors, denied the link between violent games and aggression in children: “Psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively.”
A recent study also suggested that playing violent games can actually increase a player’s moral awareness. “Rather than leading players to become less moral,” said Matthew Grizzard, an assistant professor at the University at Buffalo, “this research suggests that violent video-game play may actually lead to increased moral sensitivity. This may, as it does in real life, provoke players to engage in voluntary behavior that benefits others.”