Do Video Games Kill Karen Sternheimer

In the essay, “Do Video Games Kill?”(214), Karen Sternheimer discusses the wide spread idea that videogames are the cause for “young killers”(220) . Sternheimer opposes the idea that violent video games produce criminal behavior in young people. The influence video games have on young people is spiraling out of control, according to Sternheimer. The blame for this spiral is the media. The influence the media has on video games focuses on the stereotype that the white middle-class male video gamer is more susceptible to violent behavior. Focusing on white male teens, the media is able to make them appear more influenced by video games than others like African Americans. The media also ignores other possible reasons for violent behavior

We shoot each other with RPG and get blown into pieces! Does my enjoyment of playing a violent game make me violent? I don't think so. There are debates about how video games cause violence. Questions have arisen throughout these debates and people need answers. People want to know if video games are causing adults and children to become more violent. Some argue that videogames are the source of all evil thoughts and we should do away with all games. Others suggest the opposite that video games aren’t evil and that people need to look at abuse and family situations. So the question is do video games cause people to become more violent? There are many people who believe that video games don’t cause violence and aggression, and they have concrete facts to back it up. First, Michael D. Gallagher, the president and CEO of Entertainment Software Association argues that video games don’t cause people to be violent. According to the statistics that the FBI released Gallagher states, “youth violence has declined in recent years as computer and video game popularity soared” (Gallagher 1). Gallagher goes on to quote from the U.S Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, “The state has not produced substantial evidence that violent video games cause psychological or neurological harm to minors” (Gallagher 1). Second, a news editor for the Science & Technology section in www.thelocal.se disputes that video games ‘don’t make kids violent’. According to, the Swedish Media Council who reviewed over a 100 articles on videogames and violence, “there is a clear, statistically significant link between violent computer games and aggressive behavior but, many of the studies used different ways to measure aggression, many of which lack a clear connection to violent behavior ” (News Editor 1). Furthermore, because there isn’t enough research that violent video games cause violent actions the Swedish Media Council concluded, “There is no evidence that