Do Video Games Receive The Blame For Violent Behavior?

I've been into video games since I was a child. I've seen all different types, from cutesy cartoon puzzle games to hack and slash blood fest action games. For me, the latter was usually the favorite. With playing these particular kinds of games, I always heard the warnings of what they will do to me. More and more, video games are receiving the blame for violent behavior. But making these claims, shifting the blame onto a video game, is like a drug addict blaming their addiction on someone else.

While the two are very similar, they have their differences. First off, there are some occasions in which a drug addiction is not the fault of the addict. This happens when a child is born to an addicted mother. This child does not have a choice to

In both instances, the blame for one person's actions is being shifted to a scapegoat of sorts. We all have control of our own actions. When we do something wrong, there is no one to blame but ourselves. Pushing this blame on someone or something else shows a lack of responsibility. No one twisted your arm to become an addict. The video game didn't threaten your life if you didn't go out and create some horrible act of violence. Avoiding personal blame for one's actions is taking the easy way out. Both violent behavior and drug addictions have some sort of psychological cause. Many drug addicts suffer from problems of depression, feeling that they need drugs to make them happy and whole. People who are violent often suffer similar depression. This depression can come from being teased or tormented for being different. We can see this in many of the school shootings. In the Columbine killings, the two boys who went on a shooting spree were considered social outcasts. Because they played violent video games, the blame for their violent behavior was partially blamed on those games. But if you look at it, both boys were most likely deeply troubled already because of how they were treated by their peers. Just because someone plays violent video games doesn't mean they will go out and shoot people randomly. Thousands of people play these kinds of games. There has to be something wrong psychologically with a person to spur