Violent Video Games Do Not Cause Youth Violence

Video games have been debated since their release in the 1950s. From the start, they have been undergoing constant criticism, especially among older generations. In the present day, there have been several ongoing debates about video games. Video games have been more controversial because of the rise of the first-person shooter(FPS), fighting, and other violent role-playing games(RPG) over the past two decades. One important debate is the existence of a link between video games and youth violence. Video games do not cause youth violence because gamers can tell the difference between reality and the gameplay, the research show s using video games does not cause youth violence, and video games allow gamers a constructive way to focus their

When it comes to video game sales and youth violence, the U.S. is to be the only country that is high in both categories. According to the article “Violent Video Games Do Not Cause Violence,” author Eric Kain says, “Countries with the highest per capita spending on video games, such as the Netherlands and South Korea, are among the safest countries in the world when it comes to guns. In other words, America plays about the same number of violent video games per capita as the rest of the industrialized world, despite that we far outpace every other nation in terms of gun deaths.” (Kain 2). The top gamer nations have really low crime rates when compared to the United States, which seems to show that the United States is the only outlier in this case. Thus, there may be other causes to youth violence instead. Despite United States having high crime rates when compared to other industrialized nation, it is currently at its record low, as explained by Jenkins, “According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. Researchers find that people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population” (Jenkins). If youth crime and has gone down while the gaming industry’s profits have gone up, then this proves that there is no correlation between

In the 21st century, most children are undergoing massive amounts of stress and other negative emotions from a variety of activities, such as homework, sports, band, and social interaction in general. Hence, they need some activities which will help them vent. According to Jeffrey D. Davis of The Real Truth magazine, “...the world of video games is a perfect break from a reality filled with deadlines, stress and responsibilities. People play them because they are fun, interesting and a way to relax” (Davis). Video games help a lot of people cope with the increasing stress they acquire from their everyday lives. By playing video games, the youth will be less likely to harness any of negative emotions in public. Author Jim Kerstetter of the CNET explained further, writing, “For example, recent research shows a steam valve effect in which violent video gameplay helps release stress and aggression before it can lead to violence” (Kerstetter). Video games can actually have the opposite effect on youth gamers, as it tends to release gamers’ negative emotions instead of releasing it on an individual or society.If video games help gamers become peaceful with society, than this could be used a therapeutic tool to help lower the youth violence even more. Therefore, the reason for not causing youth violence is video games help gamers vent their frustrations