Why We Should Not Censor Access To Video Game Violence

Nearly $90 billion is spent on video games every year, with around 2.2 billion global gamers (Newzoo). Video games are a huge global industry, but the industry isn’t without critics. Many people think that some games are far too violent, especially for children. The Entertainment Software Rating Board is responsible for rating games, but since there aren’t any laws prohibiting anyone from buying any type of game, children often get their hands on adult games. Many think that there should be more done to prevent this from happening, which is the wrong thought. The United States government should not censor access to video games because the ESRB rating system is effective, there is no proven connection between violent video games and violent behavior, and further censorship of video games would violate the First Amendment. Video games don’t have a particularly long history, but violent and controversial video games have been attacked by the media ever since the first game was created. In 1976, the game Death Race, one of the first arcade games, was criticized by parents and behavioral experts because the player was encouraged to run over

"If video games do increase violent tendencies outside the laboratory, the explosion of gaming over the past decade from $3.2 billion in sales in 1995 to $7 billion in 2003, according to industry figures, would suggest a parallel trend in youth violence. Instead, youth violence has been decreasing” (Merino 57). Many tests trying to connect video games to aggressive habits are too contained and don’t represent what happens in real life. This is apparent when looking at the ratio between youth violence related to video games sales, which has gone down. This means that video game violence doesn’t have real-life