Real Violence, Not Video Game Violence, Poses the Real Threat to Children
The U.S. is more concerned with depicting a problem than with the problem itself. Proof: A California law to ban selling violent video games to kids had to go to the Supreme Court to be ruled stupid.
Which will have a greater impact on a child: Exposure to violence on TV (or books or movies or video games or music) or in real life? The science is so overwhelming on this even Justice Antonin Scalia could see it. In his ruling he wrote:
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.This law took up time and money that could have gone to putting cops on the streets, social workers on the case or even more food for the hungry -- all of which would have had a direct impact on the actual welfare of children. This law enacted in 2005 came in the wake of two previous versions which had been thrown out by lower courts. (Lawmakers must have figured third time is the charm, I guess.)
At the time the legislature and the governor (Arnold Schwarzenegger) were avoiding what was then the state's biggest problem: California facing a $12.2 billion budget deficit within 10 years. Perhaps if they had spent less time distracted by video games the state wouldn't be facing its current budget shortfall of $10 billion this year. Another thing that is having a grave, real impact on the health and well-being of millions of children.
Instead there were hearings and heated debates over whether or not kids should be allowed to play with the 21st century version of cap guns. People argued that video games are far more immersive than cap guns. The same argument was used about comic books in the 1950s and television pretty much since it was invented.
Games with violence in them are endemic to childhood. My son went to a pre-school which briefly tried discourage violent game play by banning toy weapons. All it did was encourage imagination. The kids turned sticks, fingers and Lego into an arsenal that would have been the envy of the Defense Department. To a five-year-old any game they like is an immersive environment.
These claims come about whenever there is something new in the cultural firmament. In the 1970s Dungeons & Dragons was turning kids into satanists. I played enough D&D that if the claim had been true my house would be covered in goat carcasses and badly drawn pentagrams. (And it isn't. No matter what my wife tells you.)
I cannot tell you how deeply I believe in the need for everyone to be educated about what real violence is. I have taught my son about the real costs of all this. He knows that during World War I most battlefield injuries were caused by shrapnel and the overwhelming majority of shrapnel wounds were caused by pieces of human bone. He knows about the Holocaust. His uncle is an Iraq war vet. He also plays Team Fortress 2, Infamous and other such games. We love going to see the big blow-up-everything movies.
My son, like most kids, can tell the difference between which is real and which isn't, which is a problem and which isn't. Now if only more adults could do the same.
Photo: U.S. Library of Congress
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