Violent video games have been a scapegoat used by parents to explain away adolescent violence since the early 90’s. However, in recent studies, this popular opinion has begun to break down.
In a recent study by Havard Medical School in 2010 a poll was collected to track video game usage. A staggering 97% of teenage subjects said they played video games. However, 75% of those said they preferred puzzle games with little to no violence, while 66% played violent video games. And while the most vocal parents generally preach the need to “protect” their children from the violent influence of video games, 62% of these teens’ parents said the content does not affect their child one way or the other. The article goes on to explain that any studies that claim a correlation between violence in video games and real world violence is unfounded and based in simple observation rather than cause and effect.
This article supported my own theory from my own research already; if video games truly caused people, primarily adolescents, to be more violent, the billions of people who have purchased this game would have made headlines by now.