Once again video games are being dragged into the argument of the rise in violent crime.
Shadow Home Secretary and British politician Diane Abbott has come out to say that video games and hardcore pornography are contributing to the rise in violent crime. In an interview piece published by The Independent newspaper, Diane Abbott goes on to claim that video games desensitise children to violence.
In addition to that, The House of Commons (UK Government) recently created a select committee in order to gather evidence on whether or not gaming is harmful or helpful to society, you can read more about it here.
This argument really grinds my gears and does every time it comes up. I am a father of a 9-year-old boy who plays video games, which isn’t very hard to believe with me heavily into gaming. He plays a lot of so-called violent games like Fortnite, and actually at times we team up and do coop on games such as Gears of War and Call of Duty. Now, I do appreciate that some of these games are intended for older audiences, but my way of thinking is that I am showing him the games that all his friends are talking about in the playground, and with me showing him, I am able to teach him how to be safe online when playing these games, so to my knowledge, I am not damaging him by letting him play these games… I mean he isn’t going into the shed to get my tools to go on a killing spree because he’s seen something like that on a video game! I police his gaming and I am aware of what he’s doing at all times when he plays, I can even censor the language by turning off the volume and in some games like Gears of War, I can tone down the violence.
I personally feel that this argument is deep-rooted in society itself and the problem lies a lot deeper than anyone cares to look, blaming video games just seems an easy way out for me and an easy scapegoat such as the argument in America years back over gangster rap society always looks for the easy option to blame and, in my opinion, a lazy option at best since there is no physical evidence that video games have an effect on aggressive behavior in young people.
Going back to the article, I will be honest; yes, we need to have tighter controls on how you can access graphic material online but the argument of gaming having a part in breaking society is weak at best, and I personally believe that it has a lot to do with underlying problems within the actual person and not the games themselves.
I would love to hear your comments and thoughts on this so leave your comments in the section below!
