Would you believe that you still get people ignorant enough to think that video games cause violence? Well, they say ignorance knows no bounds. In this context, absolutely.
Things have gotten interesting in the (admittedly quietened) debate surrounding the link between video games and violence, as former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) senior profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole stated that she does not believe video games cause violence.
Speaking on Face The Nation, O’Toole stated that games are simply one variable in a much bigger picture of potential risk factors for people who may resort to violent behaviour.
“It’s my experience that video games do not cause violence,” O’Toole said.
“However, it is one of the risk variables when we do a threat assessment for the risk to act out violently. And my experience has been [that] individuals who are already contemplating acting out in a violent way, if they are also emerged 24/7 in violent videos, to the exclusion of other activities, and they’re isolated, and they’re actually using these videos as planning or collateral evidence in terms of how to do it better, what equipment to buy, how to select the victims, how to approach the crime scene. If their use is educational materials for the offender to do the crime better, that’s what we take into consideration.”
“But again, it’s important that I point out as a threat assessment and as a former FBI profiler, we don’t see these as the cause of violence; we see them as sources of fueling ideation that’s already there,” she added.
That last line of thought is so logical, yet so rare in modern adult minds.
Elsewhere, Parents Television Council president Tim Winter also commented on the matter, agreeing that video games don’t cause violence alone. But he argued that because media is available 24/7 to children, this topic is very important to address.
“This isn’t an all-or-nothing; it’s not zero percent, it’s not 100 percent. But it is a percent of the problem, and we have to address it,” Winter said.
“The parents are grandparents that are watching this show today understand in their hearts already that this stuff is harmful to children. And it’s even more harmful now that you have 24/7 digital media hitting children through multiple platforms.”
“It’s not just a parent’s obligation. I think the industry has to have a responsibility,” he said.
“When you have a video game that allows a player to shoot a police officer, walk up to that police officer and urinate on him, douse him with gasoline and set him on fire, and listen to him scream as he burns to death. What kind of sticker do you put on the box to warn a parent about that?”
Oh that game sounds cool, I wonder which one he’s referring to. Sounds like something bananas enough to be from Saints Row.
I also wonder what those anti-video game peeps will do now. We’ve got the former FBI on our side.
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