Should first person shooter video games be more restricted?

There have been many attempts to create statutes in many states to curtail the sale and availability of violent video games to those under seventeen. Possibly even increasing the age to twenty-one. This would appear to be a low risk way to reduce the desensitization of youth to gun violence but the courts time and again refuse to allow such statutes to exist or be enforces on grounds of constitutional freedom of speech.

So what is the solution?

This page is a permanent link to the reply below and its nested replies. See all post replies »

UndeadPrivateer · 31-35, M

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1021452
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2012/12/17/ten-country-comparison-suggests-theres-little-or-no-link-between-video-games-and-gun-murders/?utm_term=.462beb3cd612

No, there is no legitimate link between play of violent video games and violent crime. In fact there's an inverse relation in the statistics, meaning playing violent video games may [i]reduce[/i] violence in some cases(assumedly by giving alternative outlets that are non-physical), but that could be unrelated and relatively meaningless correlation. Regardless, many studies have found that far fewer mass murderers even play video games compared to the general population so it's a rather foolish lead to pursue.