Child Psychologist Scoffs at Video Game Violence Arguments

In 1955, the U.S. Senate blasted comic books... Half a century later, violent video games are the comic books of our day. Testimony before our [North Carolina] state Senate included descriptions of horrific-sounding games...

One frequently cited research article criticizing violent video games includes several studies. One of these studies was a "correlational study" from which the authors concluded, "Playing violent video games often may well cause increases in delinquent behaviors, both aggressive and non-aggressive..."

Correlations are just relationships between two variables; you can never say one causes the other. We could say that during the season when ice cream sales increase, shark attacks also increase. But we could not say the more ice cream you sell, the more you cause shark attacks.

Some legislative initiatives and public opinions across the country are based on fallacious assumptions, personal biases, political posturing and weak science.

Common sense tells you that you don't let an elementary school kid or an older child with a history of aggressive behavior play Grand Theft Auto. But that same common sense tells you that if 90 percent of households have owned or rented a video game every year - while the juvenile crime rate has been going down for more than a decade - then a little Halo 3 never hurt anybody...