(ABC News)--In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, America's love affair with violence is once again under the microscope.
The cable talk shows fueled the discussion in the days after police say Adam Lanza, 20, killed 26 people, including 20 children, in a shooting rampage at the Newtown, Connecticut school. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) took a stab at violent video games on Sunday.
"The violence in the entertainment culture, particularly with the
extraordinary realism to video games and movies now, does cause
vulnerable young men, particularly, to be more violent," the senator
said during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday."
When a nighttime TV ad for the video game "Hitman Absolution," aired
after Monday's night's NFL game broadcast, former senior Obama advisor
David Axelrod tweeted, "In NFL post-game: an ad for shoot 'em up video
game. All for curbing weapons of war. But shouldn't we also quit
marketing murder as a game?"
But while the adults were asking questions, America's kids went on their
daily -- virtual -- shooting sprees. "Call of Duty," which started out
as a computer game and was later adapted for gaming consoles such as
Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PS3, is one of the most popular, profitable
and most violent games on the market -- millions upon millions play
every year.
It's a so-called "first-person shooter" because the player takes on a
killer's point of view in high definition. Players can also taunt each
other in real time through a console's headset.
"Some people just go crazy," said gamer Thomas Pantig. "Just yelling [at
the TV], all the slurs come out. Every slur you can think of comes out
of people's mouths."
While video games can be easy targets when seeking answers for why a
mass shooting occurs, some experts believe they can be a scapegoat for
larger underlying issues. And we have been stuck in this accusatory
back-and-forth for generations.
Dr. Chris Ferguson has conducted a series of multi-year studies of young
people, 11 to 18 years old, to find out if violent video games affect
their psyches. His conclusion: There is no evidence that exposure to
violent video games leads to violent behavior.
"Violent video games and violent media exposure is not connected to mass
shootings," Ferguson said. "There's a risk that, as a society, we focus
on the wrong issue. We distract from the real issues like mental health
and gun control."
He has a name for the outcry over violent video games that sometimes follow a mass shooting. He calls it "moral panic."
"Whenever new media comes out that last generation doesn't understand, it's always easy to blame them," Ferguson said.
In the 1950s, it was comic books. The U.S. Senate held hearings over the
belief that comic books were making America's kids turn violent. By the
1980s, former Vice President Al Gore's wife Tipper Gore led a crusade
against Twisted Sisters' Dee Snider over the issue of suggestive rock
lyrics.
But Dr. Victor Strasburger, a professor of pediatrics at University of
New Mexico in Albuquerque, said today's video games are an entirely
different animal than comic books and music. Their visuals are more real
and more intense than anything that has come before them.
Strasburger said he supports the American Academy of Pediatrics finding,
which says "the evidence is now clear and convincing: Media violence is
one of the casual factors of real-life violence and aggression."
Do Violent Video Games Lead to Other Violence?
So whose research to believe? The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled.
In striking down California's attempt at a violent video game law, the
court had this to say about studies linking games to violent behavior:
"These studies have been rejected by every court to consider them and
with good reason. They do not prove that violent video games cause
minors to act aggressively."
Bonnie Ross,
a mother of two young children with her own concerns, also happens to
run one of the most successful first-person shooter games on the market:
"Halo 4."
While "Halo 4" is far tamer than the violent games many have pointed
fingers at, Ross' advice is the same to parents who worry about their
children playing it.
"We are rated 'M,' and I think that means 17-plus," she said. "What I
recommend is -- your kids are going to play games, play it with them so
that you can really be there to answer questions and help them through
that. And you really have to make a decision, as a parent, what's right
for you."
