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The Relationship between Video Games and Youth Violence

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Many people have theorized that violence in video games have contributed to violent outbreaks of behavior in real life. Violent video games have been a political issue since the early 1980s; however, people forget to look at how people of all ages spend their free time playing these games for entertainment. 97% of 12-17 year olds in the US played video games in 2008, thus fueling an $11.7 billion domestic video game industry. In 2008, 10 of the top 20 best-selling video games in the US contained violence. Video games are a source for entertainment, not a possible source of corruption to our society. “According to an Oct. 28 USA Today article, up to 50 percent of children and teens have some type of gaming console in their bedrooms” (Pittman). I do agree that kids do spend too much time being entertained playing video games and too little time riding a bike or playing sports with friends in the street being active. However, violent video games are not turning kids into violent psychopaths. If they were, statistics would show a dramatic increase in youth violence in recent years based on the amount of time modern kids spend playing such games. However, violence in video games doesn’t directly correlate with violence in young youth because of the decrease in crime rate, mental stability and the quality of home life, and it’s stress reliever.

Therefore, there are no widely notable studies in today’s society that show a direct link between violence in games and that kind of

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