Introduction and Literature Review
Video games are varied, and a great attraction, not just to the young, but also increasingly to grown-ups. They have been regarded as both a menace and a blessing in society, depending on who is commenting on them, and when. Most importantly, the video games are big business, providing gainful employment to millions of people all over the world, starting from the software developers, to producers and publishers through to vendors and those who run video-game arcades. This has therefore meant that despite the controversies the industry is likely to arouse, it is here to stay, probably for generation to come. The main objective of this paper is to look at the industry vis-à-vis the existing framework law in relation to the perceptions as to whether or not the framework permits for the perceived actual violence: to explore the potential dangers posed by video games – especially those of a violent nature – and their potential to influence violence among those who play them, and therefore the need for legislative intervention to ensure the security and safety of would-be victims of those under the spell of these games.
Numerous studies by psychologists and sociologists, as well as government agencies have investigated possible harm through irregular social development, aggression, addiction, or violence with varying, often conflicting, results. For instance, some analysts have associated a temporary increase in aggressive behavior among those exposed to violent video games, who also exhibit tendencies of disregarding the rights and welfare of other people around them. Some researchers have disputed such findings, stating that there is no correlation between violent video games and increased aggressive behavior among the subjects, while others actually even postulate that video games have been proven to promote socially acceptable behavior in some contexts.
Several incidents of great violence, attributed to playing of video games by the perpetrators, have received much publicity over the years, but critics have poked holes in such superficial conclusions, arguing that the games had been picked as an easy fallback whenever there was no immediate explanation of certain grim social evils. Due to the great public concern over the actual effect of such games, there have been attempts, with varying degrees of success, to enact legislation that would regulate production, distribution and even playing of the video games. In some cases, there have even been attempts to legislate a total ban on violent video games. Perhaps the best recorded success has been in enforcing system of content rating in many countries.
There have been debates for years on the potential for video games to negatively impact on the attitudes and behaviors of players since the 1980s. Exidy developed a game called Death Race in 1976 which was soon removed from store shelves due to the uproar it caused by the players controlling cars that ran over “gremlins”, this being among the first such widely publicized protests. Proponents of these games argue that playing of these games should be protected under the freedom of speech and expression laws of the respective countries, since they are a vital expressive medium for those who choose it. Those opposed however claim that video games should be subjected to legislative supervision to ensure restrictions in order to minimize the harm they are likely to cause to society. Most of the works studied, therefore, seem to concentrate on the likelihood of video gamers to engage in violent or aggressive behavior, and without looking deeply into the possibilities of putting into place a stronger legal framework that will prevent the video game players from engaging in criminal activities – preventing the crime from happening.
This paper seeks to introduce this by stating the controversies around the psychological and sociological effects of video games. It will then introduce the true picture through simple demographical data about who exactly plays video games and why. The paper will then consider the implications of these facts and figures. The paper will then look briefly at the history of legislative developments in the regulation of video games before looking at a number of authorities that have examined these phenomena in an attempt to establish links, as well as related cases that have in the past been employed by psychologists to argue for either. The conclusions thereafter drawn will culminate in recommendations, especially on how legal instruments may be used to regulate access to and use of video games should the evidence point us in that direction.
Methodology
Questions:
- Whether there is any direct link between violent video games and actual violence in society.
- Whether the legal framework on regulation of access to violent video games is efficacious in addressing the access.
- Whether there is a possibility of preventing violent crime that is by use the right legal interventions.
Hypothesis
Playing violent video games results in increased aggressive behavior in the real world.
The hypothesis is backed by a quick survey of a few publicized incidents involving violent video games and actual aggressive behavior may help illustrate the uneasiness among the populations. The November 22, 1997 death of Noah Wilson by his friends Yancy’s stabbing was blamed on an alleged obsession with Midway Games Inc.’s Mortal Kombat. It was held that the complaint had failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The March 24, 1998 Westside Middle School Massacre in which 4 students and a teacher were killed by 13-year old Mitchell Johnson and 11-year old Andrew Golden was alleged to have been instigated by the two playing GoldenEye007 together. The April 20, 1999 Columbine High School Massacre in which 12 students and a teacher were killed by Eric Harris (18) and Dylan Klebold (17) were blamed on their obsession with the violent game, Doom, though this was discounted. Jose Rabadan Pardo (16) murdered his further and sister in Spain in April 2000, emulating the main character in Final Fantasy VIII.
At trial, Devin Moore, who had grabbed an officer’s weapon and killed him together with two other officers on June 7th, 2003 claimed to have been inspired by Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. In the same month, step brothers Joshua and William Buckner, 14 and 16 respectively, fired at vehicles on Interstate 40 in Tennessee killing a man and wounding a young woman, and claimed to have been inspired by Grand Theft Auto III. 17 year old Warren Leblanc’s murder of 14-year old Stefan Pakeerah in a Leicester, UK Park on February 27, 2004 was blamed on obsession with a game, Manhunt. In 2007, Lamar Roberts and Heather Trujillo were accused of beating a 7-year old girl to death, imitating the moves from Mortal Kombat. In June 2008, four teens allegedly obsessed with Grand Theft Auto decided to go a spree in New York’s Hyde Park by first robbing a man, knocking his teeth out and then stealing a woman’s BMW and her cigarettes. In 2011, two incidents in Netherlands and the Norway, both alleged to have been instigated by the game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2; the first being that of Tristan van der Vlis (24) shot more than a hundred bullets using 2 firearms at a shopping mall on April 9, killing 6 and wounding 17 before killing himself, and the second that of Anders Behring Breovik who detonated a car bomb in the executive government quarters before traveling to a teenager summer camp. It total, 77 people were killed, a majority being teenagers, and hundreds were injured in the bomb, and later admitted to have used the video game to train for the attacks. Finally, in May 2013, video game violence came up in the defense of Christopher Harris in the charge of murdering a family of 5 in Illinois.
When analyzing the effect of the last criterion, more often than not the focus would be on the health of the subject, as well as, if studying, the grades they attain at studies progressively, especially in comparison with their performance before embarking on playing the video games. As for content, one may want to examine the amount of violence, and the nature of the violence within the game, or the acts of the characters therein that are likely to influence the perceptions and behavior of the players. The context may look at the group dynamics and the extent to which the way a player relates with other players or other members of society may be affected: how these may be developed or inhibited. The independent variable in this study will be playing of violent video games, while the dependable variable shall be actual violent or aggressive behavior exhibited after exposure to the stimulus.
Design and Procedure
The research is designed to take a qualitative phenomenological approach, that is, one that is experienced from the perspective of the individual. It will therefore include interviews, conversations, participant observation and focus meetings. This research will be informed by Primary data which will include interviews of subjects randomly strategically selected in two major categories which will include a few inmates serving a variety of sentences for violent crime as well as video game enthusiasts. For those outside prison institutions, there shall be random sampling but this will be within the age categories since the survey seeks to also break down the results according to various age groups as well; with those below the age of 10, 10-12 years, 13 – years, 20 – 30 years, and finally those above 30. The survey also seeks to interview as many males as female respondents. The survey will also seek to interview a number of respondents who may not themselves be adherents to these games, but who will have had the opportunity to observe them in other contexts such as the classroom and school as well as in the homes. It shall therefore also interview parents and teachers of some of the respondents.
Secondary data: This study is also informed by various secondary sources including books by prolific authors, articles from peer-reviewed journals, relevant statutes and other pieces of legislation, reports of judicial proceedings, newspapers reports, articles, publications, and other internet sources.
Limitation of the Study: The intended outcomes of the study are to establish a link, if any, between playing of violent video games and actual violence in the society, with a view to determining how this may be avoided through legislative intervention. However, there are factors cognizable that may influence or limit the achievement of the objectives of the study.
First, the study is done at a time when several other studies have been conducted and as such it may be met by some respondent apathy due to the challenge of sharing the information on the objectives of this study. Secondly, there a number of challenges may also arise in the fact that the projected interviewees and respondents may withhold very essential information that may be of great importance to the study. It is also likely to be difficult to gain access to the inmates, and even to interview them.
The study looks to interview about 1200 respondents drawn from all over the US. Most of the interviews will be done by phone using a predetermined questionnaire and scoring according to the bands provided for in the tools. The tools will seek to capture the age, gender, opinion on violent video games, experience with violent video games, examples of their preferred games, opinion on whether access should be more regulated / restricted, suggestions on how this regulation may be achieved; effect of the video games on themselves, their friends or members of their families. There will be different questionnaires adapted to the different age groups as well as the ones specific for the teachers and parents. The latter two groups will have to give detailed observations and opinions on behaviors of certain selected subjects, in a manner that will make this appear like secondary information to be matched with the responses of the initial respondents. This will also help to check on the reliability of the data gathered from the initial respondents. The aim is to have the respondents as uniformly spread as possible among all the states. The instruments will be subjected to a pre-test within campus for a period of 2 weeks before the final version can be constructed for distribution. The study is expected to take approximately four months, with one month being used to refine and pretest the tools, the second for collection of the information, the third and fourth for the treatment of the information and reporting.
Conclusion and Results
The information that will be important at this point is description of the way different people perceive the influence of violent video games on themselves and others that they have observed. It will be important to know how many of the gamers exhibit aggressive behavior, and how many have reasons to believe that this aggression is caused by the violence in the games. Having established the figures, it is now clearer to discuss the effects of video games on these populations, and the likely legal implications of the same. If the youth, for instance, are reported to increase their aggressive tendencies after prolonged exposure to violent video games, ranging from bullying in school to major violent crimes such as school shootings. Despite a number of studies establishing a correlation between violent video games and violence among the youth, some authoritative agencies such assert that there is no conclusive evidence that certainly links violence to video game usage despite a claim to the contrary in the early 1980s, when the then Long Island Parents and Teachers’ Association president Ronnie Lamm campaigned for enactment of a law banning the siting of video game arcades very close to schools arguing the violence they feuds among children. What is even more important to this study will be relating the findings to respondents’ views on the need for regulation, and types of regulation, and if, for instance, this has not been addressed by such attempts as the 1990s, U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman’s hearings on violent video games such as Mortal Kombat.
References
Craig A. Anderson, P. (2003, October). Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts and Unanswered Questions. Retrieved November 26, 2013, from America Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2003/anderson.aspx
Ferguson, C. J. (2008). The School Shooting Event - Video Game Link: Causal Relationship or Moral Panic? Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 25 - 37.
Ward, M. R. (2010). Video Games and Adolescent Fighting. Journal of Law and Economics, 611 - 628.
Ward, M. R. (2011). Video Games and Crime. Contemporary Economic Policy, Volume 29, 261 - 273.
APPENDIX - 1
Sample Questionnaire for Respondent
Age: Male / Female
- What is the approximate number of hours per day _____ & per week____ spent on video games?
- What are your favorite games?
- Do any of these contain violent scenes?
- Briefly describe the violence in the game:
- How does the violent section make you feel?
- How often do you use violence at home / in school?
- Describe the worst thing you have done out of violent aggression.
- What do you think usually causes the violent reactions?
- Do you believe that these violent episodes may be encouraged by the games you play?
- Do you think there should be restrictions to access to violent video games? If yes, what kind of restriction do you think would work?
Thank you for your cooperation!
