Minister of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is currently massively criticized that some distraction cannot harm: Because he blames video games for amotlets – although science has refuted this theory for decades.
Video games again as a scapegoat
US Health Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK JR,) At a meeting of the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) Commission again claimed that video games could be a cause of gauge. The 71-year-old attributed the increase in violence to various factors that arose in the 1990s-including the “dependence on psychiatric medication” and possible “possible connections to video games”. Kennedy announced that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would examine these supposed relationships.
However, he could save that, because there is already a lot of scientific results. The minister’s statements are in direct contradiction to the scientific research of the past decades. As early as the 1990s, when games like Doom and Mortal Kombat provided controversy, researchers began to systematically investigate whether violent video games actually lead to real violence. The result was clear: there is no causal connection.
A study by the researcher Patrick Markay from Villanova University was particularly revealing: While over 70 percent of high school students play violent video games, only 20 percent of school camp buyers have reported to play such games.
A meta-analysis of over 100 studies from 2020 came to the conclusion that the connection between video games and aggression is so weak that it was practically negligible. Even short -term effects, such as increased excitement after playing, do not lead to long -term behavioral changes or even to violence. How The Daily Beast reports, Kennedy’s statements on social media triggered a wave of criticism. Journalist Jane Coaston mocked: “Finally we are back at ‘Video Games were fault’, I love the 1990s.” Another user blasphemed: “God was gracious to us, next he will blame for heavy metal music, like back then.”
International comparisons
RFK Jr.’s statements are also refuted by international comparisons. Video games are widespread in Europe and Asia, but the death rates due to firearms there are much lower than in the United States. Countries in which video games are most popular are among the safest in the world – South Korea and Japan are examples of this. The United States is the outlier for gun violence, not with video game consumption. Kennedy compared the United States to Switzerland and claimed both countries (per capita) a comparable number of weapons, but Switzerland had not experienced any killing spree for 23 years.
However, this argument (like to use the US gun lobby NRA) is huge: Switzerland has significantly stricter hurdles for gun ownership than the United States, and only former military members are allowed to store their weapon at home. In addition, the ammunition is strictly regulated and must be stored separately. The nonprofit organization Brady, which is committed to the prevention of gun power, made it clear: “Access to weapons is the problem. Not mental illnesses. Not Ssr. Not video games. These are hateful and dangerously misleading distraction maneuvers from the only real solution: weapon reforms.” The organization points out that the United States has by far the highest rate of gun violence among the developed countries – despite comparable video game consumption habits.
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