Video Games are a primary source of violence

Before I state my arguments on the matter, I would like to say I am aware that the reoccurring of this topic is getting annoying and it's repetitive. However, I've never talked about this controversial topic before, and I want to try debating on it. Schedule Round 1: Acceptance and Arguments Round 2: More Arguments and/or Rebuttals Round 3: Rebuttals Round 4: More Rebuttals Round 5: Conclusions and Goodbyes Thesis Statements Even though video games does cause violent acts sometimes, that doesn't really mean it's a primary source of violence. Don't just stereotype the gaming industry just because, sometimes, people use video games to do violent things. That assumption is ambiguous, it's full of fallacy, and I'll prove that it's fallacious. Arguments 1. There is no statistical evidence supporting claim. According to the information on Harvard Medical School's website, the research that is conducted to support the "video games cause violence" claim "relies on measures to assess aggression that don't correlate with real-world violence. Some studies are observational and don't prove cause and effect. Federal crime statistics suggest that serious violent crimes among youths have decreased since 1996, even as video game sales have soared." (http://www.fbi.gov...) (http://www.washingtonpost.com...) (http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org...) (http://www.washingtonpost.com...) Researchers have made assumptions that the reason behind this decline of crime rates is because of video games because violent video games has been used as a substitute to express anger and other strong emotions to a virtual world instead to reality. Chris Ferguson, chair of psychology and communication at Texas A&M International, has conducted several studies on video game violence and its affect on youth. He actively believes that video games DO NOT cause real-world violence. Quoting, "Video games is just not a common factor among mass homicide perpetrators. Some have been players, other have not been." 2. The killer who was involved in games either had some sort of mental illness and/or had poor parents. (Mostly, it's the parents fault). In almost every single shooting where violent video games were blamed, the individual involved was mentally unstable, ill, . But of course it's way more appealing for the media to blame violent video games and pay no attention to the fact that most of these tragedies are linked to mental instability and/or poor parenting. The blame on the matter at hand should be directed to the parents because there are ESBR ratings on the front cover of every single game you purchase. GameStop warns the parent and the child that there is mature rated content and asks if the parent consents on allowing the child to play the game. Therefore, it is the parent's responsibility to facilitate on what the child is playing. According to HuffingtonPost, studies have showed that the majority of parents don't care if their kids play violent video games. Quoting "The majority of parents don"t check age restrictions on video games and don't think violent games affect their kids, according to a new poll. The study, conducted by gaming price comparison and swap site www.Playr2.com. 1,221 parents of children aged 17 who frequently played video games were surveyed. The parents were surveyed, and were asked if they checked the age restrictions of their children"s video games before allowing them to play. Just under two thirds (64%) answered no. The majority of these parents, 55%, agreed that they did not think that age restrictions mattered on video games. Similarly, they were not concerned that their under-18s could be playing grown-up games. Asked "Would you be concerned if your child was playing video games with an age restriction of 18?", 51% said no." "Richard Wilson, CEO of TIGA, the trade association representing the UK games industry, told The Huffington Post: 'Age ratings exist to provide parents and consumers generally with information about games and the suitability of games for children. Just as parents should not buy 18 rated films for minors, so they should not buy 18 rated games for children. Parents must take responsibility.'" I'm not stating that just because someone is mentally unstable will most likely become extremely violent. But, studies have shown that mass murders have occurred because of mental illness. Aaron Alexis, the murderer of 12 people in the Washington Navy Yard, was mentally unstable. The lawyers of James Holmes, shooter of the Denver theater at the premiere of the Dark Knight Rises film, had repeatedly stated that he is "mentally ill." 3. The very vast majority of gamers are not violent. Just because video games only affect that small percentage of players, doesn't mean that video games cause violence entirely. You can say the exact same thing for films. Most of movie watchers are not violent themselves even though they watch violence all the time. I really don't need to go full into detail on this point as it's self-explanatory in itself. Sources 1. 2. 3. http://www.washingtonpost.com... 4. http://www.health.harvard.edu... 5. http://www.fbi.gov... 6. 7. 8. http://kotaku.com... 9. http://bigstory.ap.org... 10. 11. http://www.forbes.com... Sorry that my argument post looks like a mess. I initially attempted to post graphs supporting my thesis, but the script is discombobulated and just simply retarded. So, instead, I'm posting links to the pictures. Anyway, I hope to my opponent, good luck. Now, the entire "rich text" is screwed up. I only have to type in normal text. :(