{"id":7889,"date":"2005-07-28T20:12:27","date_gmt":"2005-07-29T03:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/07\/28\/ah-yes-blaming-video-games-again.html"},"modified":"2005-07-28T20:12:27","modified_gmt":"2005-07-29T03:12:27","slug":"ah_yes_blaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/07\/28\/ah_yes_blaming.html","title":{"rendered":"Ah, yes … blaming video games again"},"content":{"rendered":"

An excellent “open letter” to Sen. Hillary Clinton<\/a> regarding her hopping the “Violent Videogames Cause Berserk Teens” bandwagon over “Grand Theft Auto” — always good publicity, but not very good science. <\/p>\n

On to the issue of aggression, and what causes it in kids, especially teenage boys. Congress should be interested in the facts: The last 10 years have seen the release of many popular violent games, including “Quake” and “Grand Theft Auto”; that period has also seen the most dramatic drop in violent crime in recent memory. According to Duke University’s Child Well-Being Index, today’s kids are less violent than kids have been at any time since the study began in 1975. Perhaps, Sen. Clinton, your investigation should explore the theory that violent games function as a safety valve, letting children explore their natural aggression without acting it out in the real world.<\/p>\n

Many juvenile crimes — such as the carjacking that is so central to “Grand Theft Auto” — are conventionally described as “thrill-seeking” crimes. Isn’t it possible that kids no longer need real-world environments to get those thrills, now that the games simulate them so vividly? The national carjacking rate has dropped substantially since “Grand Theft Auto” came out. Isn’t it conceivable that the would-be carjackers are now getting their thrills on the screen instead of the street?<\/p>\n

Worth reading.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An excellent “open letter” to Sen. Hillary Clinton regarding her hopping the “Violent Videogames Cause Berserk Teens” bandwagon over “Grand Theft Auto” — always good publicity, but not very good…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,23,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaming","category-parenting","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32254,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/21\/looking-at-violent-video-games-again-some-more.html","url_meta":{"origin":7889,"position":0},"title":"Looking at violent video games (again, some more)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 21-Jan-13 8:14am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's everyone's favorite whipping boy, but when you look at the studies held to date, there remain a lot of problems in drawing solid, actionable conclusions from them, including questions like:a. The link between \"increased aggression\" (where found) and actual violent behavior.b. The persistence\u00a0of long-term vs. short-term aggression effects.c. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9488,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/06\/27\/respect_is_earn.html","url_meta":{"origin":7889,"position":1},"title":"Respect is Earned, Part 2","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 27-Jun-06 1:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And, of course, as further evidence that The Daily Show is not only entertaining, but that politicians are buffoons, I submit yesterday's review of the Video Game Hearings on Capitol...","rel":"","context":"In "Fourth Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31864,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/19\/oh-look-another-study-demanded-to-link-violence-and-video-games.html","url_meta":{"origin":7889,"position":2},"title":"Oh, look, another study demanded to link violence and video games","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Dec-12 6:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I mean, it's not like this hasn't been studied before.And it's not like, oh, we might be interested in a study\u00a0about the link between guns being available and someone using guns to shoot people. Embedded Link After Newtown Massacre, Video Games Legislation Beats Gun Control Bills To Congress This morning,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31805,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/17\/violent-video-games-instigator-or-symptom.html","url_meta":{"origin":7889,"position":3},"title":"Violent video games: instigator or symptom?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Dec-12 8:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"'The question we should be asking is not whether Call of Duty, or Dexter, or the Saw films are going to turn us into a nation of multi-ethnic, multi-gender, multi-generational psychopaths, unable to or disinterested in distinguishing reality from the images we see on all kinds of screens. Violent culture\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27183,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/21\/food-warning-labels-bad-video-game-warning-labels-good.html","url_meta":{"origin":7889,"position":4},"title":"Food Warning Labels Bad. Video Game Warning Labels Good","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 21-Mar-12 11:40am","format":false,"excerpt":"Sounds like the video game industry needs to get better lobbyists. #ddtbReshared post from +donald mclaughlinWhy is it so hard to get food labeled but there are always legislators crawling on hands and knees across the floor to label video games? Embedded Link Yet Another Attempt To Place Warning Labels\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13774,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/02\/18\/letting-boys-be-boys.html","url_meta":{"origin":7889,"position":5},"title":"Letting boys be boys","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Feb-09 7:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Are aggressive, even violent games ... including video games ... actually good for boys? The idea for the book began when Tyre, a senior writer for Newsweek at the time, wrote a 2006 cover story for the magazine, called \"Boy Crisis.\" The article focused on how boys were falling behind\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Parenting"","block_context":{"text":"Parenting","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal\/parenting"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7889\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}