Last month, Illinois state representative Marcus Evans Jr. filed HB3531, which wants to amend an existing law that prevents the sale of certain video games to minors. The amendment would instead ban violent video games like Grand Theft Auto 5 that show “psychological harm” from being sold to anyone, minors and adults alike. Evans filed this amendment as a response to the rise in carjackings in the Chicago area.
Spieltimes recently conducted an interview with Evans to discuss the proposed amendment. In the interview Evans pushed back against the idea that he is looking to ban Grand Theft Auto 5 specifically (though it would certainly be one of the games that fall under the umbrella). “I don’t want to target a particular brand,” he said. “The bill was an idea to ban violent video games in general, not focusing on one, as there are a lot of video games that include violence.”
Spieltimes interviewer Micah Fleischman pointed out how there are studies that show video games do not cause violence. Evans dismissed the notion that the research on video games being linked to real-world violence has been conclusive. “By scientific consensus, you mean it is the scientific finding from the particular studies that were done. You do a study with a particular control group and then you base your study off that group, but did they study all the young men in Chicago who could potentially be influenced by violence? We know that that’s not the case, they only studied a limited sample.” Evans then went on to say how “everything we intake” has an effect on us, like music, food, relationships, and possibly even violent video games.
As for the specific purpose of the controversial bill, Evans elaborated by stating that he hopes it bring up questions about violent video games. These questions include whether or not we should have violent video games at all and if so, if we should censor them. Evans seems to believe that violent video games are contributing to the violence in the Chicago area, though he also thinks that poverty is another factor playing into the situation.
Evans said that the last time society has had a conversation about violence in video games was 20 years ago. “You don’t just say that ‘we did a study in the year 19-something’ and everything is okay. You have to constantly ensure and assess that these things aren’t having an effect on the current generation.” It should be noted that Evans is mistaken with these particular claims. As recently as August 2019, then-President Donald Trump blamed video games for mass shooting violence, and there video game violence was also brought under scrutiny during the Obama administration as well.
It’s also worth pointing out that there have been recent studies on video game violence. One does not have to go back the 1990s to find peer-reviewed studies on the subject. More studies on video game violence will likely continue taking place, especially as the medium continues to grow in popularity, but it remains to be seen if violent games will be banned in the meantime.
Source: Spieltimes
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