President Donald Trump will meet next week with members of the video game industry in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida which took the lives of seventeen people, on February 14, 2018.
In order to enact more concise guidelines on gun control and ownership, the president will be participating in continuous discussions and meetings with Congressional members.
Reporter Zeke Miller asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders why the president was having such difficulty in motivating a Republican majority Congress to “bend to his will” on matters of gun control.
In order to enact more concise guidelines on gun control and ownership, the president will be participating in continuous discussions and meetings with Congressional members.
Reporter Zeke Miller asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders why the president was having such difficulty in motivating a Republican majority Congress to “bend to his will” on matters of gun control.
As many are aware, one of the less often spoken powers that the President is granted, is the power to persuade and make compromises as a sort of negotiator between political parties, legislators, and constituents. This is among the more prominently known abilities to sign or veto legislation, command the armed forces, ask for the written opinions of their Cabinet, convene or adjourn Congress, grant pardons, or host foreign ambassadors.
According to Sanders, "Next week, he’ll also be meeting with members of the video game industry to see what they can do on that front as well. This is going to be an ongoing process and something that we don’t expect to happen overnight, but something that we’re going to continue to be engaged in and continue to look for the best ways possible to make sure we’re doing everything we can to protect schools across the country.”
Video games have had a formalized rating system, administered by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, since 1994. The rating system established by the ESRB is designed to inform and educate both players and parents in regards to the type of content featured in the game using generally applicable terms that can be utilized universally to all video games. Essentially, it provides parents with the power to be informed and dictate which games are appropriate for their children or other family members through easily identifiable icons as well as clear, concise content descriptions.
According to Sanders, "Next week, he’ll also be meeting with members of the video game industry to see what they can do on that front as well. This is going to be an ongoing process and something that we don’t expect to happen overnight, but something that we’re going to continue to be engaged in and continue to look for the best ways possible to make sure we’re doing everything we can to protect schools across the country.”
Video games have had a formalized rating system, administered by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, since 1994. The rating system established by the ESRB is designed to inform and educate both players and parents in regards to the type of content featured in the game using generally applicable terms that can be utilized universally to all video games. Essentially, it provides parents with the power to be informed and dictate which games are appropriate for their children or other family members through easily identifiable icons as well as clear, concise content descriptions.
President Clinton (on June 1, 1999) requested that the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice conduct studies of the marketing of violent entertainment media to youths and designated $1 million dollars of federal funding towards such experiments (Grier 2001, 123).
The problem is that research in the past by the Clinton Administration has indicated that there is next to no causal link between violence in video games and school shootings. Blaming the media and the video game industry is but a mere scapegoat which will inhibit researching actual underlying causes of why individuals like 19-year-old Nikolas Jacob Cruz would pick up a gun and start attacks in the first place...if anything, these games and media portrayals of violence might enhance or exacerbate these feelings of rage or violent tendencies, but these games can not be considered the root cause.
I personally do not foresee new research indicating anything different. As it stands, it is already difficult to do longitudinal studies because of practical and ethical reasons. Researchers cannot force participants to play the same game for weeks months, or years on end without a multitude of repercussions (i.e. fatigue, monotony, etc.).
It’s unclear what role, if any, video games played in the Parkland incident. Nikolas Jacob Cruz allegedly pulled a fire alarm before gunning down his classmates with an AR-15-style assault weapon. Perhaps that act, in and of itself, was a last ditch effort to warn his peers, a sort of "cry for help" from an emotionally and psychologically disturbed individual.
The problem is that research in the past by the Clinton Administration has indicated that there is next to no causal link between violence in video games and school shootings. Blaming the media and the video game industry is but a mere scapegoat which will inhibit researching actual underlying causes of why individuals like 19-year-old Nikolas Jacob Cruz would pick up a gun and start attacks in the first place...if anything, these games and media portrayals of violence might enhance or exacerbate these feelings of rage or violent tendencies, but these games can not be considered the root cause.
I personally do not foresee new research indicating anything different. As it stands, it is already difficult to do longitudinal studies because of practical and ethical reasons. Researchers cannot force participants to play the same game for weeks months, or years on end without a multitude of repercussions (i.e. fatigue, monotony, etc.).
It’s unclear what role, if any, video games played in the Parkland incident. Nikolas Jacob Cruz allegedly pulled a fire alarm before gunning down his classmates with an AR-15-style assault weapon. Perhaps that act, in and of itself, was a last ditch effort to warn his peers, a sort of "cry for help" from an emotionally and psychologically disturbed individual.
After all, one must ask why would one try to alert others before committing such a horrendous crime? Perhaps some shred of human decency tried to grasp his consciousness before he fired that first shot. We won't truly know until we can investigate further into the human psyche and the events leading up to this devastating tragedy.
There are still, as of yet, no definitive studies available that adequately determines a causal relationship between violent video games and violent acts or crime. Yet, media journalists, political activists, and parents alike continue use violent video games as a political scapegoat for our violent culture despite a severe lack of etiological evidence.
Works Cited
PBSNewsHour. 1 Mar. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ0xWWlpwqU&feature=youtu.be&t=5m39s. Accessed 1 Mar. 2018.
Sonya A. Grier (2001) The Federal Trade Commission’s Report on the Marketing of Violent Entertainment to Youths: Developing Policy-Tuned Research. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing: Spring 2001, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 123-132.
There are still, as of yet, no definitive studies available that adequately determines a causal relationship between violent video games and violent acts or crime. Yet, media journalists, political activists, and parents alike continue use violent video games as a political scapegoat for our violent culture despite a severe lack of etiological evidence.
Works Cited
PBSNewsHour. 1 Mar. 2018, www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ0xWWlpwqU&feature=youtu.be&t=5m39s. Accessed 1 Mar. 2018.
Sonya A. Grier (2001) The Federal Trade Commission’s Report on the Marketing of Violent Entertainment to Youths: Developing Policy-Tuned Research. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing: Spring 2001, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 123-132.
