Ars has extensively covered the attempts to legislate restrictions on violent video games and the ambiguous science that supports those efforts. An aspect of this that frequently escapes analysis is why these legislative efforts gain so much traction despite their lack of a solid scientific foundation. Writing in the journal Contexts, USC sociology lecturer Karen Sternheimer analyzes these efforts in terms of ongoing societal fears regarding the influence of media on children.
Sternheimer notes an obvious but underemphasized figure: despite the proliferation of violent, first-person shooters in the wake of Doom, juvenile homicide rates have fallen in the decade since its release. Random school shootings remain incredibly rare; for all forms of homicide, students face a seven in 10 million chance of being a victim.
Random school shootings remain so rare, in fact, that Sternheimer reports that the FBI found it impossible to generate a profile of a "typical" shooter. This leads to a number of difficulties. Linking violence to the perpetrators' background might wind up revealing aspects of the shooter's predominantly white, middle-class origin that helped foster their violence. Nobody seems interested in doing this sort of analysis, perhaps in part because much of the media belongs to that same group.
This leaves people searching for specific influences, much as they tend to do in the far more common case of workplace shootings. Here, the author suggests we run into the biggest problem: society doesn't really understand its youth. As a result, adults fear their loss of control over the factors that influence childhood development in an increasingly connected world.
Far from being a new danger, the Sternheimer suggests that gaming is simply the latest in a long series of media influences to take the blame. "Over the past century, politicians have complained that cars, radio, movies, rock music, and even comic books caused youth immorality and crime, calling for control and sometimes censorship." She terms the targets of such efforts "folk devils," items branded dangerous and immoral that serve to focus blame and fear.
These folk devils can be used for political advancement or financial gain via lawsuits such as those that have targeted game makers. But, based on Sternheimer's description, their primary function appears to be to distract people from identifying the real causes underlying our discomfort with youth culture. It also may distract people from getting to know their kids.
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