After such events as the London riots in 2011, many are looking into the controversy surrounding the effects of violent video games and the role these games play in modern society. As the graphics and intensity of video games have improved to make them staggering lifelike, the very much real debate has similarly escalated.

Firstly, it seems a common misconception that violent video games lead to aggression in youths, as research fails to establish a conclusive causal link between the two, and for some video games have become a scapegoat for our problems. A recent survey of a local school carried out by Guardian indicated that almost 90% of 16-year-olds have games consoles (Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3), and more than 88% of these youths regularly play games that have been certified for Over 18s only. Another study found that 90% of teenagers said that their parents “never” checked the age ratings of the games they were playing, so what is the utility of such certifications in our community?

Moreover, some have come to the generalisation that all video games are addictive and result in aggressive tendencies; however in many cases this is not true. Youths will usually not become addicted to the video games itself, but dependent on the adrenaline rush that intense games provide, especially First-Person Shooters. Violent video games can desensitise some from violence, but not other disturbing images, and the diminished brain responses to such violence may be correlated with hostile behaviour. A team, led by psychologist Bruce Bartholow, carried out an investigation into brain responses and decisions when confronted with violent media. Subjects who frequently played violent video games responded less to violent scenes (but not non-violent, disturbing scenes), and when subsequently given the opportunity to punish a fake opponent in another game, those with the greatest response reduction dished out the most severe punishments. Nonetheless, this may show that violent video games give players the chance to relieve themselves of built-up aggression, and reinforce the idea that violence only exists in virtual realms to the players. Furthering such an opinion, Dr. Christopher Ferguson (PhD) said, “Recent research has shown that as video games have become more popular, children in the United States and Europe are having fewer behaviour problems, are less violent and score better on standardised tests.” However, this conclusion lacks validity, as there is a broad spectrum of video games, of which violent ones are only a fraction, which may have influenced the above trends. Also, the aforementioned ‘consequences’ may be attributable to other advances in these last few decades, coinciding with the rise of video games.

In response to Dr. Ferguson’s study, a popular psychological model of personality traits, called the Five-Factor Model, was used by Dr. Patrick Markey to establish that violent video games can amplify aggressive predispositions and reduce pro-social behaviour in teenagers. Analysis of the model showed that the teenagers who were highly neurotic or temperamental, less agreeable and less conscientious tended to be most adversely affected by violent video games, whereas the same video games did not yield such profound or lasting effects on others, without such susceptibility. Markey and Ferguson concluded that violent video games will not be detrimental to the general public, however those with pre-existing propensities will be more vulnerable to the effects of violent media. This adds another element to the mix, as ‘media’ includes television, radio and the Internet. A study in Singapore concluded that Singapore’s lack of violent media (through censorship), has led to falling crime rates. Derren Brown’s TV show “The Experiments” demonstrated that deindividuation could have led to the riots as a masked studio audience decided the horrific fate of one contestant.

On the other hand, researched have also revealed that video games may serve a wide range of emotional, social and intellectual needs, including improving spatial skills and manual dexterity, acting as a health aid for diabetes or pain, and acting as a tool to complement treatment or therapy.

Overall, violent video games may have been part of the cause of the riots as they may have amplified the pre-existing aggressive traits in the minority who engaged in last year’s havoc. Yet, violent video games will not negatively affect the majority of youths, and this majority need not take part in the riots. A Reader’s Digest survey uncovered that on the whole world violence is declining, and the riots may have just been an unavoidable outburst from a minority.