Although this video is from May 8, it just came to our attention and is important to address. Apparently, according to Fox News Super Smash Bros causes violence. Although they don’t outright say it, the image above says it all. It’s an indirect assertion, but an assertion none the less and needs to be addressed.
Among Fox News’ points are:
- Video Games are Murder Simulators
- There is a Link Between Violence and Video Games
- “Girls aren’t as into these video games, I’m sorry, as boys are”
And they include Super Smash Bros. in this category.
We’re going to break this down as best we can.
The point that video games are murder simulators is simply ridiculous. There are millions of people around the world who play video games, and how many of them go out and start shooting people? A minuscule percentage. War games are not murder simulators: war is not murder. In games like Grand Theft Auto, yes you can go around killing people, but, the broad statement that video games are murder simulators, meaning all video games are murder simulators, is a false statement.
There is no proven link between violence and video games. Recently the University of York conducted a study and found no evidence that video games are linked violence. Furthermore, anyone who states that video games cause violence is wrong. In order to prove video games cause violence, everyone who plays video games would need to commit violence. This is clearly not the case.
As a former clinical mental health counseling student, I know that in order to prove this you need a 1:1 correlation. You can never prove causation, only correlation. And even if there is a correlation, there are so many factors that come into play that you cannot prove that video games are linked to violent behavior, as no study has yet to prove this definitively and is continually used as a scapegoat for violent behavior.
The last point is actually incredibly far from the truth. Female gamers now make up roughly half of the gamer population. There are more women gamers than male gamers under the age of 18, which is a very interesting statistic.
This is just more misinformation by the mainstream media to scapegoat video games as causing violent behavior. The fact that they showed Super Smash Bros. in their segment tells you all you need to know about their motivations.
It’s laughable.