Many people are afraid that video games like Fortnite or Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) are making kids violent. However, people are starting to do studies and several have concluded that they doesn’t actually make kids violent.

       In April, a popular YouTuber named Game Theory, who made theories about games, hosted a survey where he asked people if they (1) played either both Fortnite or Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), neither, or one of these games and (2) how violent they were. He also had participants take another survey to determine personality. In his video “Does Fortnite Make Kids Violent?”, his results showed that the majority of the players who played both games were the people who were naturally aggressive and violent, and the people who played neither were naturally less aggressive and violent. This shows that the personalities existed prior to playing the games.       Though many people believe that Violent Video Games (VVG) make kids violent, sales of violent video games have significantly increased while violent juvenile crime rates have significantly decreased. According to www.procon.org, “Total US sales of video game hardware and software increased 204% from 1994 to 2014, reaching $13.1 billion in 2014, while violent crimes decreased 37% and murders by juveniles acting alone fell 76% in that same period.” This proves that while crimes by kids in the same age group as the ones that played VVG went down, the purchase amounts of these games went up. This may be because violent video games allow players to release their stress and anger (catharsis) in the game, leading to less real world aggression. So how could this lead to violence? If they are releasing their stress and anger, the urge to do a violent act should be less.

       About 97% of kids and teens in the world can tell the difference between virtual violence and violence in real life. Surprisingly, the World Health Association has made “Video Game Disorder” a mental health condition, but after reading this, do you think that is really necessary?