Video games and movies are widely renowned as some of the best entertainment you can get, catered towards many different audiences and people.
But is there something more to it? Are audiences being manipulated by this media to inspire criminal activity in younger, more susceptible and vulnerable people? Are companies selling a violent fantasy, one that paints violence and brutality in a much brighter light than meets the eye? Let's take a look at a few case studies and examples to see where these assumptions and ideas came from.
Firstly, where did this idea originate from, the proverbial Patient Zero?
The earliest instance I can think of where this came from might have been the 1999 Columbine High School Massacre, which was often cited as the 'most deadly school shooting in the U.S.' at the time.
The shooting was theorised to have been influenced, or even caused by violent video games and movies. However, no clear correlation was able to be made between the tragedy and violence in video games.
In my opinion, it isn't really fair to place the blame on video games and movies, especially when there is little to no evidence available to prove that the two subjects are related. What happened was terrible, and should have never happened, but it isn't likely that the whole thing was caused by violence in video games and movies, since there isn't much evidence to say it was.
Another case study that was definitely inspired by a video game, though not necessarily a violent video game, was the 'Slender Man stabbing'.
If you are unaware, Slender Man is a fictional character which originated from a photoshop competition that became an Internet phenomenon. This is because of the odd and creepy appearance of the character, with it having a blank, white face and a long, black body. The character was then used for a series of horror games, the 'Slender' games, in which you have to collect seven pages of a notebook, each with ominous and ambiguous messages on, which then recieved a movie based off of the character.
The stabbing took place in 2014, in which two twelve-year-old girls reportedly lured their best friend into the woods and stabbed her 19 times. This was done to try to prove that Slender Man was real, which it isn't. Thankfully, the victim recovered in hospital six days later, and was able to survive the stabbing.
Later, it was discovered that one of the people responsible was mentally ill at the time, and the other was sentenced to 40 years in a psychiatric hospital after the stabbing.
In my opinion, based off of all of what I have researched, I think that these two culprits were latching onto a fictional entity due to their own mental illness, although the stabbing was inspired by the character.
There have been many other instances in which video games and movies have been blamed for criminal activity, for example, car theft being inspired by Grand Theft Auto, and FPSs (first-person shooters) being the cause for violence and aggression in teenagers and the like.
Take from this what you will, but I'm of the opinion that media cannot always be blamed for the mistakes and crimes of others. In the end, the person that commits the crime has the fault placed on themselves, and it was their own decision to do whatever they did. Video games, movies, TV shows and others are not an excuse for you to do whatever you like.
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