Tiga praises new game violence research

News

Ed Fear May 20 2008, 12:15pm

University of Essex's findings "help redress the balance", says Wilson

Tiga has come out in support of fresh research from the University of Essex claiming the link between video game violence and real-world aggression to be weak, calling it an "important contribution to the debate".

The research, published in the International Journal of Liability and Scientific Enquiry and written by Patrick Kierkegaard, suggests that there is very little evidence to link the two, and that previous research on the subject has suffered from a bias to the opposite conclusion.

“Kierkegaard’s argument that there is no obvious link between real-world violence statistics and video games is an important contribution to the debate on video games and violence," said Tiga CEO Richard Wilson.

"Too often video games are blamed for all manner of society’s ills. Kierkegaard’s research helps to redress the balance. No single piece of research will settle the issue concerning the influence of video games conclusively. The crucial points are that children and young people should be protected from viewing inappropriate content, while adult gamers should typically be free to play mature games.”