Poll: US Adults Think Video Games Lead To Violence But Can't Be Bothered To Understand ESRB Ratings

from the wait,-what? dept

Mon, Mar 4th 2013 8:54am — Timothy Geigner

It just keeps coming. More and more news items are hitting my eyeballs and ears about violence and video games. We recently discussed the problem with polling adults over this issue, where a giant age-rift still exists amongst gaming habits and that rift appeared to be tossed out for the purposes of the poll in question. Polls like that might be laughable at first, but when you begin to see misplaced legislation introduced by politicians kowtowing to the results, we've got a problem. But let's take it one possibly controversial step further and ask an important question regarding these polls: do Americans generally have any credibility on the question at all?

Polls like this recent Harris poll, where over half of American adults link violence and video games, make me question whether that is the case. The problem I have isn't that specific result. If half of Americans think there's a link, that's their right. I can disagree with it, but I won't quibble with their right to believe. No, my problem is the results of the follow up questions regarding the ESRB rating system.

Two thirds of US adults said they used the ESRB system to help them decide which games were suitable for their children, although only 14 percent claimed to fully understand what the guidelines meant. 18 percent of adult said they mostly, but not completely understood the ESRB ratings system.

To highlight the absurdity of the respondents, one needs only place all this in a single sentence. Over half of adults believe violence and video games are linked, two thirds of them use an ESRB system, which less than 80% even claim to mostly understand, to decide which games to buy for their children. This isn't to say that the ESRB rating convention isn't without its problems, but come on. If half of adults think there's a link between children and violence, but can't be bothered to mostly understand the rating system (which isn't that complicated), then there's a disconnect somewhere. Either adults don't actually think the link exists, or else they don't really consider the link to be all that important.

Either way, it doesn't speak to the credibility of the American public on the issue, which is sad.

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Filed Under: adults, esrb, esrb ratings, parents, ratings, video games, violence

47 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:01am

Why don't guns have a rating system?
As long as children can't get their hands on guns rated "M" there won't be any massacres. Just a warning though, guns rated "AO" are generally porn.
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- Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:47am
  
  Re: Why don't guns have a rating system?
  And don't forget, as long as kids don't get their hands on 'R' rated games they won't be raping anyone.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
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out_of_the_blue, 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:01am

No, Timmy, what's laughable is how young fools believe you know better:
Without bothering to conform to sensible standards. Example in point, your "cow-towing" should be:

kowtow ═ n. the act of kneeling and touching the ground with the forehead to show great deference, submissive respect, homage, etc., as formerly in China vi. 1. to perform a kowtow 2. to show servile respect (to)

So, KEEP TOWING THOSE COWS, TIMMY! (May be code for one of his bizarre sex acts...)
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- Dark Helmet (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:04am
  
  Re: No, Timmy, what's laughable is how young fools believe you know better:
  Thanks for alerting me to my incorrect usage/spelling of the term, OOTB. I'll make the edit and compliment you on catching it. Always appreciate learning from my mistakes.
  
  Thanks!
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  - crade (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:10am
    
    Re: Re: No, Timmy, what's laughable is how young fools believe you know better:
    Don't worry, it's just a phonetic that tries to sound like a chinese word anyway, the only correct spelling is in chinese :)
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    - Dark Helmet (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:13am
      
      Re: Re: Re: No, Timmy, what's laughable is how young fools believe you know better:
      Meh, it happens, I guess. Thinking back, I don't think I've ever attempted to use kowtow, or cow-tow, in the written word. It's admittedly hard to live up to OOTB's standards, still we can but try....
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      - Greg G, 4 Mar 2013 @ 10:22am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: No, Timmy, what's laughable is how young fools believe you know better:
        And I thought cow-towing was just what you did after cow-tipping.
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        Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2013 @ 3:27am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: No, Timmy, what's laughable is how young fools believe you know better:
        Yeah but you need a really big leash.
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  - Ninja (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:22am
    
    Re: Re: No, Timmy, what's laughable is how young fools believe you know better:
    DH I don't think that specific term is the best here. When I first read the article I pictured a line of cows being guided all tied to each other (before the correction). Which seems much more on par with what you mean than the definition of kowtow. The term does not exist on the dictionary but I've checked and it is used precisely with that specific intent as some sort of slang.
    
    It's yet another lame attempt of attacking whatever he can. Because he has no argument.
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- Ninja (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:12am
  
  Re: No, Timmy, what's laughable is how young fools believe you know better:
  Ran out of targets to attack so now you are resorting to these petty non-issues? Look for towing in the dictionary. Maybe you can even find some irony in the term when related to politicians... And yourself ;)
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- Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 10:28am
  
  Re: No, Timmy, what's laughable is how young fools believe you know better:
  Sorry has MAC address isn't registered with dictionary.com so he couldn't look it up.
  
  AHAHAHAHAHAHA youre a fool.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:05am

"US Adults Think Video Games Lead To Violence But Can't Be Bothered To Understand ESRB Ratings"

And yet they think being able to walk into Walmart and buy a gun is perfectly fine.

Americans are funny.
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- silverscarcat (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:09am
  
  Re:
  I have no problems with guns. Guns sit there and look pretty...
  
  Idiots, on the other hand, I have a problem with.
  
  It's those idiots that make the rest of us look bad.
  
  And sadly, idiots are very, very loud.
  
  And messy.
  
  And sadly, some idiots got into power and took away money from mental hospitals where all the crazy idiots were at, now they're on the streets again and causing troubles.
  
  Yeah, prison works *soo* much better, doesn't it?
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  - Zakida Paul (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:11am
    
    Re: Re:
    Same here. I would not favour gun bans, but I would favour mandatory background checks and psyche evals for all sales. Giving guns to crazy people is just stupid.
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  - btrussell (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 11:39am
    
    Re: Re:
    "Guns sit there and look pretty..."
    
    I wish we could hang them on the wall here again. Legally.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:07am

This sort of poll is dangerous when in the hands of politicians as it feeds their prejudices, without giving any valuable information.
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squall_seawave (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:08am

well in my opinion i think the violence is not generated by videogames instead is generated by bad parenting i dont know maybe if a parent test a game before giving it to their children maybe if they researched the game before buying it and maybe if they talked with their children and get to know them then violence would go down
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- Zakida Paul (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:10am
  
  Re:
  I would blame mental health issues before I would blame bad parenting. Sometimes these issues are cause by bad/negligent parents but quite often they are not.
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  - monkyyy, 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:39am
    
    Re: Re:
    bad parenting causes mental health issues, in the topic of school shooting u need bad parenting and bad genes(or serous brain damage)
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    - Zakida Paul (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:42am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      "bad parenting causes mental health issues"
      
      Not always. I have met people who have had truly awful childhoods who grew up to be normal, healthy, well rounded adults.
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      - Bengie, 4 Mar 2013 @ 10:48am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        Corner cases.
        
        Optimize for the average case which is bad parenting.
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Mr. Smarta** (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:10am

That's nothing
That's nothing. The real problem is that 100% of video gamers play video games. That's a horrid statistic as if video games make people more violent, then we're headed for a revolution. For crying out loud!!! Do you realize just how bad it would be for Sim City gamers to venture out of their homes after a 96-hour gaming spree and violently build a city??? OMFG!!! How terrible!!! And let's not forget the violent outbursts of those Angry Bird gamers. They might start buying shotguns and shooting sparrows or pidgeons off their roof!! Could you imagine the horror of seeing our children... OUR CHILDREN... playing Call of Duty games and suddenly signing up to fight in the Armed Forces just to go over and kill every terrorist they can find??

I mean, just look at the older generation! All those years of playing "Pole Position" in the arcades, and today those people who drove a digital car for endless hours while plunking in thousands of dollars in quarters and THEY'RE ON OUR ROADS DRIVING!!! Not to mention the Tennis players who go ballistic on the courts throwing tantrums, smashing their rackets, and flipping off the referee only to be fined heavily for their outbursts. You know what caused that???

PONG!!!! Hours and hours of PONG! Violently hitting a ball back and forth! Yeah, I'd lose it too. I always wondered why I wanted to break my badmitton racket in two during Phys. Ed. and stab someone in the neck with it.

It all makes perfect sense now. -.-
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:14am

Should be reworded to:

Poll: US Adults prefer to blame media rather than their complete lack of ability as parents.

or

Poll: US Adults think being able to buy guys with freedom doesn't cause violence, but shooting people in the head in a VIDEO GAME does.

Murica, we love you.
Regards,
The world.
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- Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:16am
  
  Re:
  Too bad can't edit, *guys = guns
  
  Sort of a funny typo, oh well, what can I do.
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- DannyB (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:23am
  
  Re:
  > Poll: US Adults prefer to blame media rather than
  > their complete lack of ability as parents.
  
  What magic did these pollsters use to get parents to stop entertaining themselves and momentarily disengage from their selfish pursuits long enough to make a decision on whether they blame media or not for their lack of parental ability?
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  - btrussell (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 11:43am
    
    Re: Re:
    They polled the snowbirds in Florida.
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John Fenderson (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:18am

I do think there's a link...
..but it doesn't mean what a lot of people think it means.

I believe there's sufficient evidence to postulate that people who are prone to violent action are attracted to violent things, including violent video games, movies, books, etc.

There's little evidence to indicate that those things are likely to make them more violent, though. And there's no evidence to indicate that a person who is not predisposed to violent action will become violent because of those things.

This is a classic correlation vs causation logical error.
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- Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:32am
  
  Re: I do think there's a link...
  My understanding is there was a study on this. I believe (like what you're saying) there was a finding that people who likely to do things like mass shootings were more likely to play violent video games. However, on the flip side, playing videos games in general had no impact on a person's desire to do something like a mass shooting.
  
  In other words, it's a characteristic, but not a cause of the effect that is trying to be stopped.
  
  The typical politician "there is a link, let's axe it!" response has been generated from these results. Good thing I don't try to make logical sense of politics, otherwise I'd have one hell of a constant headache.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:25am

"which less than 80% even claim to mostly understand"

Sorry to nitpick, but 14% + 18% = 32%. While 32% is indeed less than 80%, I think something went wrong when typing a number somewhere.
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- Dark Helmet (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:27am
  
  Re:
  "18 percent of adult said they mostly, but not completely understood the ESRB ratings system."
  
  Means that 82% don't even claim to mostly understand the ratings. What am I missing?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:37am
    
    Re: Re:
    You claimed that less than 80% mostly understood. That's backwards from what I assume you were trying to claim (that less than 20% mostly understood.)
    
    But what you are MISSING is the 14% who claimed to completely understand. The 18% who claimed to mostly understand is on top of that. So, 32% total claimed to either mostly or completely understand. That's still bad, but not AS bad.
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    - Dark Helmet (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:42am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Ah ha! I didn't realize those were supposed to add together. I have to look it over to make sure, but you may indeed be correct....
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      - Niall (profile), 5 Mar 2013 @ 5:17am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        18% of Tims mostly understand statistics about ESRB ratings... :)
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- Ninja (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:27am
  
  Re:
  I think that was on purpose.
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Ninja (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:26am

Repeat that poll among people in their 30s. You'll see very different results.

Yet another example of old people afraid of what they don't understand.
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Wally (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:44am

I will say this once and I will say this amillion times over....
The entire reason adults have a hard time making head and tail of the ESRB rating system for video games...is because they are jaded by the ever-changing MPAA rating system.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 9:54am

I bet if you polled adults in the 1690s more than half of them would say that witches existed.

You can't exactly poll public opinion to use as factual evidence. Most people are just going to mimicry the media.
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- Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 10:10am
  
  Re:
  "You can't exactly poll public opinion to use as factual evidence."
  
  No, but you can use this poll to identify where people might perhaps need to be educated.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 11:07am
    
    Re: Re:
    You can use this to find out where you can enact laws that pander to public opinion.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 10:15am

Your average kid after playing violent video games won't shoot mom in the face and then go out and kill kids at a school.

On the other hand a Petsele taking psychotropic serotonin re-uptake inhibitors just might act out a violent video game.

I would appear that all the crazies that have shoot up various venues were in the later group.

One of the many warnings involved with these drugs is the sudden onset of Suicidal ideation. When the brains give a fuck switch is turned off by these drugs, what can it lead to?
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gorehound (profile), 4 Mar 2013 @ 11:41am

I will continue to play Mass Effect.All Cerebus Troops will now be known as Dis-Informative Mass Consumer Forces.
The Reapers will be known as The Politicians.

I am now going to smoke some Weed and Save the Universe.

Hello I'm Commander Shepard and you can all Embrace Eternity !
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 1:07pm

That link starts playing audio ads immediately and I couldn't find any way to shut it off. After sitting through 2-1/2 ads I gave up on finding the mute button and closed the tab.

So much for reading TFA.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 1:51pm

What? Why should i be responsible for raising my own offspring?! Damnit that's what the TV is for, Obama! Take care of my kids, I need to pretend I'm not a parent.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 2:36pm

"Either way, it doesn't speak to the credibility of the American public on the issue, which is sad."

Actually, I'm quite confident it speaks DIRECTLY to the credibility of the American public on the issue, which is much sadder.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Mar 2013 @ 4:44pm

If you can't tell the difference between a video game and real life, you got more problems than a video game. Maybe we should be asking the politicians where is the funding for public mental health institutions?

I gotta tell ya, I love just the sort of games they want to make sound like is the recipe for violence. I've spent a good amount of time in the military service, shooting weapons of all kinds. I have no inclination to go rob someone, go shoot someone, or even cause someone problems for the heck of it.

If anything, I'm more relaxed because I've taken all my aggressions out on the bad guys in a video game and have no need to do it elsewhere. It sure costs a lot less than buying weapons and ammunition.
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I'm American and I think we're dumb., 5 Mar 2013 @ 7:25am

There has to be a different method.
Even though the uneducated adults think that video games lead to violence, I think the protestors need to push more about games other than violence. For example... just because I play Skyrim constantly on my days off, doesn't mean you'll ever see me charging through the woods with a bow, firing arrows off at every thing that moves.

I have a friend who is freakishly obsessed with wrestling and football games, and he's a scrawny theater major. You don't see those games bulking him up so he can play in the NFL or in WWE. Not happening.

Or even more extreme - Harvest Moon (or for more internet savvy persons, the similar, but far less fun, Farmville). Just because I play Harvest Moon, doesn't mean I'm going to go run off and marry a doctor, while also raising sixteen cows, eight chickens, while also somehow being able to earn thousands of dollars a day just by growing vegetables.

Why can't we push more for what all games don't do? Those politicians and the uneducated adults say CoD and Gears of War and every other game with a gun will make people violent. But if that's true, why am I not a thief with awesome archery skills, that can also run a multi-million dollar farm. (I so wish I was.)
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Just Another Moron In A Hurry, 5 Mar 2013 @ 8:16am

34% of Adults
I don't know if I'm quite as concerned as Tim is by the idea that 34% of Adults don't know how the ESRB system works.

I wouldn't say I fully understand it myself. I understand the basic principles, and I feel comfortable enough to utilize it proficiently, but I wouldn't be considered an expert about the mechanics behind why one game is rated M and another isn't.

I wonder what the other options were? Was there an option that says "I know enough about it to use it properly"? If so, I would expect a majority of people to select that one.
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