Over the past year, countless children and adults have tuned into the game Fortnite, a free-to-play battle royale game that allows players to compete with others around the world. The game is fun and features some cartoonish violence, which has led many to worry about whether such games are problematic.

Inevitable anecdotes have popped up of some children behaving badly in relation to the game such as the British girl who is said to have wet herself rather than stop playing. Do these anecdotes hint towards a coming epidemic of violent or addicted children?

Fortnite has parents worried.

Simply put: no. Society has an unfortunate habit of going a bit bonkers whenever new technology comes out that children consume in droves. Remember Pokemon Go from two years ago and all the dangers it heralded? Nothing notable came of it in the end.

Regarding violent content, the evidence is now pretty clear. Research does not show that violent games predict later youth violence. Long-term outcome studies increasingly show that playing “violent” games is not a risk factor for antisocial youth.