This morning, President of the United States Donald Trump mentioned videogames and movies as possible causes for violence among young kids and teenagers. (source: CNN)

During a conference at the White House, Trump stated that: “The young kid’s minds are being formed. Maybe we need to do something about what they’re seeing and how they’re seeing it” then he continues on by saying “and videogames, more and more people say the level of violence in videogames is really shaping young people’s thoughts”.

Obviously, this statement is completely false. As proved over the last two decades by dozens and dozens of studies made by psychologists and experts, child behavior and videogames have no association whatsoever. In 2013, the results of a decade-long study in the UK — that monitored 11.000 children in order to understand the influence of videogames in psychosocial development — was published in the British Medical Journal, proving that videogames have no effect on the emotional issues, behavior and attention of children from the age of five on. On the other hand, more studies in the past exposed evidence on how videogames can increase memory formation, goal-directed reaction times, spacial orientation, and also help dyslexic children read better.

That is enough proof to understand that, in the worst case scenario, videogames are just plain harmless.

Additionally, the statement that videogames are “increasingly getting more violent” makes no sense either: games containing violence and gore have been around since the 80’s, and nothing has ever changed since then in terms of content: just like any other medium, videogames are divided by genres, including action-driven and horror titles that obviously feature violent scenes and actions.

President Trump then proceeded to attack movies as well, ultimately stating that both videogames and cinematic productions need rating systems. Problem with this statement is the President’s ignorance, as rating systems for both mediums already exist in America since a long time ago: the Rating System for movies was established by the Motion Picture Association of America in 1968, while the Entertainment Software Rating Board (better known as ESRB) for videogames has been around since 1994.

Naturally, it is up to the children’s parents to respect those ratings. If a twelve years-old kid somehow comes back home with a copy of GTA V, it’s the parent’s duty to take that copy and bring it back to the store, or even better, to totally prevent the kid from getting his/her hands on a 17+ rated-game (or movie). Paying attention to what an underage kid is watching on the web is obviously a parent’s obligation too, and with the million “family filters” featured in services such as Netflix — as well as on mobile operative systems and game consoles — letting a young kid or a children access violent and graphic content these days is just plain bad parenting. President Donald Trump would feel so relieved if he knew that everything necessary to prevent a children or a young kid to access violent content already exists: it’s a shame he’s not aware of it.

The world moved on from the “videogames are bad for children” phase a long time ago. The reason why the President of the United States brought it up from the grave is clear though: when in a chaotic situation, especially if triggered by tragic events, pointing the finger at external elements that can be subject to moral critics is always an easy but ultimately senseless way to avoid the acknowledgement of what the real problem is. Hopefully, the President of the United States will stop worrying about things such as Call of Duty’s Zombie mode, and take care of the real issues causing violence among young kids and adults alike.