By: Thomas Horvath

The recent announcement of GTA VI, the next installment in the acclaimed Grand Theft Auto franchise, was given a release year of 2025. The internet erupted at the news, and many fans young and old could hardly hold in their excitement. While the GTA series is popular, it’s also one of the most controversial video game series of all time, often being used as the main offense in the never-ending debate about whether video games cause real-world violence. Many people have a very black-or-white answer, but I personally believe there is validity to both arguments. 

I think that I side more with video games not causing real-world violence, but I see where many people are coming from on the other side as well. Most of these people are concerned parents who don’t want their children playing games where they can kill people, use all kinds of violent weapons, and objectify women. There have also been more and more mass shootings, with shooter games like GTA, Call of Duty, and Fortnite being some of the most played games in the world. Most mass shooters, specifically school shooters, are bullied kids who want to get revenge on everyone. These kids aren’t jock types and often are antisocial people who prefer to be at home on their computer. The main argument is that there is a clear link between violent video games becoming more popular with shootings becoming more common.

To show the perspective of the other side, some say that these parents are acting like this to get rid of their personal responsibilities as parents to monitor their children and decide what they are allowed to play and watch. Another argument is that the media has been violent since there has been media, yet people only have trouble when it’s video games. No kids have gone around stepping on turtles because of Mario, and most kids shouldn’t be playing games like GTA in the first place, but most aren’t going to hop in the driver’s seat of their mom’s car and go plow over some prostitutes walking down the side of the street. Many kids are not given enough credit for intelligence, and often adults have learned so much since being a child that they misremember their childhood and think they were truly dumb, but kids are much better at separating reality from fiction, even if they believe in Santa. As human beings with free will, there is no one right answer since people can act based on things statistics can’t analyze. Some kids may never play a video game in their life and go shoot up a school, and some other kids might do the same but love video games. I understand why many think getting rid of these games will help society, but as it currently stands, there is no concrete evidence linking violent games to violent people.