President Donald Trump met with video game executives and watchdog groups on Thursday at the White House to talk about gun violence, one of a series of meetings planned by the White House in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., school shootings.
The meeting started with the showing of a series of particularly violent video clips, according to two participants who were there, Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center and Melissa Henson, program director of the Parents Television Council. Both are media watchdog groups.
[...] "This is not a simple thing," Bozell told Variety. "This is not to say that the video game industry is the alpha and omega of the problem, but they have to be part of the discussion."
[...] The White House released a statement afterward. "The conversation centered on whether violent video games, including games that graphically simulate killing, desensitize our community to violence." They also released the video that was shown.
The White House posted the video to YouTube. As of this submission, it's got 53 kilodislikes.
If game industry representatives hoped their meeting with President Trump today would help change his mind after recent statements of concern over violence in video games, they came away sorely disappointed. In a statement following that meeting, the White House said that President Trump "acknowledged some studies have indicated there is a correlation between video game violence and real violence."
"During today's meeting, the group spoke with the president about the effect that violent video games have on our youth, especially young males," the White House statement reads. "The conversation centered on whether violent video games, including games that graphically simulate killing, desensitize our community to violence. This meeting is part of ongoing discussions with local leaders and Congress on issues concerning school and public safety and protecting America's youth."
The White House statement goes against the overwhelming consensus of the research community, which has shown wide agreement that exposure to violent games in youth has little to no relationship with violent outcomes later in life.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Wednesday March 14 2018, @10:59PM
No, they're not. They're a lobbying group that represents about 5 million citizens and a few big corporations that pretends to represent the opinions of the other 95 million or so people who own guns. Even though in surveys a substantial percentage of those 95 million would like the NRA to go die in a fire and are demanding increased gun regulations. I have no problem with the NRA saying its piece. I do have a problem with an organization representing maybe 2% of the population having an absolute stranglehold on an area of public policy.
For comparison's sake: Let's say an organization a similar size to the NRA was allowed to dictate a different area of public policy. Say, PETA (6.5 million members), getting the right to set all agriculture regulations, without any consideration whatsoever given to farmers, 4-H programs, Smithfield, fast food restaurants, etc. I'm guessing you'd think that was completely idiotic. And you'd be right.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.