TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL)-- Vice President Joe Biden is meeting with leaders from the entertainment and gaming industry to look at the link between violence in movies and video games and real life violence.
It is the latest focal point in the debate between guns and violence.
Some argue there's a link between violence in video games and the urge to commit violence in real life.
Long time gamers like Michael Clark say they disagree.
“There's things in school today that are being taught that are more violent than video games. Even history class, you talk about war all the time and you won't let a kid play a video game?,” asked video game player Michael Clark.
“There is no credible link saying that because you watch this you will go out and kill somebody or engage in violent behavior or anything like that,” said psychologist Dr. Larry Kubiak.
He says as a society, we tend to look for easy fixes to problems but there is really no quick fix to a violent culture.
“People aren't willing to look beyond the surface to really identify what those are and what kinds of things we need to do and commit to doing,” he said.
He says when it comes to video games; the only issue would be someone with mental health issues, not capable of separating fantasy from reality.
“The important thing is can you differentiate reality from fantasy am I playing a game or is this a message of how I should deal with real people in my life. If that be the case then it could be problematic but for most people it certainly is not an issue,” he said.
And Dr. Kubiak says when it comes to the violence in our culture; we need to start by looking at the mental health issues that exist.
“Until we really look at how we raise our children, how we provide them the help when they have issues whether it be physical illness or mental illness, then we're going to continue to have these problems as a society,” he said.
