Whether or not violence and video games have any real correlation, more than half of US adults seem to believe they do, according to a new Harris Poll.
According to the poll, nearly 58 percent of adult Americans believe that there is a correlation between violence and video games.
The problem suggested by the poll though arises from the lack of knowledge that a good portion of parents of game-playing youth seem to have. Nearly 38 percent do not know about the ESRB rating system for video games, and 33 percent let their children play whatever they want.
"The findings underscore the lack of awareness Americans have about the video game rating system, as well as the confusion in the market,” Harris Poll president Mike de Vere said in a statement. “They also factor into a larger discussion playing out across our country and on a political stage around how violent games impact our youth."
This is not a universal fact though, as 66 percent of households with game-playing children use the ESRB’s guidelines to help make decisions.
A copy of the survey was released to VentureBeat, but the full results will be released on Wednesday.
Whether the results of the survey will affect the current discussion of the state of violence and video games in our country remains to be seen, but it seems to bring attention to the educational aspect of the debate. In order to make a proper point, we need to know about the game industry.
