Published: September 22, 2022
By Movieguide® Contributor
A new study found that extremist groups use video games to recruit vulnerable youth.
The study aims to provide advice to parents who want to protect their children from these groups.
dr. Rachel Kowert, research director for Take thisa nonprofit mental health organization that reduces stigma and increases support for mental health in games, and Alex Newhouse, deputy director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counter Terrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, shared the joined forces on how extremist groups use gaming platforms.
“Personally, I’m targeting the far right — and it seems the far right is most interested in using gaming platforms,” Newhouse said. “But jihadists and Islamists – they also deal with gaming platforms. They’re trying to recruit teens and adolescents.”
While many believe that they and their loved ones are safe from extremist content, this is not always true.
The Anti-Defamation League has determined that about one in four people are exposed to white supremacist ideologies on the Internet, or about 54 million Americans.
“It’s a small group of people, but it’s a very powerful group of people,” said Dr. kowert. “It was so shocking to me that the number was 23 percent, that’s so high. How is that possible?”
Adding to this problem is the rise of gaming platforms. Many video game sites now have a social aspect, such as Roblox and Minecraft. Users connect with other players and sometimes forge friendships.
“The problem is that the growth of games’ social networking spaces has been exponentially faster than the way the game industry has kept up with their moderation,” explains Dr. Kowert out.
It can be hard to see someone targeting your child online, but Dr. Kowert did have some tips.
“They shouldn’t leave the game with a stranger — just like you shouldn’t leave the park with a stranger,” said Dr. kowert. “If someone says, ‘Hey, why don’t you leave this game room and join these other people on a third-party server,’ that’s usually a red flag, especially for younger kids.”
She also reminded people that the easiest way to remove yourself from bad situations is to remove yourself from the game.
“If things seem a little strange, the good thing about games is that you can just switch to another server or to a game, or mute that person or block that person,” said Dr. kowert. “You don’t have to come into contact with people who make you feel uncomfortable.”
Others try to fight these groups directly. Ryan Lo’Nee is a former neo-Nazi who was “deradicalized”. Now he works all his life for Parallel Networks, a counter-terrorism group.
“I was born and raised a Christian all my life,” Lo’Nee said. “I think what’s happening is that as Christians we can get tunnel vision and not open up to what other cultures do offer.” Lo’Ree went on to say, “I want it to shock people, I want them to know you can be anyone. No one is untouchable from these groups and what they offer.”
He continued: “I watched Jesus Christ when he didn’t go to churches to preach in front of the choir – he went out where people were having a hard time, like adulterers – Mary Magdalene and others. I firmly believe that humanity – we are supposed to treat each other with peace, kindness and love; and this lack of empathy that we have in our communities, I think is what drives us apart.”
Movieguide® formerly reported on the link between violence and the use of video games:
More American politicians and citizens, including Pres. Trump, call on the nation’s leaders and people to consider the effects of media violence on mass shootings, in the wake of three recent mass shootings in California and Ohio that killed 34 people and injured many more, in the span of just a week .
Thousands of studies have shown that depictions of violence in the mass media can lead to actual violent behavior among consumers of such violence, especially children and teenagers.
Two new double-blind studies, one on movies conducted in 2017 and a follow-up study on video games conducted in 2019, show that watching characters use guns in movies and video games can encourage children to use guns, Dr. Brad Bushman, Professor of Communications and Psychology at Ohio State University, reported in a recent Psychology Today article.
The 2017 study tested 104 children aged 8-12 in pairs who knew each other. The kids were “randomly assigned to watch a 20-minute clip from a PG movie with guns or the same clip with the guns mounted out.” After watching the clips, the children were able to play with toys for 20 minutes, with a real handicapped 9mm pistol hidden in a cupboard.
Bushman said 72 percent of the kids, 75 kids, found the gun.
“Kids who watched the movie clip with guns held the gun longer (53.1 seconds vs. 11.1 seconds),” Bushman writes, “and pulled the trigger more often (2.8 times vs. 0.01 times) than those who saw the same movie clip without weapons.”
Bushman adds, “A boy pointed the real gun out the lab window at people in the street.”
The 2019 video game study also tested 220 children aged 8-12 in pairs. However, in this study, the children played one of three versions of the same video game, a version in which the player could kill monsters with guns, one in which they could kill monsters with swords, and a version without weapons or monsters. There were also two pistols hidden in the toy cupboard.
“Children who played the video game with weapons held the gun longer (91.5 seconds versus 71.7 seconds in the sword condition and 36.1 seconds in the nonviolent condition), pulled the trigger more often (10.1 times versus 3 .6 times in the sword condition and 3.09 times in the nonviolent condition), including on themselves or their partner (3.4 times versus 1.5 times in the sword condition and 0.2 times in the nonviolent condition).”
Bushman concludes, “All together, these studies suggest that exposure to media violence may increase the dangerous behavior of children around real firearms.”
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