Talk show host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, speaking on Fox & Friends following the horrific shooting in Washington, D.C. yesterday, suggested that people who play video games should be monitored.
“What about frequency testing?" she asked. (Video above.) "How often has this game been played? I’m not one to get in there and monitor everything, but if this indeed is a strong link, right, to mass killings then why aren’t we looking at frequency of purchases per person? And also, how often they’re playing and how many—maybe they time out after a certain hour.”
By now it's a familiar story: when tragedy happens, the fingers get to pointing. But to suggest that there's a link between mass murder and video games, and that peoples' video game habits should be monitored? When all we have here is correlation? When actual researchers are divided on the subject of whether video games lead to aggression? And when there's no scientific research linking games to violence at all?
It's sometimes hard to believe these people really exist.
For a more reasonable perspective, here's an ex-FBI profiler speaking on CNBC: