Robert F. Kennedy Jr., head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, stated at a press conference that the National Institutes of Health will begin research into the possible link between gun violence and factors such as over-prescription of medication to children, social media, and video games.
The announcement came after the launch of the Make Our Children Healthy Again initiative — a government plan with a series of measures aimed at improving children's health. The government document emphasizes concern about time spent in front of screens and announces measures to raise awareness, but video games were not mentioned in the main report.
From a scientific point of view, studies show that the link between video games and aggressive behavior is complex: laboratory experiments sometimes record a short-term increase in aggression, but there is no convincing evidence that games directly cause violent crimes or mass shootings in real life. The distinction between "experimental aggression" and "real violence" is emphasized by academic organizations and analytical reviews.
Scientists also draw attention to the methodological difficulties in trying to link video games with rare events such as mass shootings: small samples, lack of control of social factors, and the primary role of access to weapons complicate conclusions about causality. Studies conducted, for example, by the Oxford Internet Institute, note these limitations.
