Some media outlets will have you believe that violent video games cause all sorts of social problems.
Truth is, there is little data to support such a claim, and plenty to suggest it's actually the complete opposite.
The Washington Post has conducted a comparison of 10 countries, including Australia and the US, looking at game spending per capita compared to gun-related murder rates.
Basically, the comparison looks to demonstrate if countries where games are popular have high crime rates.
Turns out they don't.
The data shows that eight of the 10 countries that spend the most on games have less than one gun-related murder per 100,000 people.
Surprisingly, the US does not spend the most money on games per capita, ahead of only China, and yet it has the highest rate of gun-related crime by far, hovering around 3.25 per 100,000.
Australia is the sixth highest spender on games but has a gun-related crime rate of under 0.5 per 100,000 people.
This all means that the US, which is trumped by nine other countries when it comes to spending on games, has a gun-related murder rate that has no direct correlation with violent video games.
By Gaetano Prestia