[hda2]

> The modern thinking is that it supports and encourages a behavior that can lead to actual violence.

Hasn't this nonsense been thoroughly debunked by multiple studies at this point? I would assume evidence and "modern thinking" supports the exact opposite of what you claim, unless by modern thinking you mean the same thinking that tries to hide research they don't like.

Video games do not cause violence. End of story.

[GauntletWizard]

The pleasure centers activated by videogames and pornography are quite radically different; I would not assume that the reactions to simulated sexuality is the same as simulated violence.

[hda2]

Then ban porn especially skits that depict actions that society deems deplorable like suffocation and rape, or are the pleasure centers for those also different.

> I would not assume that the reactions to simulated sexuality is the same as simulated violence.

A would not assume anything. Conduct research and draw conclusions. Don't speculate.

[kmeisthax]

People who had no clue what videogames were, were the ones arguing that playing a violent video game would make you want to commit actual violence. The counterargument that players made was that they could "tell reality from fiction" - i.e. that when they played Mortal Kombat or Call of Duty, they put their "Real Life" brain away and put on their "Fictional Video Game" brain, so videogames can't make people violent.

This is the right conclusion, but the logic is entirely wrong.

The reason why video games do not cause violence is that play violence is not anywhere close to the real thing, not that people firewall off fiction from reality. There's plenty of cases in which a piece of fiction has changed people's views! Crime shows are notorious for skewing how actual juries rule on cases. Perry Mason[0] taught them to expect dramatic confessions and CSI[1] taught them to weigh whiz-bang forensics over other kinds of evidence.

In the specific case of porn, there isn't really a difference between "play sex" and "real sex": they poke the same regions of your brain. And the people who are responsible for keeping actual pedophiles from reoffending are pretty much unanimous that the worst thing you can do is give them a bunch of, uh... let's call it "material". So if you're already a pedophile, giving you access to simulated CSAM won't substitute for the real thing. It'll just desensitize you to reoffending.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Mason_syndrome

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSI_effect

[hda2]

A lot of claims and no supporting research. My position is clear: You need to give clear evidence that X causes harmful Y before we can discuss banning X. We don't ban X because you and I find it deplorable.

>> Conduct research and draw conclusions. Don't speculate.