This is the fault of video games, episode 150. In the case of the murder of little Louise, 11, whose body was found on Saturday February 8 in a wood in Essonne, in Longjumeau, the Minister of the ‘Interior Bruno Retailleau made a remarkable outing. “Can we kill an 11 year old child because we lost, was upset, frustrated by dint of addiction to video games? Which shows that screens, video games, you have to be very careful” , he declared this Wednesday, February 12 at the microphone of France Inter. The Minister thus mentioned a potential explanation of the act of the main suspect, Owen L. 23 years old, this man who presents marks of scratches in the arms and whose DNA was found on the hands of the girl, admitted the facts, announced the public prosecutor.
The Minister of the Interior thus performs a track advanced by the investigators: the young man would have had a violent anger after a defeat in the online game Fortnite And would have come out to calm down, before crossing Louise. “This is based at this stage on declarations that must be taken with caution, one cannot further advance on the mobile”, nevertheless nuances a source close to the file with the Parisian.
Breivik, Merah, riots: the scapegoat
The catchphrase is not new. Each violent event that shakes the news, video games sooner or later appear on the accused’s bench. The examples are legion: from Breivik to Merah via the attacks of November 13, 2015, when Nicolas Sarkozy attacked “the incredible violence of video games”, or after the riots following the death of Nahel, when Emmanuel Macron had estimated that social networks and video games “intoxicate” young people …
As always, it should be recalled that the assertion that video games can push to murder is not demonstrated by any scientific study and that it is, rather, an attempt to divert the subject of the real Problems, either vulnerability factors such as intra -family violence, educational inequalities, poverty, the lack of means of psychiatry in France, even taboo on these diseases, etc.
Scientific facts are stubborn
We can first remember that 94 % of 15-17 year olds play video games, according to A mediametry study For the union of leisure software publishers. Of course, among video game players, there are violent people, or with mental disorders or even psychiatric pathologies. Like among dough eaters or tennis players. But correlation does not cause causality, as it sometimes becomes boring, even tiring, constantly explaining it. Thus, two phenomena can be correlated, because they are observed at the same time or in the same population. But that does not mean that there is a cause and effect relationship, in other words that a phenomenon explains or causes the other. And if a correlation is observed, a causality is demonstrated, in particular thanks to experimental comparisons, such as a scientific study studying several groups exposed to the same factor that we vary.
About scientific studies, Séverine Erhel, lecturer in cognitive psychology at Rennes II University and columnist at L’Express, published a strong article in 2024, after the declarations of Emmanuel Macron. She details the state of science there on the issue of violence and video games. The study on which some are based sometimes to dismantle the existence of a potential link between video games and violence is The famous meta analysis led by the American researcher Craig Alan Anderson Released in 2010, according to which there are significant associations between the use of video games and the thoughts, feelings and aggressive behavior reported by the participants. On the one hand, these works demonstrate a correlation and not a causality. And on the other hand, their conclusions were partly invalidated in 2017, when Other American researchers have resumed Anderson’s data to carry out a new analysis. Conclusion ? The associations between video games and aggressive behavior have been widely overestimated and those established between the practice of video games and the feelings, thoughts and aggressive behaviors are actually very low.
We could also quote two studies published in 2020 And in 2022 who followed several hundred adolescents aged 10 to 13, sometimes for periods of up to 11 years, after entering adulthood, in order to observe the long -term effects of light, moderate practice or intensive violent video games. Combined, the results of these studies suggest that the violent behaviors of adolescents result from the interaction of a certain number of individual, family, economic and social vulnerabilities and that the impact of violent video games on aggressive behavior in real life is very low.
Other research also shows that video games can have beneficial effects, especially because they can be used to create social ties. There is thus a positive association between video game practice and mental health when practice is reasoned.
“The Louise murder affair also puts the question addiction to video games on the scene,” said Séverine Erhel. First, we are not talking about addiction, but of problematic use, because the term addiction is specific to addictive substances. It does not consensus in the scientific community because the criteria of addiction are not all relevant in the disorder of the use of video games. Problematic uses because it is excessive and compulsive, are estimated at 1 % of French users in A study published in 2023.
“What is known, on the other hand, is that a procession of individual vulnerabilities (mental health, anxiety, depression, psychopathology, personality disorders, TOC, difficult family situation, history of violence suffered, etc.) can Putting some people to take refuge in video games in an attempt to distract their problems with a use which, sometimes, becomes uncontrollable, conflict and negatively impact the functioning of the individual on a daily basis. Are not taken care of, preexisting difficulties can increase and further alter the quality of their mental health “… and potentially lead to dramatic acts.