The White House announced on Thursday that President Donald Trump is going to have a meeting with several executives from the video game industry in order to discuss school violence as a response to the school shooting in Parkland Florida.
“Next week he’ll also be meeting with members of the video game industry to see what they can do on that front as well,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated.
“This is going to be an ongoing process and something that we don’t expect to happen overnight. But something that we’re going to be engaged in and continue to look for the best ways possible to make sure we’re doing everything we can to protect schools across the country,” she continued.
Meanwhile, the Entertainment Software Association – whose members are the major video game producers such as Nintendo, PlayStation, Microsoft, Activision and Electronic Arts, stated that they have not received any kind of invitation to meet with Trump.
“The same video games played in the U.S. are played worldwide; however, the level of gun violence is exponentially higher in the U.S. than in other countries. Numerous authorities have examined the scientific record and found there is no link between media content and real-life violence,” the group said in a statement Thursday.
“The U.S. video game industry has a long history of partnering with parents and more than 20 years of rating video games through the Entertainment Software Rating Board. We take great steps to provide tools to help players and parents make informed entertainment decisions.”
According to The Hill, at a recent meeting at the White House with lawmakers and administration officials, Trump raised concern about the influence of violence in movies and video games. He floated the idea of launching a rating system, which already exists for both games and films in the United States.
“I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence in video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts. And you go one further step and that’s the movies. … Maybe they have to put a rating system for that,” Trump said during last week’s White House meeting.
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