12/07/2026
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Deep within a village lies a child. Watching its surroundings like live television, imprinting and idolizing the actors. From the way they speak and how their emotions shift instantlyโas if merely turning a light switch on and offโamuses and draws their attention. Whether good or bad, the screen sends a hypnotizing glow, manipulating us to be one with the actors on screen.
Recently, talks about banning violent video games have been a topic in the Philippine Congress and Senate due to the current school shooting of two minors at San Jose National High School. This has been a pressing issue since one of the offenders is an avid player of the game 'GoreBox', leading officials to think that violent video games are a huge factor in the incident.
Although according to the statement released by the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) Undersecretary and Executive Director, Renato โAboyโ Paraiso, on the ABS-CBN News Channel, โBeyond this temporary ban, we are enforcing our monitoring efforts to identify online spaces that may pose risks to young users and to ensure that appropriate interventions are made immediately.โ
Given the extensive analysis and investigation, you would think that the matter is resolved. However, they may have overlooked the real threatโthe predators they trust and their surroundings that shaped them.
According to the studies โAssociation of Exposure to Violence at Home with Aggressive Behaviors and Depressive Symptomsโ, โEarly Childhood Mistreatment and Adolescent Aggressiveness Behoaviorsโ, and numerous more, these suggest that the biggest factor is the people a child associates with and constantly being in a stressful environment.
When we are in a stressful situation, sensory data is sent to the thalamus, the brainโs relay station, and then sent to the amygdala, or our brainโs emotional alarm system. When it senses danger, it sends a signal to the hypothalamus, the brainโs control center, activating fight-or-flight mode. This then activates the hormones adrenaline, providing us an energy boost, and cortisol, which makes that boost last longer, disabling nonessential functions.
This should only be a temporary response of our body, but when we continue to be in a stressful environment where the threat never leaves, our brainโs ability to control our stress response starts to fail, causing us to stay in a hypervigilant state.
Driven by constant fear and paranoia, a person will be aggressive as a stress response. The body is finding a way to release all the energy meant for a physical predator rather than a problem you canโt physically run away from.
Previous studies conducted state that violent video games are used as an escape from the toxic environment rather than a factor in their aggression.
Rather than blaming video games, it's time to fix our society that normalizes violent behavior instead of getting angry at the children who only absorbed what we projected towards them. There is more behind a screen. What appears to be a violent game may actually be the only thing stopping a child from holding a real gun.
If the government decides to ban video games, then by the same logic, they should also ban action and violent films and violent TV shows, and reprimand public figures who publicly show and support acts of violence despite having a renowned reputation.
A child can only mimic what they observe, as we mimic celebrities and public figures on television. If they see us normalizing foul language, flipping each other off, and threatening to kill each other over a minor inconvenience, we can only wait for the aftereffects and be held responsible for the monsters we created. It's time to stop pointing fingers and just switch the perspectives we are using to watch how things unfold in our society.
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