This title and the news itself could have been written 20 years ago. But this isn’t a mistake; it’s happening in 2025.

The U.S. government is once again attempting to connect violent video games with real-world violence. At a press conference following the release of the Make Our Children Healthy Again report from the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) committee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services, stated that America’s current level of gun violence may be driven by several factors, including video games. Kennedy argued that the sudden rise in violence began in the 1990s and is inexplicable.

“We had comparably the same number of guns. Nobody was doing that. We had gun clubs at my school. Kids brought guns to school and were encouraged to do so. Nobody was walking into schools and shooting people. Switzerland’s last mass shooting was 23 years ago. We have mass shootings every 23 hours. There are many things that could explain this. One is our dependence on psychiatric drugs, unlike any other country in the world. There could be connections with video games, social media, or other things, and we’re looking into that at the NIH. We’re initiating studies to examine the correlation…” Kennedy said.

Although research has repeatedly failed to establish a significant link between video games and violent behavior, politicians across the spectrum have exploited this narrative. Trump made the claim at least twice during his first term, while the Obama administration echoed the same argument in 2013 after the Sandy Hook massacre. What makes Kennedy’s statement unusual is how banal it seems compared to his other controversial positions, such as fearmongering about life-saving vaccines and endorsing unpasteurized milk despite the risk of foodborne illness.

While the MAHA report does not specifically name video games, it references screen time multiple times, promising that the surgeon general will launch awareness and education campaigns on children’s screen exposure. However, the United States currently has no confirmed surgeon general. Trump’s original nominee withdrew after far-right influencer Laura Loomer raised objections—she is known for handcuffing herself to a Twitter door in 2018. The current nominee, wellness influencer Dr. Casey Meanest, has yet to be confirmed.

Source: PCGamer, Whitehouse.gov