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US President wants Congress to "fund research" on violent video games 

US President Barack Obama announced during a press conference today that he has tasked the Center for Disease Control to study the causes of violent behavior, and that Congress "should fund research into the effects violent video games," on "young minds."

Obama didn't mention games much at all in the press briefing as it was mainly focused on the gun control issue.

“We don’t benefit from ignorance. We don’t benefit from not knowing the science of this epidemic of violence," he said, before outlining his gun control wishlist for the House of Representatives to consider.

Obama wants Congress to hand over $10 million to the CDC to study the "relationship between video games, media images and violence.”

“The entertainment and video game industries have a responsibility to give parents tools and choices about the movies and programs their children watch and the games their children play,” the White House said in a statement to the Washington Times.

US VP Joe Biden met with various gaming industry experts and executives last week to hear its side of the violence games debate, and gain research material on the matter.

He said at the time he was not singling the industry out, as he had met with other pundits of entertainment mediums during the week.

A video is below - skip to the 30 minute mark to miss out on the dead air.

Thanks, Venture Beat.

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Stephany Nunneley-Jackson

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Stephany is VG247’s News Editor, with 22 years experience (with 15 of them at VG247). With a brain that lacks adhesive ducks, the ill-tempered, chaotic neutral fembot does her best to bring you the most interesting gaming news. She is also unofficially the site’s Lord of the Rings/Elder Scrolls Editor.

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