Since their inception in the 1970s, video games have often been criticized for violent content. Politicians, parents, and other activists have claimed that violence in video games can be tied to violent behavior, particularly in children, and have sought ways to regulate the sale of video games. Numerous studies have shown no connection between video games and violent behavior with the American Psychological Association stating there is little to no evidence connecting these. Before video games, elements of the type of moral panic that would come with video games after they gained popularity had been seen with comic books in the 1950s. Through the 1950s, comics were in their Golden Age, as it became a popular form of media. As the media expanded, some artists and publishers took more risks with violent and otherwise questionable content. Fredric Werthman, a psychiatrist, wrote seduction of the innocent in 1954 that outlined his studies that asserted that violent comics were led to Juvenile delinquency. While some of Wertham's claims were later found to be based on bad studies, the book created a moral panic that put pressure on the comic book industry to regulate their works. Later in 1954, the comic industry issued the comics code which put strict regulations on content that could be in comic books sold at most stores, eliminating most violence and other mature content via self-censoring. The mainstream comic industries waned as comics had lost their edge, while on the underground market for more adult comics formed. The comic industry did not recover from the comic code authority until the 1970s where eliminating most violence and other mature content via self-censoring. The mainstream comic industries waned as comics had lost their edge, while an underground market for more adult comics formed. The comic industry did not recover from the comic code authority until the 1970s where adherence to the authority was weakened. By the 2000s, the authority was generally no longer considered. The trends of targeting violence in video games have been compared to these events in the comic industry, and video game industry leaders have specifically avoided the use of self-censoring that could impact the performance of the industry. One of the first games to be criticized for its level of violence was the 1976 death race arcade game, which enabled the player to drive a car and run over simulated gremlins. The game caught the attention of an associated press writer, Wendy Walker, who had contacted the games' manufacturer, Exidy, with her concerns that the game was excessively violent. Walkers' concerns spread through other media organizations, including the National Safety Council who accused the game of glorying the act of making a game of running people over when at the time they were trying to educate drivers about safe practices. While some arcades subsequently returned the death race machines due to this panic, sales of the game continued to grow due to this media coverage. The United States Surgeon General C. Everett Koop was one of the first to raise a concern about the potential connection of video games to youth behavior. In 1982, Koop stated "more and more people are beginning to understand" the connection between video games and mental and physical health effects on youth, though that at that time there was not sufficient evidence to make any conclusion. The fighting game Mortal Kombat was released into arcades in 1992. It was one of the first games to have a large amount of blood and gore as a result of the game's fatalities to finish off the losing character. Numerous arcade games followed in Mortal Kombat wake that used high amounts of violent content. However, as these were arcade machines, it was generally possible to segregate them away from games aimed for younger players. Segas licensed version of Mortal Kombat retained all the gore from the arcade version, while Nintendo had a version developed that removed the gore, recoloring the blood as green otherwise toning down the game. Sega's version drastically outsold Nintendos version and intensified the competition between the two companies. Sega, Nintendo, and others were criticized for lacking a standardized rating system, and Liberman threatened to have congress pass legislation requiring a system that would have government oversight if the industry did not take its own steps. By the time of the second hearing, Sega, Nintendo, and others had outlined their agreed-upon approach for a voluntary rating system through its own Entertainment Software Ratings Board, which was subsequent in place by the end of 1984. This also led to the establishment of the Interactive Digital Software Association, later known as the Entertainment Software Association a trade group for the video game industry that manged the ESRB and further supported trade-wide aspects such as government affairs.
