A moral panic is a widespread belief that a certain group or behavior is a danger to a society or its values. It is not a new concept, and even the witch hunts in the early days of the United States could be considered a moral panic. However, there is a version of the concept that is quite a bit more modern, and that utilizes technology and societal advancements to accomplish the same thing – a demonization of behavior that does not conform with the beliefs of the authors of these events.
In 2004, the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was the epicenter of a moral panic around sex and video games. The series’ two previous releases had also been host to controversy around the effects of violence in video games, but the response to this entry in the franchise was bigger. At one point in the game’s development, there were plans to include a sexual encounter between the player character and their girlfriend. It was removed by the developers, but later it was discovered that the game could be modified to access the removed content despite the developers wishes. This modification was called “Hot Coffee.”
Many things cause controversy, but not all controversy evolves into a moral panic. The series’ previous two entries had been controversial, and led to some lawsuits concerning the violence of their content, but it was something people who were already paying attention were seeing. The controversy around Hot Coffee grew far greater, it was the subject of many local and cable news stories. While news segments were spending extraordinary effort to condemn the medium at large, politicians were mobilized. The Family Entertainment Protection Act was introduced in the US Senate, and the Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into Grand Theft Auto’s publisher.
Stanley Cohen was a sociologist, who identified the moral panic as a phenomenon. He says that though there may be truth to the claims at the base of the moral panic, they “exaggerate the seriousness, extent, typicality and/or inevitability of harm.” To the casual observer of the media and political outcry, Hot Coffee had become equated with pornography being sold to children, as opposed to an obscure modification that must be actively sought out.
Hot Coffee was perhaps lower stakes in the grand scheme of the damage done by moral panics. In other instances, we have more recently seen similar tactics deployed against trans people, and immigrants from South and Central America. In such cases, fear of these groups has led to a media frenzy around migrant caravans coming to steal jobs or some election. We have seen breathless coverage on trans people from major media outlets such as the New York Times, The Atlantic, and Fox News debating the so-called epidemic of trans athletes in sports.
Transgender people have always existed, though trans people have secured basic rights and sporadic representation in the media. The inclusion of trans people into society has been met with significant pushback by reactionary forces. In 2023, media figure Michael Knowles called for the eradication of “transgenderism” in public life, utilizing the framework of a moral panic. In the summer of 2023, it became increasingly common to hear transgender and other LGBTQ+ people referred to as “groomers,” as though the visibility of a trans person was an inherent threat to children.
In addition, America has a long history of scapegoating immigrants as a significant source of crime, drugs, and violence. Crime statistics consistently show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes, however the prevailing media swell around “immigrant crime” and legislation such as the recently passed Laken Riley Act indicate that the removal of immigrants will be the magic bullet solution to these particular problems in our society.
In much the same way, the harm of GTA was exaggerated, we have seen transgender people’s visibility, and immigrant’s ability to reside safely in the US framed as inherently dangerous. Both groups represent silenced minorities, yet are consistently warned of, as though their presence in our country are the source of great harm to some nebulous “us.” This process of labeling an outgroup as different from the mainstream, called “othering,” is a tool utilized to promote fear of something that goes widely misunderstood.
In 2025, we are living in an increasingly fear-filled time, and those fears are having real consequences. We need to take time to breathe and be critical of the media we consume. We need to build community with people who are different from us. Finally we should learn to recognize the patterns of a moral panic when we see one, because if we do not, then real people can end up being hurt.
