Violent Video Games Do NOT Affect Children

1540 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Effect of video games on youth violence

A Russian immigrant walks off a boat to embrace his cousin in a long awaited hug. Niko holds his breath as he notices the stench of alcohol on his cousins shirt. “Welcome to America Niko!” he exclaims as he hands Niko a freshly lit cigar. Driving peacefully through streets filled with gangs and hookers Niko embarks on a new life filled with cocaine, murder and sex. The opening credits roll : Grand Theft Auto IV.

Grand Theft Auto is one of the most notorious franchises in the entire video game industry. There are plenty of video games on shelf with violence, sex and drugs but GTA has one aspect that few other games achieve: it’s just so darn fun.

Video games have been on the rise for decades now. In the 80’s, the release of the gore infested Mortal Kombat sent shivers up parent’s spines forcing a rating system similar to the rating system used for movies. Technically an M-Rated game is only available to a consumer 17 or older, much like an R-rated movie. The largest difference however is that if a parent wants to bring an underage child to an R-rated movie, they must watch the movie together, but rarely does a parent know what their child is playing beyond the brief synopsis of the rating in the bottom corner of the package.

The release of Grand Theft Auto put the ESRB – the association that rates any commercially sold video game – on the spotlight. So much of a deal was made over a video game where the protagonist could hire and then murder a hooker that the state of California attempted to force laws to limit the sale of the game to reduce the amount of youth playing it (USA). Throughout the world, mostly in Europe, many countries refuse to sell certain games, or ban certain content.

But the question is why? While some people believe that video games are just good clean fun, others believe that these games greatly affect our generation in a negative way, increasing aggression and sometimes pushing consumers to the edge causing events like the forever notorious shootings in Virginia Tec.

Over the past few decades, over twenty legitimate studies have been conducted – both correlation and experimental – showing an association between aggression and violent video games (Kirsh). There is compelling evidence that video games are responsible for up to ten percent of the aggression in the youth of our generation (LA). Studies have also shown t...

... middle of paper ...

...

Ferguson, Christopher. “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: A Meta-Analytic Review of Positive and Negative Effects of Videogames.” Psychiatric Quarterly 78.4 (2007): 309-316. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 Nov. 2011.

Adams, Jill. “The Effects of Video Games.” LA Times [Los Angeles] 3 May 2010: 1+. Print.

Biskupic, Joan, and Mike Snider. “Supreme Court Rejects Ban on Violent Video Games.” USA today [Washington DC] 27 June 2010: 1+. Print.

“Call of Duty: MW3 Breaks 5 Day Record – Xbox 360 News at IGN .” IGN Advertisement. N.p., 17 Nov. 2011. Web. 18 Nov. 2011.

Kirsh, Steven. “The effects of violent video games on adolescents: The overlooked influence of development.” Aggression and Violent Behavior 8.4 (2002): 377-389.sciencedirect.com. Web. 5 Nov. 2011.

Hamilton, Audrey. “The Effect Of Violent Video Games On Teens.” Medical News Today: Health News. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2011.

Anderson, Craig A., and PhD. ” Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions.” American Psychological Association (APA). N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2011.

Show More
Related

  • Violent Video Games and Bad Behavior

    1537 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dill, Karen E. and Dill, Jody C. “Video Game Violence: A Review of the Empirical

    Read More

  • Violent Video Games Don't Lead to Increases In Violent Behavior

    1413 Words  | 3 Pages

    Paulson, Ken. “How obscene is video game violence?” USA Today. USA Today, 2 November 2010. Web. 24 October 2011.

    Read More

  • Avid Final Exam #20

    667 Words  | 2 Pages

    "What Science Knows About Video Games and Violence." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.

    Read More

  • Violent Video Games Do NOT Cause Violence

    1839 Words  | 4 Pages

    While unbiased studies of video games and their links to violence are hard to come by, recent research has shown that video games do not in fact have a casual link to violence, and may even have the opposite effect. Violent video games have nearly no link to violence in teens or adults. The ESRB rating system was created in 1994 in response to violent video games like Doom, Mortal Kombat, and Night Trap. The ESRB rating system is meant to protect those under the age of each rating, eC (Early Childhood) through A (Adult, 18+). While it is not illegal to sell adult or even mature games to minors, most retailers like Gamestop and Target refuse to sell them to those under 18.

    Read More

  • Video Games do Not Increase Teen Violence

    1438 Words  | 3 Pages

    Quittner, Joshua, and Maryanne Murray Buechner, et al. ?Are Video Games Really so Bad?? Time South Pacific 19 (10 May 1999): 50-55

    Read More

  • Video Game Industry and Violence

    1359 Words  | 3 Pages

    The problem in determining a cause(s) is further compounded by mixed experimental findings.  Scott (1995) did not find a positive relationship between video game violence and aggressive feelings among youth.  In fact, there seemed to be a decrease in aggressive attitudes after playing violent games.  These result seems to run counter to related studies concerned with the re...

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Violent Video Games: The Effects Of Violent Video Games?

    732 Words  | 2 Pages

    Also, how the result of violent gaming affects the actions of the children shortly after the finish playing. Overviewing the work of physiological professor Helen Fisher, Sauer concludes that playing a mass variety of games can have different effects on a child. Documented by Sauer, “To the extent that this task is representative of real-world risk taking in a driving context, Fischer et al. found that racing games can have negative effects on traffic safety: increasing risk-taking behavior, risk-promoting cognitions, and positive attitudes toward reckless driving” (Sauer 206). A child does not have to shoot a gun in a game such as Call of Duty or rob a bank in GTA V, the end result is that the child would think these things are accepted in society.

    Read More

  • Are Violent Video Games a Cause of the Bad Behavior in Children?

    984 Words  | 2 Pages

    The allegation that videogames cause violent behavior in children has been present as long as videogames themselves. Some researchers said that the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, was one intense gamer. “Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech Shooter was seen by his roomates as odd because he never joined them in video games.”(Beresin) This debate will continue to go on in this country as long as there are horrific crimes that occur. There is much written in the research regarding this issue, and many differing views. The research that is presented in the next few paragraphs supports the theory that it is not the graphic video games that produce aggressive behavior, but other factors in a child’s life that create violent actions.

    Read More

  • Does Playing Violent Video Games Promote Aggressive Behavior?

    2491 Words  | 5 Pages

    Violent video games are becoming more popular among children and adolescents of all ages since its debut approximately 30 years ago. This growing popularity is generating an increasing concern that these sometimes very graphic videos and life like characters can have a negative influence on the younger generation. Although never proven, there has been speculation that some of the high school shootings across the country were committed by students who were habitual players of violent video games. Due to these concerns, a non-profit, self-regulatory organization was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to appropriately rate all video games from EC (early childhood), E (everyone), E10+ (everyone 10 and over), T (teen), M (mature), and AO (adults only). While assessing the efficacy of violent video game ratings, it is unknown how effective these ratings are for the intended audience (Becker-Olsen & Norberg, 2010).

    Read More

  • Violent Video Games Do NOT Contribute to Youth Violence

    2419 Words  | 5 Pages

    Although violent video games are thought to encourage real world violence, they actually help to prevent it. I am focusing on violent video games and how they affect juveniles because I feel that this issue needs to be looked at in the criminal justice community. It is an unnecessary distraction to blame the actions of a disturbed youth on a form of entertainment that has been used by millions of people without incident. A review article published in The Psychiatric Quarterly found that many studies which claim to indicate an increase in aggression due to video games are, in fact, biased! Once the bias is taken into account, the studies no longer find any correlation between youths who play violent video games and youths who demonstrate aggression and violent behavior.

    Read More

  • Video Games May Desensitize Youth, but Nothing More

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    It may seem a bit odd to place video games in the same category as the other frightening facts parents have to deal with, but in the past few years, violent acts of crime have become more and more common among teenagers. Parents looking to find a reason for this have turned to violent video games, which have also had a large growth over the past few years. Since almost every parent will have kids at some point who play video games, one of the most important topics facing them should be the deceptively simple question: Do violent video games cause violence in youth?

    Read More

  • How Technology Effects Children

    3455 Words  | 7 Pages

    By far the largest concern of technology today is video games. There have been so many experiments and studies to try and figure out if video games have a negative or positive effect on our children. A growing body of research is linking violent video game play to aggressive cognitive, attitudes and behaviors (D.A. Gentile, 2004). Video games can obviously be dangerous for our children causing aggression, bad performances in school and obesity. Although we cant blame all of these problems on the use of video game...

    Read More

  • The Problem of Video Game Violence is Exaggerated

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first reason video games are an issue is that many video games made today possess content that many people would consider to be obscene. The term obscene covers violence, profanity, and sexual images (obviously). Such videogames are usually branded with the M (mature audiences only) rating on the front of the videogame cover. This means that only players seventeen or older should be playing such games. However, many children around the ages of twelve and under are acquiring these video games as gifts or are purchasing the games themselves. Therefore, it can be assumed that the parents are purchasing M-rated games for their children, and that stores are willingly selling these young children M-rated games. As Paul Keegan says, parents are not following these ratings and stores are not enforcing them, thus allowing young children to view content that is considered obscene (6). Thus, if parents understand and follow the various video game rating labels, and if stores enforce the videogame rating system, then young children will not be as easily able to view mature material.

    Read More

  • Do Video Games Cause Bad Behavior

    1408 Words  | 3 Pages

    middle of paper ... ... Violent video games are not a cause of bad behavior. With all the conclusions people have come with about violent video games, Douglas Gentile has stated one thing most will agree on; “Video games are neither good nor bad. Rather, they are a powerful form of entertainment that does what good entertainment is supposed to do—it influences us.” Works Cited Glazer, Sarah.

    Read More

  • Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence

    1447 Words  | 3 Pages

    Willoughby, T., Adachi, P. C., & Good, M. (2012). A longitudinal study of the association between violent video game play and aggression among adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 48(4), 1044-1057. doi:10.1037/a0026046

    Read More

More about Violent Video Games Do NOT Affect Children

Open Document