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Effect of video games on youth violence
Relationship between video games and violence
Relationship between video games and violence
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Over the past years, video games have been a way to escape reality for some people. Video games vary from fantasy, romance, and role playing games to violent games. However, vicious video games have been blamed for school shootings, growths in bullying, and violence concerning women. Various people argue that these games numb players to violence, recompense players for imitating violence, and educate children that violence is a suitable way to resolve conflicts.
Several studies display that video games with violent content are related to more hostile behavior in teens. This is a concern because most of the popular video games contain violence. Part of the upsurge in aggressive behavior is connected to the amount of time children are permitted
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A study in the medical journal Pediatrics discusses how a group of 181 Japanese students from the ages 12 to 15, and 364 U.S. children from the ages 9 to 12 were tested in order to observe the effects of violent video games. It was recorded that the children who were more subjected to the violent video games were more aggressive than their complements who did not participate in the games. (Moeller) The children who played the games also ended up controlling numerous situations inadequately; this involves pushing or shoving for what they wanted, or yelling at each other. It is tolerable to have faith in that this is a standard stereotype for children at this age; however, children are becoming more and more out of control and belligerent. Research has also found that, controlling for prior aggression, children who played more violent video games during the beginning of the school year showed more aggression than other children later in the school year …show more content…
A survey of 1,102 adolescents found that 97 percent had played video games in the past day. Although most parents checked the censor’s rating before consenting their child to obtaining it, 50 percent of boys and 14 percent of girls favored games with an "M" (mature) or "AO" (adult-only) rating, which suggests a high degree of violence. Social scientists believed that children are more probable to mimic the actions of a character with whom they identify. In violent video games, players participate as a character, and even choose which weapons they’ll use while fighting other characters. Similarly, repetition increases learning. Video games involve a great deal of repetition. If the games are violent, then the effect is a behavioral preparation for violent activity. Violence in society is not solely caused by violent media. But research shows that continuous exposure to violent media causes people to believe that violence can be an acceptable, positive way to solve problems. Video games and violence may seem surreal to have a connection but few adolescents cannot distinguish between fantasy and reality, and as a result, real life crimes have been committed. From robbing a car to killing children, many perpetrators have been influenced by video
Children today are exposed to more graphic violence in video games compared to any past generations. This is because the media finds that making a profit, surpasses the lives of the adolescents that play these games. However, over time two set of views formed from the violence in video games. James D. Sauer, is a graduate of the School of Phycology. In his article, “Violent Video Games: The Effects of Narrative Context and Reward Structure On In-Game and Postgame Aggression,” Sauer, describes that adolescents gain forms of aggression and violence after playing certain games. Not every video game causes post game aggression, but documented in his article, “Players who enacted in-game violence through a heroic character exhibited less postgame
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.
The shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado killing thirteen students and teachers shocked the world. “They were video gamers who seemed to be acting out some dark digital fantasy. It was as if all that exposure to computerized violence gave them the idea to go on a rampage – or at least fueled their urges” (Carey 1). The shooters of this incident learned their deadly skills from video games. Seventy percent of children ages eight to eighteen have access to violent video games at their home. “Boys who play Teen or Mature-rated games for a minimum of 40 minutes a day may witness over 180 incidents of aggression per day, or 5,400 incidents per month”(Smith, S.L., Lachlan, K.A., & Tamborini, R). Children that play violent video games at such a young age and experiencing such violent actions will start to increase in aggressive thoughts, feelings, and aggressive behavior.
People have always been looking for a reason why horrible things happen. The media is quick to blame video games as the target and cause of many shootings that have occurred, ever since Columbine and Quake. People have been blaming video games for violence for years now, ever since violent video games have been made. News reports blame video games more and more for each shooting, telling the public how this person played video games for x amount of hours a day, and that video games caused him or her to shoot people, and how video games encourage and reward violence. Anti-video game lobbyists have been campaigning to have violence removed from video games, citing resources that they themselves have created as reasons for such, poorly done studies where they confirm that kids are more aggressive through how much hot sauce they put on someone’s fries. 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.
At this day in age we bask in the luxury of having easy access to advanced technology at our disposal. From the World Wide Web, to cell phones, music, movies and video games the human race has thought of any and everything to keep us entertained. Over the years studies have shown reasonable concerns regarding the long-term effects of video games. These games can desensitize gamers to real life violence, which is usually seen in the younger crowd. The studies especially hit on the games containing player-on-player violence. Though these games are extremely entertaining and can get kids to settle down for a while, if not properly supervised, they can produce adverse effects. Other studies have shown that video games can be used as way to yield positive outcomes such as, good problem solving skills, cooperation in a group and the ability to flow. Although there has been psychological research on children learning through the actions of others some believe that children are automatically able to distinguish between what is just a game and what is reality. The longer they are allowed on their game system the more they become convinced that their games are real. Some researchers believe violent video games can channel the aggression of the child but the parents are to blame for what happens to the child after playing an excessive amount over a period of time. Children can become preoccupied with these violent video games which have been proven to be the cause of poor social skills, uncontrollable aggression and a false reality.
The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review on existing articles relating to the possibility of violent video games promoting aggressive behavior. The hypothesis set forth was that people who played non-violent video games displayed more Prosocial behavior versus those who played violent video games displayed more antisocial and aggressive behavior. A search was conducted on regular search engines on the internet, and on EBSCOhost using the title “can violent video games promote aggressive behavior.” The research articles presented are obtained from five case studies each focusing on different measures that were obtained, methods used, the participants involved, the designs of the study, and the results of the studies.
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 demonstate aggression and violent behavior. (Ferguson, 2014)
Do video games cause violence? Violence in our real world caused by playing a video game that has guns in it or even death. Some people say they do and others don't. Here are my three reasons why video games do not, have not, and will not cause violence.
One article points out that video games have a big impact on children’s lives and that many of the games played are violent. Researchers have found that “nearly all children spend time playing video games” and studies have found that “8th graders spent an average of 17 hours per week playing video games” (Tamborini 336). Moreover, 68% of the most popular video games contain violence (Tamborini 336). So it is clear that many children have access to violent video games and they have a big impact on their lives simply because of the amount of time spent playing them.
middle of paper ... ... The Effects of Violent Video Game Habits on Adolescent Hostility, Aggressive Behaviors, and School Performance. Journal of Adolescence, 27. http://www.sciencedirect.com
Almost all American teens play video games. It has been shown that video games are being played at least 13 hours per week. The video games being made today consistent of disturbing acts of violence, “with increases in aggression, desensitization to violence, decrease in positive social behaviors, and increases in delinquent behaviors.” Video games let gamers have the ability to be “virtual perpetrators” by giving the roles of being a soldier. The video games reward people for their violent acts. Studies say that children who play violent video games may have a greater effect, than watching
Children and adolescents that play violent video games undergo through aggressive behavior. The violent activity in the video games influence
The concerns of parents are that theses types of games are going to change their child’s life in a bad way. These ideas are true through tedious experiments that prove that violent games produce violent children. The games that cause the most fear are ones that give the players the opportunity to select their own weapon and decide what violent adventures they long to experience. A well known fact is that repetition increases the learning process. For example, when students are studying for a test they will incorporate the use of flashcards. Using the flashcards exposes the child to the information repeatedly until it is memorized. While playing these games, the player learns the patterns of games through repetition. By doing this they are unconsciously learning to act in the same way as the game. In March of 2014, the Center for Study of Violence at Iowa State participated in a study where they followed over 3,000 children over a three year period who played video games. Since the experiment was carried out over a long period of time, it was easy to spot out the effect of the games on the test subjects. The report discovered that the boys who played the hostile games had an increased amount of recorded aggressive behaviors, and although the girls in the experiment played less violent games than the boys, they still displayed violent behaviors (Gentile, 2014). The
“90% of pediatricians and 67% of parents agreed or strongly agreed that violent video games can increase aggressive behavior among children” ("Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence?”). Pediatrics and parents are aware that kids that play violent video games see a change in their behavior. Many cases they see the kids with anger problems and causing them to do violent acts. Violent video games have been around for many years where some older titles, such as ‘Mortal Kombat’ and 'Grand Theft Auto’ both are some of the most controversial ones. The video game industry has been growing and with the large amounts of violent video games being produced. “Total US sales of video game hardware and software increased 204% from 1994 to
Several years ago, technology and child’s play were not such as extremely developed as today. Thousands of teenagers have video game as their primary form of entertainment at home. The disagreement about violent video games is because they focus on several subjects such as violence scenes, pornographic content, racism and other resources. For many years, researchers have been debating if video games can cause dependence or not. However, an expert, Jack Flanagan believes video games have a really negative effect on a person’s life and even for children. Jack states that video game addiction exists, and can have the same effects as drugs and alcohol (Netzley 36-37). This shows that video game addiction can be like other addictions