Television Violence and Video Games

“Five thousand years of recorded history, 500 years of gunpowder, 150 years of repeating fire, and no juvenile mass murder until 1970” as Grossman qtd. In Mcginnity. Since the beginning of recorded history, no cases of extreme violence by children are evident. Like Grossman said, Juveniles have had the means to cause mayhem for hundreds of years, yet only recently has violence in children become a problem. This rise in juvenile violence can be attributed to the extreme amount of violence in modern media. While video games are not the only source of violence influencing the children of our society, other forms of violence in movies and television programs are well enough regulated. Although video games can help children release stress and anger virtually, the government should regulate further regulate them, because of the major psychological, social, and health concerns.

There are some people who do not agree with this position concerning the further regulation of videogames. The opposition believes that playing violent videogames is a right protected by the First Amendment; “…The court applied the first amendment to invalidate a federal statute that broadly prohibited the sale of videos displaying the illegal killing, maiming, torturing, or wounding of animals”(Game over for 1). These violent video games are safe to corrupt the minds of young children under the protection of the First Amendment, because video games fall under the category of freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is meant to allow the public to speak in what they believe in or to ask for change, freedom of speech is not meant to taint the minds of the children. When the Bill of Rights was being written, going on virtual killing sprees in violent video ga...

... middle of paper ...

...ich could be extremely dangerous. Overall violent video games are extremely dangerous, and should be more regulated, and played moderately, not binged.

Violent video games should be more regulated although they can help children release stress, the government should regulate them more, because they pose a threat to today’s society. If these video games were regulated more effectively, the world would be a safer place, not only in our current lives, but in the future, because the youth is the future. Other than the psychological issues that violent video games pose, they also directly affect children’s physical life. By spending so many hours playing video games children also do not have time to exercise. By regulating video games further, not only will hostility in children go down, the rates of childhood obesity will most likely decrease along with it.