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Harmful effects of video games on children
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When a parent is asked about video games, the first thing that comes to their mind is that they are bad for everyone, and this has always been the case for several video games. In today 's world, video games are becoming more popular and accessible to everyone. Most of the games that are being played by players involve violence and with its increase in popularity, they are often portrayed as a plague to society by many for years. However, despite these drawbacks, they are still suitable for providing learning, health, and social benefits that can improve a person’s daily life, making them worthwhile. Before getting to the beneficial aspect of video games, it is important to know that they can still provide many harmful effects on the person playing. According to the Entertainment Software Rating Board, the most popular gaming franchise that is being played by both genders is Grand Theft Auto, a game that includes strong sexual content, strong languages, and violence, and retailers like GameStop could care less into selling these video games to the unintended audience as stated by GameStop CEO, Paul Raines on a Play4Real article written by Jack. Other video games like Call of Duty, for instance, can bring out the aggressive behavior of a player, by continually losing a multiplayer match, according to a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association. In fact, many of these violent video games are playable on multiple platforms …show more content…
Everyone should not take video games seriously, provided that many pieces of evidence are already showing how important video games are to the society. Altogether, it seems reasonable to assume that video games are astonishing, and they can provide many worthwhile benefits to the person playing while being entertained at the same
In today’s society, highly addicting video games involving strong violence and language, explicit sexuality and crime often lead to inappropriate behaviors. Role playing games or RPGs allow us to step into a virtual world, cutting ourselves off from worldly distractions. Nowadays, the age range for people who play these extremely graphic games are anywhere from six to eighteen and are surprisingly hazardous to young children’s health. A study gave a group of players playing a violent video game the chance to blast a painful sound into their opponent's ear in order to get the upper advantage. They also gave another group playing non violent games, the same opportunity. The study showed that overall the gamers playing violent video games were more prone to inflict more pain on their enemies, unlike the other group who inflicted considerably less pain. Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D who did this study agrees, “violent video games desensitize players to violence, and makes them more violent in real life" (McGonigal). Young adults are exposed to these terrifying images, harming their mental health. In recent events, a young eight year old boy shot his grandmother after playing Grand Theft Auto. This game is the epitome of why young people should not be playing these games. It is comprised of murder, drug and alcohol abuse, criminal behavior, violence and general disrespect for women, and foul language. In summary, young people should not be playing these games in order to save their mental health. Furthermore, television contributes to desensitizing society with it’s ...
In 2008, 97% of twelve to seventeen year olds in America played video games, thus fueling the domestic video games by $11.7 million. Ten out of the top twenty best-selling video games contain violence. Many of these violent video games have been accused of incidents that include crime, bullying, and behavior problems. As the popularity of violent video games increase, more people become victims of behavior problems such as depression, aggressiveness, and addiction. Although video games were intentionally created for entertainment purposes, through studies and experiments it has been established that they are factors of behavior problems because of the active interaction people demonstrate while playing video games.
As we evolve into a more advanced species, so does our technology, and along with our overly advanced technology, comes video games. They’ve have certainly come a long way since they were first introduced to the main stream audience and have been slowly creeping its way into many daily lives, making them a lot more entertaining and less dull. Video games’ one and only purpose is to entertain. However, it is indeed true that everything is fun and games until somebody gets hurt, and that is exactly what has happened over the years in video games. With the help of our technology, being more developed than ever, video games have also become increasingly sophisticated and overall more close to reality than
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.
Video games are one of the most improved technologies of the past twenty years. Characters have advanced from 8-bit cartoons to being lifelike. Some people think these games are becoming too realistic for young children. With more violent video games being produced, and more children becoming interested in these games instead of family friendly games, there are a growing number of people who believe that kids will grow up to be more aggressive, and that violent video games should be abolished. However, parents play the biggest role in their child’s life, and have the responsibility to buy games they think are appropriate and discipline bad behavior.
Nowadays video games get nothing but bad reputations from people. There are people in powerful positions who are saying that video games have nothing but bad effects and they only promote violence which leads to children acting out in violent ways. Who are the ones listening to the people in these powerful positions; Parents. Some Parents have this misunderstanding that video games are bad and that they have a negative effects on their child’s minds and how they develop after playing them. The parents with that understanding are misinformed and need to understand just how beneficial video games can actually be for their children. Although, some parents think that video games offer nothing but
Over the past 30 years, playing video games has become one of the most popular hobbies worldwide. Not only has the video game industry become a multi-billion dollar industry, but it has attracted people from all age types. While video games today are played by both kids and adults, there are many issues being raised regarding the effects of video games. More particular, is the effect that violent video games may be having on children. Some critics argue that video games are direct indicators of child aggression while video game supporters argue that there is no direct link between child aggression and violent video games. While many people have their own personal stances, this issue is unique because it is unfolding everyday. Scientists and researchers all over the world are continuously doing research regarding the effects of video games on children. Even though this remains a field of uncertainty for researchers, parents should definitely be involved in being aware of what it is that they’re children are playing when they play video games.
According to a report in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, "Female gamers spent an average of 44 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and four minutes playing on the weekends, and male gamers spent an average of 58 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and 37 minutes playing on the weekends" ("Video Game Play Among Adolescents"). What can we learn from this evidence? The fact is that adolescents, male or female, spend tremendous amounts of time each day sitting in front of a screen with a controller in hand. Although there is little evidence to conclude that violence in video games directly leads to adolescent gun violence, there are proven studies that show increased levels of anger and aggression in the human brain when playing violent games.... ... middle of paper ... ...
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.
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...
Most people think that video games are harmful and waste of time. As a result, the main question of the research is how video games can influence on children and many minor questions come to mind about video games: Do video games influence a child’s psychological development and make them more aggressive and violent? Do video games affect a child’s grades? What are the influences of video games on children? Many people don’t have much information about video games and how video games may effect on people’s behavior, health and mind.
Social scientists have been examining the effect that video games have on behavior. From the introduction of video games in the 1980s, there have been numerous research studies to this effect (Andersen & Taylor, 2008). The issue has become even more significant in the modern context because these video games have become bloodier and more realistic than ever before. Even though boys play these games more than girls in America, the consumption of video games has generally been high. Carey (2013) indicates that 32% of these gamers are below the age of 18. Therefore, it would be crucial to evaluate the effects that these video games have on the behavior of such children.
In a society driven by technology, video games are becoming more popular each and everyday. People of all ages enjoy video games in their free time; these games allow the player to become an athlete, a soldier, or a professional fighter at the tip of their fingers. The biggest problem with these video games is that they are becoming too violent. In today’s society, children often brag about the new video game they bought, and the number of people they have managed to kill while playing these games. Video games have become realistic, causing them to intrigue a larger amount of children. Many of these violent video games encourage killing and fighting of enemies, or strangers in the game. Each year a new game system, and hundreds of video games are released, and millions of kids go out and buy them and spend hours playing. Video games have a large effect on school performance and time spent with family. Children would prefer to play their games than sit down and talk with their parents (Saleem, 2012).
Video games have been around for a long time now and they are intended to entertain people. As the years went on the technology in video games have become more graphic; it has gone from looking like cartoons to looking like the real world. People are now saying that as games look more real and become more violent, it is causing the youth to become more aggressive. Seeing these images also causes them to desensitize the violence of the world like they are just looking at a video game which causes them to hurt someone and thinking they could press the restart button and everything will be ok. Even though kids can become violent by video games, there is no links between violent video games and aggression.
In recent years, technology has developed very rapidly. This has led to many arguably both positive and negative changes in our everyday lives. One such change was the increased accessibility of personal computers and gaming consoles as well as the introduction of numerous video games. Due to their entertainment value, these games gained popularity among children and teenagers. Although many concerns have been voiced related to playing video games, especially those that are violent, [e.g., increases in aggressive behavior in children (Anderson & Bushman, 2001)], this paper will argue that certain video games also have beneficial effects. They should thus be played by children, teenagers and adults alike albeit with caution.