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Effect of video games on youth violence
Is violence in a society affected by video games
How do video games cause aggressive behavior
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In today’s society so many children are becoming bullies and showing aggressive behavior, in which no one knows why. Parents and adults alike both say that the reason their youth and children are showing these attitudes is the violent, mature video games that the children play on their media device. However, many people say that there are other reasons that children show aggressive behavior and why they become bullies to other children. I believe that there are other reasons than video games that cause a child to become disobedient and unruly. There are many studies that show that video games are not the reason behind the youth’s behavior but other factors in their lives. Although the studies show that it is not video games to blame, most people still want to blame them. There are so many reporting’s of bullying and abuse in schools today that everybody wants an explanation of why that is so. On top of bullying there have been more school shootings recently than ever before. One explanation of why is so is all the violent and mature rated games today that youth can buy for their entertainment consoles. For example, the game series Grand Theft Auto, lets users control a regular person but lets them steal vehicles, fight and beat up random strangers, and even shoot and kill innocent bystanders. The children who play in this fantasy world fell like they can do these same actions in the real world and without the consequences. Although, these types of games could lead to these types of behaviors it is not the reason why the youth act this way. However, there is no link between violent behaviors in youth that was linked to playing mature video games. There are other reasons that the youth show these emotions of anger and hostility. ... ... middle of paper ... ...hostile video games and stay away from online games, they would not bully the people whose lives they makes terrible on a regular basis. All together I do not believe that video games cause any type of criminal behavior in youth or children. There might be studies that show that some violent behavior in youth can be caused by playing violent video games and watch violent television. In addition to those studies, there have been studies that have shown that it is not video games to blame but other factors in a person’s life that should be to blame. The shooters in any of the mass shootings that’s has happened has either been psychopaths or mentally depressed. We as a society should not blame the easiest thing like video games when something happens that is very climatic but really think about what is the root of the problem when something goes terrible in the world.
Now a day every video game has something violent going on. Such as in 2010 the top 20 games out in the market were violent related. When a kid sees in a video game that he can beat someone else up and get away with it they think they can do that in real life. This will increase bullying and kids are being taught not to bully. Every kid plays video games even if it’s a racing game or a shooting game. In 2008, 97% of kids from the age of 12-17 played video games. Most M rated games have sexual violence and when a kid sees that in a game and then beats the girl up. The crime rate for rape will increase as it has. A study in 2009 found that it only takes a child four minutes of playing a game to make him have aggressive and violent thoughts going through his head. The critics of violent video game has that bully has increase 32% because of violent video games. Also in the study when a child sees blood when beating up or killing someone in a game he will have more aggressive thoughts than normal.
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.
Media plays a vital role in the behavior of people. Many boys, teens, and adults play video games for hours everyday. This has an evident effect on the way they act. In The Mask You Live In, Dr. Philip Zimbardo explains, “The ones that are most addictive are the most violent where your job is to destroy the enemy. To dominate.” From the start of boyhood, boys are taught that it is acceptable to be violent. They think that aggression and domination are a normal way of life. No wonder why men can be so violent. This is normal to them. The media is extremely influential on the demeanor of people, especially young kids. Even more, Ashly Burch describes in the documentary that the typical character in a game is extremely violent. This influences the players in that they want to be like the character. This character is their role model and therefore influences boys to use force. For this reason, young boys should be taught be understanding and show kindness in place of violence and
Since the 1970 video games have become more popular than ever before. Generating 11.7 billions of dollars of sells every year or more, the video game industry is considered one of the largest industries in this century. However, video games have been a topic of controversy. With the sales of violent video games going up and the increased violence in schools and teenagers, video games are always to blame. Many people speculate that video games are the cause on why many teenagers have developed aggressive and violent behavior, are desensitize to violence, and the increase violence in schools and public places. In contradiction, video games have little or no fault in teenagers’ violent behavior and shouldn’t always be blamed.
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.
In this day and age it seems as if America's youth is becoming more violent. Concern for those aspects in our society which influence violent acts has become an issue since the tragedy at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Many feel one aspect of today's society affecting our nation's youth in a negative manner is video games. Is this form of entertainment really a factor in teen violence? I think not. Video games are not to blame for increased teen violence.
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.
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.
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.
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...
Another important point would be to avoid violent video games because they influence children’s behavior in an aggressive way.
While I do agree with the fact that video games can influence a child’s behavior, I believe it is more likely to happen to young children rather than fully-formed adults. In addition I also think that the solution to this violence problem is not to completely ban the use of violent viodeogames but rathe fr the parents to limit the amount of time spent on them. Through the continuous use of videogames is where we can find most of the issues discussed