Defending Violent Video Games in Adolescents

In the article, “It’s A Duel: How Do Violent Video Games Affect Kids?” by Shankar Vedantam it says, “ What we found is for people who were exposed to a lot of violent video games, their brains did not respond to the violent images. They were numb, if you will.” This illustrates that when the kids were shown the violent images their brains did not respond to the pictures, because they are used to the violence. Some of the kids played the violent games so much that their brains link violence to something harmless not problematic. Others may think that, the person was already

Since video games have been introduced, video games have been accused of contributing too many atrocities, and acts of violence. News outlets paint video games as being a source of which some acts of violence happen. Yes, violent video games have become more popular, meanwhile becoming controversial, but still there exist no links between aggression and video games. The University of Bologna says that “owning videogames does not in fact seem to have negative effects on aggressive human behavior” (Koffler par.7). Meanwhile, news outlets keep on missing the point on how beneficial video games are. Video games do not contribute to violence, can be educational, and they can improve us in different ways.

Video games have become very influential on children and adults (Stafford, 1999). With violent video games humans are more prone to act aggressively, to have aggressive thoughts and become numb towards violence (Harding, 2009). Apart from these they are

The main argument of this article is that video games have a direct link to short term and long term aggression. The author presents this argument by providing studies from peer reviewed articles that all conclude that video games do cause an increase of aggression. The main point of this article is to answer the question, “Do violent video games lead to aggression.” The article is about the effects of violent video games leading to aggression. The author uses recent examples, like the Sandy Hook and Washington Navy Yard shooting. In both of these examples, the author cites that both shooters had a history with playing violent video games. The author uses a study which selected individuals to play violent video games for a certain period of time. The study would then compare the results to a group who played non-violent video games. The study concluded that violent video games cause a direct link in aggression due to humans reenacting the actions the characters within the video games perform.

Video games are prevalent among impressionable children and teenagers. There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the violent themes used in video games. Teenage shootings in schools have led society to question the relationship between video violence and criminal activity. After considerable research, expert opinions, and research findings, the American Psychological Association found that there is no link between gaming and criminal behavior (Casey). With this, the pursuit of video violent games continues to grow in our society. With games that show execution style murders, blood oozing from gunshot wounds, and victims moaning from wounds, it certainly is gratifying for the indulgent player. The ongoing concern about aggression and violence has once again been proven to be non-existent (Alert). My thoughts are that this cartoon like violence is appeals to the need for violence in an artificially designed environment. In this manner, violence is contained within the boundaries of fantasy. This is unlike “The Crucible” which occurs in with real people, events, and situations. Thus, directing violence in the realm of societal dysfunction that has endured with

The story line behind some violent video games includes games in which players earn points by carjacking taxis, scoring drugs from cursing thugs, and mowing down pedestrians.(see http://www.feedmag.com/vgs/duncan.html>) Some cartoonish tag lines in some sadistic video games include : -- "As easy as killing babies with axes" and "More fun than killing your neighbour's cats". This kind of themes definitely influence the players, especially the younger ones, and inflict violent tendencies on them. It is no wonder, that this killing mania in violent games was seen to seep out into the actual world when a high school junior opened fire in his school cafetaria in Littleton, Colorado, killing two of his classmates. The gunman was reported to be an ardent fan of Quake and Doom, some rather violent video games. More proof of the relationship between video games and violence is revealed by a study which clearly reveals how this kind of entertainment affects our lives. Greater details of the history of how high school students turned gunmen in Columbine High School are given, which shows that the effect of video games in their lives was a major source of influence in doing what they did best.

The paper discusses how violent video games affect a person's behavior and if they manifest violence and show aggression in the real world after playing such video games. I learned that not all people who are exposed to video game or media violence turn violent. I think it depends on the person if he wants to get influenced from the game, to mimic what the game shows. This is just like the next source, discussing about what kind of behavioural problems violent gaming brings about.

Some scholars argue however that violence in television, films and video games has in fact the opposite effect. As individuals become ‘saturated’ with violence, it can lead to a catharsis where videogames, television and films become a safe outlet to for aggressive feelings and emotions; as a result, individuals become less violent. Naturally, this argument goes against the idea that children are highly influenced by modelled behaviour as they try to replicate what they see (Freedman 2001). The influence of video games is therefore highly complex to resolve. Poole (2000) therefore argues that videogames may simply be part of many factors that lead to violent behaviour. Videogames as films and television may influence real life violence by having a particular style that is imitated. Pool argues that it is possible that the teenage murderers in America may have imitated the way in which people are killed in the video game Doom, however it is not possible to say that without playing the game they would not have killed their classmates. Research conducted in America reiterates this statement,

On the other hand, some people, although they already know some of the positive aspects of video games, still believe that the negative will overcome the positive ones. The connection between violent games and real violence is also fairly intuitive. In playing the games, kids are likely to become desensitized to gory images, which could make them less disturbing and perhaps easier to deal with in real life. When video games aren't about violence, their capacity to teach can be a good thing. For patients suffering from arachnophobia, fear of flying, or post-traumatic stress disorder, therapists are beginning to use virtual realities as a desensitization tool. Though this presents an evidence that violent games do in fact increase violent thoughts, this data still cannot serve as an evidence because the test is conducted in a controlled environment, without considering other aspects that might result in the change in behavior.

In their research of violent videogames and the effect on children, they have found that “the simplistic belief that exposure to media violence will lead directly to individual violence is clearly wrong.” (Kutner, Olsen, 2008) I am going to ask you to look deeper than this. I assert that although violent video games are thought to encourage real world violence, they actually help to prevent it.

A large debate that has encountered many, is whether role-playing with simulated violence is diverse or perilous. “Playing the games can and does stir hostile urges and mildly aggressive behavior in the short term.” I believe any role-playing violent game can cause harmful possibilities for many reasons such as, imputing bad habits, risks of danger for others, and committing violent crimes. One main reason that violent games are treacherous is, it can impact the person and cause bad habits. In the story Shooting in the Dark by Mark Kegans, a group of researchers tested students by having them play a violent video game and compared them to a group of students who played a nonviolent video game.

There just watching out for their kids and don’t want them to start bad habits. But in all reality, it’s not the video games that makes their children more violent, but their surroundings and peers during school, or even at home.

Excessive video game playing has been a problem with today’s youth they have had more influences over the youth than ever before. That brings to my attention a question, how do video games affect the youth of our society? Excessive video game playing, especially violent video games, can lead to youth violence, a decrease in academic success and many other negative things. I realize that some parents believe that they can be good for children, I agree but I also disagree in some cases. Some parents allow their children to play video games to keep a social life and to learn how to use strategies. This is true in some cases but not in all cases. For instance, other children that play video games alone and are in their rooms constantly can

“Recent contents analyses of video games show that many as 89% of games contain some violent contents” (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, Walsh 3). More than half of video games being sold around the world contain some form of violence. All of the violence involved in the video games being played by children is a pattern leading to aggression. Aggression can be caused by many things; however, violent video games are the main cause of aggression in young adults. “If a child began playing violent video games at a young age, then he might think that violence in real life is the same as the game violence and that it doesn’t have a real impact on others” (Gilad, Alto 1). Thinking that violence in the virtual world is the same as in the real world is the first step to showing aggression. Aggression in children caused by video games is the biggest effect parents and researchers worry about. Violent video games teach children that shooting and killing people are

When the word of video games comes to mind, the word violence ties closely to video games. For example, images of children tossing their controller across the room or children breaking numerous of expensive equipment are commonly depicted in media. Therefore, countless of people, mainly parents, associate video games as a way to corrupt their children and evoke violent behavior. This leads to the belief that video games are the evil villains in the entertainment industry. However, what if video games are not the evil villains, but rather the victim? Video games are forms of entertainment like books and movies, however, video games do not promote violent behavior. Video games are not the cause of violent behaviors since numerous of factors,