Video games, such as Grand Theft Auto, depict graphic scenes which are saturated with themes of sex, robbery, and murder. Despite the game being rated M (for mature), many young children play and enjoy this game. Of course, Grand Theft Auto is not the only violent video game in the market. Call of Duty, Halo, and Destiny are all examples of shooting, roll-playing games. As I previously mentioned, many young children and teenagers play one or even all of these games. Parents and family give them as Christmas and birthday gifts, or even as incentives for good behavior. One of the main problems here is the audience. The themes in these games become ideas in young impressionable minds. In an interview with Chris Berry, a student at Reading Area Community College, he remarks: There has been a lot of cases in which kids believe that if you kill someone, they just respond like they do in video games. But they don’t. In a video game when I kill you, you would just come back [to life] and try to kill me back. Kids actually think that’s real, because they are playing games like that too young.
Playing violent games leaves children with an impression that violent feats can be attempted with no consequences. This belief is not only far from the truth, but is also extremely dangerous. Many parents do not monitor the time children spend playing video games, and as a result may even be unaware of the nature of themes that are depicted.Whether they are aware of the graphic themes or remain
The controversial video game by rock star called Grand Theft Auto has been sparking debates across the nation for years. This is one of the best selling franchises in the video game industry but the message in this top playing videogame for our youth in particular teens is violence. This game depicts family violence, drug selling, murder, extortion, robbery, theft, grand theft auto and many more violent crimes. This game really belittles women I feel because they always use derogatory language towards them. This game always shows “pimps” and ho’s” and the pimp is always beating on the women. This sends a message that our society is fine with this type of behavior since we generate it for our amusement and entertainment. I am one of those who is at fault by playing this type of games but I do understand that this is not appropriate for our youth because they are still learning and trying to understand what is the
Many people believe that violent video games play a big role in the violence we see in schools today. Gaming plays a large role in children’s lives and have begun to
Additionally, although violent video games might expose children to violent behavior, the amount of violence are not as great as the ones in movies and television. The news is filled with stories of war and murder, and nearly every movie contains some forms of violence. Plus, these two media are different from games in a very important way because they involve real people, not computer-generated characters. One of the social psychological science faculties in
In Grand Theft Auto, you run a round picking up jobs in an imaginary city. These jobs range from killing union workers to stealing pricy automobiles. In Conker’s Bad Fur day, you play as a playful cartoon squirrel that drinks beer and urinates on the enemy to defeat him. In the Journal of the American Medical Association, 90% of the games played today actually reward the player to injure another person and these were the games rated Teen. These types of gratuitous violence portrayed in video games transfer over into the everyday lives of these children. Studies of children exposed to violence have shown that they can become: “immune” or numb to the horror of violence, imitate the violence they see, and show more aggressive behavior the more they’re exposed to violence. Some children accept violence as a way to handle problems. Studies have also shown that the more realistic and repeated the exposure to violence, the greater the impact on children. For instance, a child in Kentucky ended up bringing a revolver to school and shot 8 students. Police ended up pin-pointing the source to the video games the child had been playing. The child ended up raking in more than 10,000 hours of a shoot em’ up style game that rewarded bonus points for headshots.
A ponderous medium of media is video games in co-relation to violence. Video games encourage violent behavior in children as they are at a crucial stage of adaptation.
Violence now of days is honored, glorified, and yet celebrated in mass media and motions to society that violence is normal, glamorous, and widespread in our culture (Caron, 113). Violence is not only present in television shows and movies, but also in other forms such as cartoons, and video games (Caron, 121). Children are playing more and more violent video games at younger ages because the parents are not paying enough attention to what is going on in their child’s life.
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
At least every child has played video games once in their lives. There are various genres and types of video games such as action, first person shooters, adventure, education, role-playing, strategy, and many more. 89% of video games contain some violent content (Slife, 2008). The most addictive, common, and popular video games among children are the violent video games (Slife, 2008). A lot of video games these days depict “real-life violence” meaning that the settings and plots of these video games are taken from real-life wars and events. For example, in Call of Duty, the plot is being in World War 2 and doing campaign missions identical to World War 2 events. While playing a video game, no matter what the genre is, the person is bound
“Head shot! That guy was destroyed!” These are just some examples of the dialogue spoken between children who play video games like “Call of Duty” or “Halo.” Children brag about the number of people they have killed in these games. Playing violent video games may cause children to act violently. First, violent video games train players to act aggressively by repeatedly killing an enemy over and over. Second, children mimic what they see, whether it’s in real life or on a video screen. Third, being exposed to the violent behaviors of the game, dead bodies, and blood, make the players insensitive to violence. Because the violence from video games affects the behavior of children, violent video games should not be available for purchase by anyone under age eighteen.
Violent video games can desensitize children. Studies show that most video games in today’s society contain some type of
Once you’re emotionally numb to violence, it’s much easier to engage in violence.” (Englander, 2003) Exposure to violence is inevitable, whether it be through the news, daily life, or first-hand accounts. However, the glorification of violence in video games is detrimental to a child’s mental state. However, there is a government system that parents can take advantage of to familiarize themselves with the violent content of video games
The graphics in games now make the game almost look as if it were real life. That has brought the video game industry a lot more players and part of those new gamers are young children. The issue is when a child is presented with a violent video game that has really good graphics the child has a better understanding of what is going on in that game. Because children can relate what is going in the video game to the real world, that leads children to believe that the actions being done in that video game are accepted in society. If the children believe that its right from them to do violent actions that they learned from the game there attitude starts becoming more aggressive. Anne Harding says “children who watch violence in the media can internalize the message that the world is a hostile place...”.
Violent video games are some of the most popular games for their realistic graphics, complex storylines, and overall carnage. Children soon find themselves playing them daily to access new items, achievements, and missions unlockable in the game. However, this motivation can quickly slide into obsession and, in many cases, addiction. This kind of obsession causes lasting effects on the child’s brain. The citizens of Slaughter, Louisiana tragically experienced this in August of 2013 when “an 8-year-old boy intentionally shot and killed his elderly caregiver after
Over the years, the popularity of computer and video games has grown. Specifically violent video games make up more than 50 % of the top selling games. These games include violent themes that involve guns, crime, blood, and gore. There is an ongoing belief that these types of games are to blame for the many acts of violence in society and have encouraged America’s youth to act out in aggression. Several organizations, such as the PTC (Parents Television Council) have moved to discourage the development of violent games while also pushing for stronger regulations when purchasing such games. There is also debate among parents and concerns on how games can negatively influence their children. So is there a direct link between video games and violence? The truth is video games do not encourage violence in society based on several factors which include scientific studies, statistics on crime, and prevention measures adopted by game publishers.
“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