It's A Duel: How Do Violent Games Affect Kids?

For many people in America, they think violent simulated games have no effect on how they act. But, they do affect humans negatively. Research has shown that when playing violent simulated games, people are negatively impacted in the way they behave. Violent simulated games are an unbeneficial activity for people, and this is why it’s important for people to stop being engaged in violent simulated games. Violent simulated games contribute to making the violence seem okay, and harmless, wasting time, and unhealthy behavior.

Does playing video games increase aggressive behavior in children? Both the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, according to Susan Scutti, take a firm stance against children and teens playing violent video games. Violent video game playing and aggressive behavior are correlated, but not causational. With the use of scientific experiment and random sampling, one can conclude that violent video games do have a significant effect on aggression, but not in the way that we think.

Thousands of teens in the United States play violent video games everyday, for hours on end. Teens and children playing violent games are now accepted as a part of life. They sit in front of a screen and watch blood and gore, with no emotions and without cringing. The games become increasingly more violent, as the age that children begin to play these games drops, from twelve to ten to eight. Now, we have six or seven-year-old children playing games rated M, for 17 and older. Teens should not be allowed to play violent role-playing games because it teaches them that violence is acceptable, that it is fun to be violent, as well as desensitizing them to violence.

A huge controversy in today’s society is violent video games and their behavioral effect on the children and adults who play them. Violent video games have been blamed for bullying, school shootings, and even violence towards women. Many have fought that violent video games desensitize players to real-life violence, and that they are teaching the youth that violence is an acceptable conflict-solving strategy. Other sources have stated otherwise. The 2004 Secret Service has stated that only one-eighth of attackers have exhibited interests in video games. Violent Video games do not cause violent behavior or behavior problems because it has not been proven that there is a link between violent video games and behavioral issues, playing video games provide a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings and reduces violence in young children, and violent juvenile crime has actually gone down since the violent video game popularity has increased.

Kids should not be allowed to play violent games because it teaches them that there are no consequences for violence and relationships can be damaged. Although some games can be educational, there are still violent games out there that can endanger society. Video games get more and more violent each year. These games portray violence as fun and can put others in danger. Friendships can be permanently damaged and trust can be lost. These games may be a fun tradition, but is the message that kids are receiving

“Violent video games increase aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and aggressive behaviors and decrease empathic feelings and prosocial behaviors” (Gregory Ferenstein). Gaming devices not only desensitize us, but it heightens our chances of going out and committing acts of violence. Such as, James Holmes because of the games that he played (Call of Duty, Advanced Warfare and etc.) he believed that for every person he killed; he would receive a point for doing so. “There are definitely games kids shouldn't be playing, she said, for example those where hunting down and killing people is the goal)” (Anne Harding, CNN). After playing these games, many kids feel as if the real world is like a game and killing people to earn points is rewarded. Video games have changed our America to believing that death and violence should be rewarded, but with a twist and that includes handcuffs and a prison

According to Jeff Grabmeier, "‘Broad Consensus’ that Violent Media Increase Child Aggression," news.osu.edu, Oct. 6, 2014, 90% of pediatricians and 67% of parents agreed or strongly agreed that violent video games can increase aggressive behavior among children.

Many teens play videogames and other simulated forms of the games they play, however, a large majority of adults find these simulated games very problematic for teens. Research shows that while playing a simulated violence game it causes the players to become more intense, pessimistic, and affects their daily lives in a negative way. Playing stimulated violence games is not very beneficial to the player or people surrounded by these games. Simulated violence games should not be played.

Are role playing games with simulated violence perilous or diverting for adolescent? Some may think they are perilous for children and others may think that they are diverting for children. Do we really know what proceeds on in a children's head when they play synthetic violence games? No we do not know what goes on in their head but here are some causes. A few reasons why children should not play imitate electronic games is because, It’s teaching that killing is okay, promotes violence, and children's brains are still forming and growing.

For many teens, simulated violence games are apart of their daily lives. Research has shown that teens who participate in simulated violence games are more likely to experience problems in the future. Simulated violence games are highly problematic and push teens to be more aggressive and more mean than those who choose not to participate in these games. Simulated violence games should be avoided because the games could potentially teach these teens that violence is normal and killing isn’t a bad thing. The games could distract them from school assignments, and could teach teens that using negative emotions is okay. Simulated violence games could also teach teens to be too aware of the world around them.

Violent video games are usually the blame for school shootings, bullying or just regular aggressiveness. In “Violent Video Games Linked to Child Aggression” they did a study and looked at how children and teen’s video game habits relate to their behavior. The study supposedly showed that “children who were exposed to more video game violence did become more aggressive over time than their peers who had less exposure”. Although this study show that children are more aggressive when they are exposed to violent video games, I believe that children do not become more aggressive after playing violent video games.

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.

In “Casual effects of violent sports video games on aggression: Is it competitiveness or violent content, Craig A. Anderson, and Nicholas L. Carnagey Believes that aggression comes from the violent video games or only competitive video games. It all started in 2002, when ESPN aired and examined the impact of extremely violent sports games on youth’s attitudes towards sports (ESPN, 2002). When ESPN aired this piece Midway games was producing several sports games that had unrealistic violence far enough to just to appeal the non-sports fan or gamer. In these games that Midway games produced they allowed players to control real-life players on the video game platform, and could perform very extreme violent behaviors. It became so excessive that

The other part to this argument is that violent video games show consequences of violent actions, which helps gamers to learn right from wrong in their own comfort setting. Some video games show the aftereffects that kids do not always realize. For example, in Grand Theft Auto--a particularly violent game--if the character do something bad, he is chased by the cops. Granted, it is fairly easy to outrun the cops, but if caught, there are consequences that follow the actions. Such games “allow youth to experiment with moral issues such as war, violence, and death without real world consequences” (ProCon). It is important for kids to be exposed to certain things like violence and its consequences semi-early on; this way, they are prepared for

“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.