Over 90% of children around the world play video games, and over 90% of those are violent. This staggering amount of simulated violence has initiated devastation to everyone. Parents of all origins try to protect their kids from cruelty, but in the process of buying them pugnacious video games, they are pursuing the opposite effect. Simulated brutality in games are precarious because the history of gaming is tied to violence, it is treating killing as banter, and it surges bullying and aggression among players.
Some of the world’s worst murderers and serial killers are vicious game players. In recent news, Adam Lanza, who killed twenty-six children at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, was an avid Call of Duty player. This is crucial because the experience Adam Lanza had with violent video games may have prepared him to commit many homicides. Psychologists and scientists all over America are trying to find connections between aggressive games and murder. Steve Docey, went further into his research and came up with
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In California alone, 1,697,000 homicides were committed in one year. Playing intense killing games have affected the minds of players, especially children. In these games, lives are regenerated and children are handling and learning how to operate guns and knives within the game. This setup is treating the killing as a game. As a result, it is quite enjoyable to players. Not only are their aggressive video games, but there is also simulated assassination games played by high schools in New York. Similar to “The Hunger Games, Killer,” is a last-man-standing game of water pistol ambush. Students attending the school look forward to this simulated killing event every year. By allowing these kids to have fun by pretending to shoot each other with water guns, they are perceiving the idea that killing is entertaining. This is not only unacceptable, but very dangerous for the students and the whole
As the level of violence in video games increases, so does the level of concern for those who play them. Some people are quick to blame school shootings on games just because the kid played a “violent” game. “The topic of videogames and violence can be compared to the chicken or the egg question, which came first, violent games or violent behavior”(Violence and Videogames). However most kids in mass shootings tend to have easy access to guns and are mentally unstable.
There are thousands of problems troubling our society today, one being the increase in school shootings. In this case Sandy Hook Elementary School where 22 year old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people, 20 of which we children. The investigators at Sandy Hook looked towards science to determine why Adam Lanza did this. The scientist found one factor that stood above all the rest. Adam’s increase in violent video games he played, such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Grand Theft Auto. Each of these games give a 1st person view of killing civilians and the realism of death.
The most extensive argument many have argued toward violent video games affecting one’s behavior can simply be described as that many shooters were fans of violent video games before committing the shootings. A common example people making this argument raise are the Columbine shooters, who were big fans of the video game Doom. While many believe that Doom’s excessive gore and violence led the two teens to perpetrate the mass shooting, that is not the case. What those who argue against video games fail to realize that those who commit these crimes had a history of other conditions. After many mass shootings, researchers often discovered in autopsies that the suspect had a long history of aggression or mental health problems that gaming was not responsible for. Patrick Markey and Christopher J. Ferguson, writers for US News, wrote
Sternheimer brings up an issue that had an unnerving newspaper headlines like “Bloodlust Video Games Put Kids in the Crosshairs” (215). She thinks that not enough thoughts have been given to other issues like “social rejection and depression”. Information on statistical evidence was brought to our attention. Sternheimer believed it to be “controversial”. Sternheimer feels that there are important facts that truly cause killers at a young age that are being over looked. The important facts could include personal traits, family, and background. Politicians claims for the rise of video games concerns. Sternheimer briefly wrote a law suits to the producers and none of the law suits won. Have you ever thought why there are young killers, which are brought in suburban areas/families who are thought of to be the most
School shootings years ago in Paducah, Kentucky; Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Littleton Colorado, have raised the question time and time again. Do violent video games have an influence on children and their aggressive behavior? In all three of these brutal shootings, all the shooters were students who habitually played violent video games. The Columbine High School students who murdered thirteen and wounded twenty-three in Littleton before committing suicide after the shooting, enjoyed playing Doom, a bloody and violent video game. One of the shooters made a customized version of Doom: two shooters, unlimited ammunition, extra weapons, and victims who couldn’t fight back. This customized version of the game
As a parent, you try to shield your child from the real world for as long as possible, but for the students of several New York high schools, they’ve already experienced extreme role-play where “killing” is just an annual thing. Every year, many schools in New York participate in a game called Killer, where guns are replaced with water pistols, and the winning team gets the jackpot. Schools claim that it is a harmless, entertaining outlet for stress and also teaches teens life skills they will need later on. In the minds of others, the game could be doing the complete opposite. Although most undergraduates would find the competition entertaining, the game Killer, could possibly teaching them immoral behavior, as well as causing even more
It seems that violent video games can not only turn an at-risk child up to a dial on their behaviors but also low-risk children into a school shooter (Mozes 5). Video games have also been put on the radar as to one of the root problems of minors committing violent acts. “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 29). While kids play violent video games, they’re not only playing for fun. They are analyzing the which changes their behavior and actions due to thought process for example, “They start to expect people to behave more aggressively toward them, and they tend to see aggressive solutions as being more appropriate for solving problems”(Mozes 5).
According to CBS News, back in 2005 in a small town of Alabama, an eighteen-year-old teenager went on a rampage and killed three men, two of them being police officers. It was found out that the gunman played Grand Theft Auto day and night for months. He was simulated to murder; he was trained to “kill”. We all remember the tragedy that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, where fourteen children and six teachers were killed in December 2014. DailyMail reports that investigators discovered that the shooter, Adam Lanza, “notched up more than 83,000 'kills' on his beloved video games including 22,000 'head shots' as he trained himself for the horrific Sandy Hook massacre.” His mother recalled to a friend days before the attack that her “son had become increasingly obsessed with the military and she finding disturbing pictures of mutilated corpses and murdered children under his bed.” Studies reveal that violent games make children
In my most recent essay I wrote of the violence attributed to video games in light of various shootings and other tragedies that occurred in the past year or so. In this essay I argued that despite their violent content, video games are not completely to blame for acts of violence committed by children. Throughout this essay I tried to convince the reader by, first, establishing my own credibility with video games, then sharing my own experiences with violent games, and providing both empirical data and valuable insight from trusted sources.
"Blast! Head shot! That guy was pulverized!" These are only a few samples of the dialog talked between kids who play games such as like “Call of Duty” or “Halo”. In today 's age, kids frequently boast about the quantity of players they figured out how to kill while playing these video games. Two decades ago, this would not be the typical waste of time of an eleven year old, yet now kids are seeing this kind of brutal movement as simply one more approach to take a break on a Saturday morning. Since the video game market is blasting at this moment because of progressive gaming systems like the Wii, Playstation, and Xbox, this issue is turning out to be more serious; parents should be mindful of and strongly advised about the reasons why violent video games could hurt their children. Despite the fact that the violence in these video games is fictional, the essential ideas driving the savagery have been demonstrated to prompt more aggressive behavior in developing children. Violent video games instruct youngsters that brutality is acceptable and fun at the same time, have been demonstrated to prompt forceful practices in kids, furthermore desensitize kids. The brutal demonstrations portrayed in video games are transforming the psyches of youthful kids, permitting them to imagine that firearm violence and executing is a recreational activity.
Still think violent video games are harmless and fun? Consider putting down the remote control and listen up. December 14th, 2012. At Sandy Hook Elementary School a day of learning was interrupted by the sounds of gun shots. That day 20 year- old Adam Lanza shot over 20 children between the ages 6-7. Such a horrific event that had a cause of what seems an everyday occurrence to teens and kids. Violence simulated video-games. These games can cause a negative mindset that violence is okay. Look at the Sandy Hook Shooting, the murderer was proclaimed to play too many video games. That is just one example of how these video games can create that ambiguous mindset that violence is just a game. Let alone it also shows how the influence of constant
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.
It is not a well-known fact that since 1994, video game sales have increased 204%, while crime has fallen 37% in the U.S. (“Violent Video Games”). Video games create an outlet for an alternative reality for expressing aggression, rather than in the real world. Simulated violence that is shown to the public through video games is advantageous in many ways. Video games are extremely beneficial and safe because they provide kids with useful, real-world skills, they help to solve science problems, and there are limits placed on them.
“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
Video games suck children into an alternate universe of violence. Many children play violent video games without being aware of the problems they are creating for themselves. Such as being placed covertly in an unhealthy situation physically, mentally and socially. However, it is good to expose kids to technology, but it seems that many of these video games are quite violent and there is a high possibility that these games lead to behavioral problems and isolation issues. Many of these games include guns, grenades, knives and a number of other weapons. They are played from the player’s perspective, allowing the child to think that the screen is the view from their eyes and they are shooting from the gun. Therefore when a child plays they get an odd satisfaction when shooting at others, whether it be aliens, zombies or people. This feeling of satisfaction should be considered inhumane.