The Effects Of Violent Video Games On Youth

“According to data recently released by The NPD Group, in 2012, U.S. video game software sales reached $6.7 billion (174.8 million units) and computer game sales were $380 million (13.2 million units)” (Improving Economy). To many, the violent video game industry has turned all adolescents into mass murderers. However, they’re absolutely wrong. Very seldom do adolescents who play violent video games commit acts of violence, and the ones who do usually have a mental disorder. Instead of blaming the tragedies that occur on violent video games, the news media should explain to people that a large percentage of young males play violent video games, indicating that the two are uncorrelated. They should alternatively research other possible solutions to the crisis. In lieu of negatively affecting people’s lives, video games could potentially improve their lives!

It is debated around the world that videogames have a great influence on violence in the youth, more specifically in adolescents. It is a controversial topic because of the fact that in the past five years there have been many severe acts of violence with an adolescent in the middle of it. Although this true, I disagree with this statement. There may be a correlation between the two, but I do not think that video games make kids violent. In this essay I will voice my opinion on the worldwide debate of whether or not video games are the direct cause of violence in young adults.

Prolonged scenes of massive violence, graphic sexual content, and animated blood are examples of statements that the Entertainment Software Rating Board uses to depict the content in over fifty- five percent of the video games rated yearly. The debate of whether the aggressive nature of these video games influences youth violence in our country has been heatedly battled for decades. Since the mid 1980’s, it has been suggested that high profile cases of violence are due to an aggressor’s excessive video game use. However, much like a cold case the type of connection between video game use and youth violence remains without a definite answer. Most believe that video game use negatively influences child aggression acts in our country. Others firmly declare that video games provide a realm of opportunity for child development. Ultimately, it is impossible to say that video game use affects every child the same way. New studies suggest that video games do not affect every child that plays a game. Although violent video games are innocuous for the majority of adolescents between the ages of twelve and eighteen, the effects of these games are aggravated in those with pre- existing antisocial or depressive traits.

“97% of US kids between the age 12-17 play video games...more than half of 50-Top-Selling video games contain violence” (Guardian US interactive team). Video games are present in almost every home around the world, their commercialization and popularity are increasing abruptly, reaching in hands of a lot of teens who can spend hours and hours just playing them. Because of the huge demand that video games have, their creators are in the necessity to make them more attracting, to increase their sales, and give more satisfaction to their consumers, in this case the majority young people. However violent video games have been blamed to be a very influential factor in child development, contributing to youth violence. In other hand different organizations and personalities had different opinions about it, arguing that violent video games had no link with social violence.

Do Violent Video Games (VVGs) impact youth violence? It impact youth in many ways. They increase hostility. Hostility is the use of bad language and breaking stuff. Most studies show that school shooter played VVGs. Video Games can calls hostility do to the exposure to violence.

One of my fondest memories as a child was Christmas Day, 1986. I woke up early, as is typical for a child on Christmas morning. I ran to my parent’s room and rustled them out of bed so I could tear into the presents. I immediately ran to a large rectangular present and grabbed it from under the tree. I was hoping with all my might it would be what I had asked Santa to bring me, a Nintendo Entertainment System. As I ripped the paper from the box, I started screaming with excitement. Hidden under the wrapping paper was the NES that I had been gleaming at in the sales catalogs for months. I continued opening presents, getting several games to play on the new system. I received Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, Contra, and Adventure Island. This was the beginning of my love of video games. Gaming has been a part of my life for the last 30 years. Although I have spent many decades playing these games, I have never had violent outbursts or thoughts of random killing sprees. The link between violent acts and violent games is coincidental at most.

Motorist in Toronto were in shock when a driver was spotted driving so recklessly on a major highway that the local law enforcement had to be alerted. The reckless driver was driving at about 120km/h which was well over the speed limit for the highway. Soon later after the call, local police officers managed to get the car to a halt and keep the situation safe. The police officer would have never anticipated what about to happen when they got the driver out of the car and interviewed the driver. They found out that the driver was “… an 11-year-old boy” who “… had just been finishing playing Grand Theft Auto at home and wanted to find out what it was like

The question is why children are being affected by these games. Is it that the child are mimicking what they see or is it effecting the child’s brain. At Indiana University, Dr. Vincent Matthews decided to create a study to watch brain patterns after playing violent video games. They performed three different tests to find out how these games impacted the brain. They picked out 28 students from campus to play either violent video games, first person shooter games, or non-violent games. What they found was after a couple hours playing these games that those who play violent video games showed no brain activity in areas involving emotions, attention, and impulses. There is science behind violent video games and their negative effects on people. Researchers ran another test after the participants played the games. They held up cards with non-violent words like run or walk, and they were in different colors. They also held up cards with violent words like hit or push which were also in different colors. Those who play violent video games were equal to the non-violent video game players in the original testing but when it came to the violent words, violent video gamers should no brain activity in the area of emotion like the non-violent gamers. When faced with violent topics, the gamers were desensitized to the topic. Alice Park stated in her article, How Playing Violent Video Games May Change the Brain, “The brain changes that Matthews’ group saw were similar to those seen in

The debate about violent video games and whether or not those games influence the behavior of young people in particular, young boys has been going on for many years. There is no doubt that video games are very popular among pre-adolescents and adolescents. In fact, recent research in the New Hampshire Business Review (June, 2012) shows that 42% of the 300 boys that participated in a survey indicated they would rather play video games than play sports with other boys. In the survey (of boys eight to fourteen years of age) 84% of the 300 boys reported that they either quit or wanted to quit a sports team they were on because they "weren't having fun" (New Hampshire Business Review).

Video games create social and emotional problems in today’s society. More and more scenes of violence are being drilled into the brains of innocent children, and no one is doing anything to stop it. Children are spending countless hours playing video games and consuming their contents. As many as ninety seven percent of the kids in the US ranged from ages 12-17 play video games, contributing to the twenty two billion dollar domestic video game industry (Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence?). More than half of the fifty top-selling video games contain violence (Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence?). Research also showed that children from ages 7-12 routinely played games rated M for mature audiences, which was the most violent and

Statistics show that 10 minutes into playing a violent video game the average person becomes desensitized to the fact that they are killing someone. Now it it may seem like nothing when you play these games. But when people, especially children play them often it starts to become the only thing that they think about. Even if it is “just a character” in a game it becomes so to them to pull that trigger. I’ve witnessed this happen in my own household and I don’t hesitate to say: violent video games are poisonous to the brain.

Over the past 20 years, the entertainment industry has become one of the most successful industries around the world and changed the way we entertain ourselves from different aspects including watching TV and video gaming. However, the people who control the media have started implementing materials that show violence into all sources of digital entertainment, unaware of its serious psychological effects on youth. Youngsters are presently effortlessly presented to violence as diversions and consequently now have weapons and explosives comfortable fingertips, and this has prompted to some horrible results. It is likewise said that youngsters who are presented to violent video games might be at more grave danger. Nowadays, young teenagers spend more time playing video games and watching movies that show violence, and research on exposure to this type of entertainment shows that it is linked to positive and negative effects on psychological health.

“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

Violent video games provide an emotional outlet for inherent violent thoughts and feelings, which essentially deters crime. A study regarding the subject of violent youth activity found that “between 1994 and 2010 the number of violent crimes among youth offenders fell by more than half, to 224 crimes per population of 100,000. At the same time, sales of video games have more than doubled since 1996” (Corriea). These statistics communicate the idea that violent video games actually decrease the chance for people in general who express interest in violence to commit violent acts in real life, as their time will be spent engrossed in the virtual world of violent video games

The advances in technology over the past few years have been remarkable. There are many reasons that most children between eight to eighteen, in different parts of the world, especially in the U.S have started playing video games, including violent video games. Video games were first introduced in 1970. Since then, they have become a favorite activity and past-time for many of today’s youth and children. While many of the games are educational or based on heroes, others allow players to rob or even murder innocent bystanders using a wide variety of weapons. “Violent” games were defined as those in which intentional harm is done to a character motivated to avoid that harm. Violent video games are popular with male and female children, adolescents, and even adults. These types of games have been successfully marketed to youth and are easily obtained regardless of age. Violent video games can have negative effects on various parts of children’s lives. Violent video games should be banned because they cause behavioral, mental, and physical problems in children.