The Effects Of Violent Video Games On Children And Adolescents

Hundreds of studies have been done to determine whether violent video games will really make juveniles more violent. Randomized experiments were used in several studies to examine the short-term effect of violent video games (Anderson and Berkowitz et al. 90). In these studies, children were randomly assigned to play violent or nonviolent video games and then were observed when given an opportunity to be aggressive. The result was that children who played violent video games usually behaved aggressively.

Video Game Violence has been a big controversial topic for many years, going back to the most simple classic video games like Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede and Space Invaders,which eventually turned into more modern games like Destiny and Grand theft Auto. This research expands and analyzes the idea of how video game violence is always accused and put to blame for aggressive events and how the research of this is faulty . The way most people look at video games and how people try to connect them to violence could needs to be corrected. Within this research we will be looking very closely at how these studies and tests were done on violent video

“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!

Over the past few centuries,video games have become a great leisure and hobby among kids of all ages and cultures. With the advancement of technology, video games have advanced highly in its realism and genres. This high type of advancement brought the video game industry to a multi-billion dollar industry. However, with realism, comes negative effects as well. Ever since the creation of violent or “mature” video games, there has been a constant debate on whether it will increase violence in the player. Although, not all video games are violent, and just increase skills in a player such as hand-eye coordination. Nevertheless, there is research going on for the link between violent video games and youth violence. The question is which event happens first in the sequence, do violent video games aggravate a person’s violent behavior, or does a person get rid of their anger through playing violent video games? Either way, violent video games are not beneficial to our society.

Steven F. Gruel, a former federal prosecutor, argues that the increasing advancements in technology are resulting in more realistic and graphic video games. With the increase in violent video games, researchers noted that the average time children and adolescents played video games also increased. Gruel emphasizes his concern that violent video games causes an increase in physically aggressive behavior, physiological arousal, desensitization, low empathy, and aggressive thinking. Compared to passively watching a violent movie, when engaged in playing a violent video game, the player is actively deciding to shoot and kill. Violent video games reduce the brain areas that are involved in higher thinking, thus resulting in low school performance. Gruel also noted his concern of violent video games justifying the violence. Players are rewarded for their violent actions. In the short run, violent video games stimulate aggression and in the long run it can increase the risk for aggressive behaviors later in life.

There is overwhelming scientific research that suggests that playing violent video games are harmful to children and adolescents. The scientific evidence has uncovered several areas in the development of children and adolescent that are negatively impacted because of the exposure to and playing of violent video games. Some of the key areas that are negatively affected include brain activity, stress levels and behavior.

This could be opening the doors to a plethora of other cases and assumptions that can lead to our youth potentially becoming killers. Research was conducted on the exposure of television violence and its effects on kids, organizations like the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association and the Academy of Pediatrics have concluded that there is a cause and effect relationship amongst those exposed. However, such studies does not demonstrate that media violence causes aggressive behavior, only that the two phenomena exist together (207). This finding was used to make the assumption that it would likely be the case with video games.

In today’s society there has been an ongoing debate regarding the effects of violent video games and the development of today’s youth. Many people believe that the violence in video games promotes aggression. According to Doctor Brad Bushman’s article, "Do Violent Video Games Increase Aggression?" he claims that violent video games leads to aggression because it is interactive process that teaches and rewards violent behavior. Yet others believe that this not the case. Gregg Toppo of the Scientific American, writes in his article, “Do Video Games Inspire Violent Behavior?” that video games are not a significant issue because teenagers know how differentiate between reality and fantasy. Because of the controversy surrounding this topic, I decided to research the question, “Does exposure to violent video games cause aggressive behavior among teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18?” Initially before performing any extensive research on this subject, I hypothesized that violent video games do cause aggressive behavior. I then proceeded to study different scholarly works that both supported and opposed my hypothesis. What I learned from those works eventually gave me a more complete understanding of the topic and allowed me to take a more educated stance.

For many years, there have been arguments over violent video games and their harmful effects. The standards for violence in today’s society are different than when video games were first introduced. A person’s personality plays into how they are effected by violence. In an article written for the American Psychological Association, Patrick Markey determined, “certain combinations of personality traits can help predict which young people will be more adversely affected by violent video games.” He also stated “those who are negatively affected have pre-existing dispositions, which make them susceptible to such violent media.” (APA).

Author, Steven F. Gruel, argues that there is an overwhelming amount of science and research that supports the claim that video games that are violent are indeed harmful to human development (Gruel 2010). It affects their development by causing them to act more violently. He begins by discussing that over time, usage of violent video games among youth has

Video games have become a staple in the entertainment industry. Families coming from various backgrounds across the world own a video game system. Shooting games such as call of duty have become particularly popular amongst young teenagers. These types of games have led to a very popular debate. The question being do violent video games make children violent? Prosecutor Steven F. Gruel believes that they do cause children to become violent while defense attorney Patricia A. Millett argues that there is not enough evidence to prove this to be true.

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).

Violent video games in particular are extremely popular in the United States. Many of these games are designed for adults but wind up in the hands of children. We have to ask ourselves what impact violent video games have on the adolescent brain. Two lawyers debate in the Case of Brown vs. Entertainment Merchants Association, US Supreme Court (2010). Prosecutor Steven F. Gruel argues that there is a substantial amount of evidence to make the conclusion that violent video games cause adolescents to act in a violent manner (Gantt and Silfe).  Defense Attorney Patricia A. Millett argued that the evidence claimed by Gruel is inconclusive, and his claims are false.

“Life is a video game. No matter how good you get, you are always zapped in the end” (“Video Game Quotes” 1). Over time researchers, psychiatrists, and parents have often wondered how damaging violent video games can be to the youth in society. This is an important matter to people with children in their personal lives or work environment. These games have become a large risk factor for aggressive behavior in children. Researchers have been saying that video games do affect adults as well; however, they have even more effect on younger brains in early development. Video games have negative effects on childrens’ behavior. Some effects that video games have are reduced academic performance, aggression, obesity, and emotional disorder.