The Effects of Video Games on 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.

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.

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.

As technology as progressed, more people, especially youth, take part in playing video games. There has been an steady increase of video game usage because of the fact that video games have become more life-like and realistic. While they have become more realistic in aesthetic ways, they have also become more violent in content as well. Games like Call of Duty

Video game violence is an increasing problem in today’s youth with violence as one of the most popular themes. Games such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty are among the most popular games and have been scientifically proven to have a major effect on teens. Many people try to argue that there is a difference in the effects between genders, however it has been proven wrong. Video games have the same effects as other forms of entertainment but do not get attacked like video games because the other forms are much larger than video games and have a much wider audience. Violence in video games is a rising problem in the United States, causing teens to have less self-control and more emotional disturbances,

First, the players of violent video games should know the difference between the violence in video games and behavior that is appropriate in the real world. Most all video game players understand that they are playing a video game and it’s not like the real world. Studies have shown that children ages seven to twelve have developed a

By the year 1980, almost every house in America had a computer or a television. The issue of violence in these media products has been a highly-debated issue for the past few decades. Recently it has become extremely popular in the subject of violence in video games. It is rumored that games such as “Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat, Battlefield, Halo and many more have been the culprit behind a recent spike in childhood aggression. Many people have their own views on the subject, but it has been most commonly deduced that aggression is caused by the games, but violence does not always follow the aggression. Violence in video games has been proven to have a direct correlation with the aggression in children.

First, violent video games can cause many behavior changes. According to Issue 2836 of “US Today Magazine”, “... 67% of parents and 90% of pediatricians agree that violent video games can increase aggressive behavior among children.” Also the article states that from the opinions of researchers, 8 out of 10 agree that violent video games make children angrier or more aggressive. These results mean that more than half the people who debate this topic say it is true teens or children who play violent video games

For several decades, the idea of violence in the popular media influencing a young generation to violence has been hotly debated. Since the introduction of violent video games in the 1970’s, for example, the shooting games Empire and Maze War from 1973, people have noticed that violent video games induce violent behavior in players, especially in teenage males. Despite people seeing the negative influence of violent media earlier as well, only in the last two decades has video game violence come to the forefront as video game popularity has increased. With the growing influence of digital technology, people began to notice increasingly aggressive displays on the part of adolescent players. Moreover, the computer and game consoles became the most cherished adolescent toys, and violent video games their favorite pastime. Meanwhile, parents started to worry about their children’s activity, and whether violent video games lead juveniles to infractions of the law and to negative changes in their behavior.

Violent video games can provide a safe and healthy opportunity for youth to explore rules and consequences to violent actions and may allow youth to virtually explore war and death without any real world consequences. ProCon.org (2014).

Correlational evidence documenting a positive relationship between playing violent video games and aggressive behavior has been accumulating especially since “shooter game” started to inundate the market in the late 1990s. Thus, it seems important to assess the relative frequency of gun use in popular video games (Weber). For example, multiple literature reviews and meta-analytic work have concluded that playing violent video game significantly increases the aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, and physiological arousal of the players, which in turn significantly increases the amount of aggressive behaviors that are observed (Baldassaro). With all the multiple literature review and meta-analytics we still have a lot to learn more about the influence of exposure to violent video games.

Ah yes video games are huge icons of culture and identity for the people of the newest generations but games aren 't usually digital rainbows and love but some revolve around violence in their our ways, so as you would expect these games deeds don’t get away without criticism and opposition to some degree. Are violent video games a major cause of violent and aggressive behavior in those who play them? Are they contenders in influencing behavior and even shootings from the violence done within these digital fronters? The issue has been a big debate among concerned people of the world and video game advocates for many years now. Some argue that violent video games do the opposite of increased aggressive behavior and likelihood to commit crimes in which games can actually help stop such, but is this always the case? Some critics also blame these games for numerous issues at hand like school shootings, bullying, and violence towards women, but are they the real causes? There are many studies within this debate for both side of the issue and interesting finds in violent video games. The video game industry is a huge million dollar industry and violence tends to be in a lot of them however.

This paper explores violent video games and their affects on people’s behavior and emotions. An experimental study was done by Smith, Lachlan, and Tamborini and is investigated further. The researchers wanted to examine people’s behavior after playing violent video games as well as nonviolent video games and compare the differences of the two. The study observes boys and girls as well as a range of ages and ethnicity for a nonbiased experiment. We also study the results and possible solutions of this experiment. Beliefs of violent video games negatively affecting young children and teens are explored. This paper mostly focuses on the relation between violent video games and aggressive behavior and what positive and negative affects it holds. The articles that I reviewed all suggest that violent video games can be good if played at the right time and for the right amount of time. This statement raises awareness for parents and what they should be doing specifically for their children.

“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.

“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