The Implications Of Monetizing Children

Video games are enjoyable for people and have good benefits for children who use their multiple skills to play and interact with others. In many parts of the world, the common video game is often seen by parents as something that is wasting their child's time or “rotting their brain”. It is a popular misconception that video games are bad for children. What parents do not know is the positive things about video games. Video games have a positive impact on people and help them learn things for experiences to come. People often do not understand that violent video games are not harmful to people because video games allow people to release their anger, video games decrease crime in youth, and because they allow people to be creative and test their

By August 11, 2011, Mark Ciavarella was no stranger to courtrooms. After twenty years as a lawyer and thirteen as a judge, including a stint as the President Judge of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas, he was intimately familiar with the complexities of Pennsylvania law. The business of the court that day was sentencing a man convicted of, among other things, racketeering and tax evasion. It was an unusual case for the veteran judge, primarily because he was the defendant.

In discussions of video games, one controversial issue has been whose responsibility it is to deal with the behavioral problems of children and teens who get influenced by the content in games. On one hand, the game industry argues that the responsibility should lie with whomever bought the game. On the other hand, others such as parents and Parental guidance agencies contend that their children’s bad behavior stems from games and that the video game industry should regulate the content to protect children from negative influences within the game. Others even maintain that video games promote violent crimes. My own view is that it depends on the person playing the game because certain people can be more influential than others, especially children. I also believe that it is the responsibility of the buyer to know the game that they or their children are playing and to take responsibility for the things that happens within their own household.

In this world today kids can play video games on about anything such as computers, phones, Tvs, and game consoles. The most useful gaming device that is used today by children all over the world is the cell phone, children can access it easily without having to plug it up to a Tv or deal with any cords other than the charger. “Researchers gave 12-year-old gamers tests that asked them to draw, tell stories, ask questions and make predictions. All of the kids had high levels of creativity and curiosity”(Morin).

American tweens range between the ag of 6 to 12. Per MKTG 10, our textbook, tweens are responsible for around 180 billion dollars annually in revenue. Thus, today’s tweens are all about the cellular phone. Almost every tween has their own communication device. Which brings along apps and games. Games developers use advertisements to sell their product to tweens and anyone who will buy in. For the most part, tweens are the starting age of find video games intriguing, and what better way to may a buck than developing a game for a cell phone. Personally, I think the ads somewhat con these young children into ask their parents for funds to download said games. They have brilliant way of using other games, by using pop ups, to advertise

Kids are bombarded with commercials daily; their favorite shows declare their sponsors and kids become interested, thinking if their favorite show is associated with the brand, the product is surely as great as the show. Their favorite game apps show ads before beginning the actual gameplay, and kids.

As noted in “Facts about Marketing to Children” from The Center for the New American Dream, in 1983, prior to the federal deregulation of marketing in media, advertisers spent $100 million on television ads targeting children. In contrast, by 2006, 22 years after deregulation, that amount had grown to $40 billion. The documentary Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Kids notes that that is an 852% increase. Companies employ professional researchers and child psychologists to help create their marketing strategies. Some of these strategies include 360-degree marketing campaigns that bury kids in what Michael Rich, MD calls a “media blitz” of over 3000 images per day. Consuming Kids describes the various blitzes and notes how they are all part of watching television ads, listening to radio, and playing video games where products are placed directly in a game. The internet is the newest advertising frontier and even uses the strategy of employing children to market to other unsuspecting children at sleep- overs and during school. The USA TODAY article also describes how 77kids by American Eagle and Webkinz encourage students to download their own image and see themselves as glamorous rock stars, in the products, or “sharing” with friends

Today’s children, ages 8 to 18, consume multiple types of media (often simultaneously) and spend more time (44.5 hours per week) in front of computer, television, and game screens than any other activity in their lives except sleeping. Research has found strong associations between increases in advertising for non-nutritious foods and rates of childhood obesity. Most children under age 6 cannot distinguish between programming and advertising and children under age 8 do not understand the persuasive intent of advertising. Advertising directed at children this young is by its very nature exploitative. Children have a remarkable ability to recall content from the ads to which they have been exposed. Product preference has been shown to occur with as little as a single commercial exposure and to strengthen with repeated exposures. Product preferences affect children's product purchase requests and these requests influence parents' purchasing

Alex Weiss an ex -Video gamer believes that “Video games are not work or investments for which people should be compensated; they are escapism.” His rational is based on the decision of the Dutch court to charge a 13year old boy with stealing two virtual items during the playing of a game called RuneScape. Weiss uses different examples as to why he believes the 13-year-old had done nothing wrong. One reason being” the developers of the game RuneScape did not explicitly state that the thief couldn’t do what he did.” I agree that a 13-year-old should not be taken in to court because of a virtual game that should be the responsibility of his parents to monitor what kind of game and what the rules are that their child is playing.

Australia’s gaming industry holds much power to its name, but it has become apparent that there are many unsolved issues which still linger on today. The question of whether parental supervision is necessary for children under the age of interest and if the banning of games solely in Australia is justified has affected the gaming community enormously; being debated over for countless years.

Marketers strategically place commercials in children’s online games. This is due to the strong tech-savvy generation of younger users. For example,

In his Article, “Just One More Game…: Angry Birds, Farmville, and Other Hyperaddictive Stupid Games,” Sam Anderson analyzes what he refers to as “stupid games,” such as Tetris, Angry Birds, and other mobile games that have taken a hold on people around the world. Beginning in the late 80’s with Tetris, Anderson discusses the simple yet cunning method in which companies have managed to have a hold on their consumers and how, through the modern use of smartphones, have been able to reach  an even larger market and come up with methods to create increasingly more addictive games and profit off of them.

Some C&As may have trouble incorporating active video games into their everyday routine. Although, video games are a staple of almost every single child’s daily routine, “active” video games may not be. It can be difficult to have C&As drop all passive video games for exclusively active video games so, the best case of action is incorporation active video games that do not require a home-based video console. Active video games on mobile phone could take advantage of the C&A’s time away from home. Using the mobile device’s built in accelerometer and GPS, mobile phone active video games are accessible wherever the user wishes. For example, games like Pokémon GO, Zombies, Run!, and The Walk use narrative-based stories and quests to keep

All that is required is just skillfully managing the keyboard. Computer life is so exciting, that sometimes people are not concerned so much on events that occur in reality, as on what is happening in the virtual world. Where, by passing different levels and achieving any success, player feels how great and powerful he is. With each passing day, the video game industry progresses, giving us the better opportunity to fully enjoy the scene. The purpose of this essay is to prove that video games bring more harm than benefits to children. Firstly in this essay, negative effects will be considered, after that it will review benefits of video games, and finally give recommendations to parents, how not to allow games to negatively influence their children.

The children of this new millennium will be barraged with more electronic media than ever in history. The nature of a child 's curiosity will naturally drawn him or her to a video game or interactive television. The other influence is that cable operators, television networks and video game publishers target children (and their parents) as part of the consumer base. Children will not be able to escape electronic media and in the future may be drawn more and more toward it.