The Negative Effects Of Violent Video Games On Young Children

For many people in America, they think violent simulated games have no effect on how they act. But, they do affect humans negatively. Research has shown that when playing violent simulated games, people are negatively impacted in the way they behave. Violent simulated games are an unbeneficial activity for people, and this is why it’s important for people to stop being engaged in violent simulated games. Violent simulated games contribute to making the violence seem okay, and harmless, wasting time, and unhealthy behavior.

The article by J. Ramirez, Clinton Village News, states that Violent Video Games Harm Our Kids ensuring the reason of violence in young people who have played countless hours of violent video games.

“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!

While violent video games have increased as a form of entertainment, an issue has begun to form on whether violent video games have a negative impact on children and adolescents. Steven F. Gruel (2010) formed an argument about the negative impacts of violent video games on children. The purpose of this paper is to critique Gruel’s argument by finding flaws and strengths using the methods of claims without data, overgeneralization, failing to cite sources, and considering alternative explanations.

Nowadays, the majority of families (68%) possess a household computer which provide various convenient for citizens. Therefore, computer seems to be a essential part for every families and massive residents rely on it. Nevertheless, some game making companies are devoted to develop the violent video game. This lead to a series of violent game emerge in people’s computer and a number of youth involve with it. Based on the research, there are approximately 90% adolescents who involves with violent video game and 60% teenagers play 30min or more per day. ( Padilla-Walker,Nelson and Stockdale, 2012) According to the Lee, Peng and Klein (2010), “ people who played the violent video game were found to be more acceptable of crimes and criminals compared to people who did not play violent video game. ” That is because, if the players match a same role between game and real life, they may show some similarities. Meanwhile, Violent video game have a series of negative impacts on adolescents’ behavior, attitude to the crimes and health.

The negative impacts that are associated with violent gaming are a growing list. These many negative effects could build up into a more serious situation, with all of the possible outcomes of these side-effects mixing together it could quite possibly take a turn for the worse. The use of violent video games could cause players to participate in criminal violence, because of the increased levels of aggression and rage. NBC News reported of a gory incident in January of 2013, which involved Nehemiah Griego and his murderous actions toward his parents and three of his siblings in his home. The fifteen year old boy killed his family because he had been angry with his mother in the days before the murders. When questioned about his family, the boy was emotionless, but immediately after the investigators asked what his interests were, his face lit up and he immediately began reminiscing about his favorite video games, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Grand Theft Auto (2013). Common sense media explains the game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, with a vivid description; a “bloody military shooting game with disturbing cinematic moments” (n.d.). Could Griego’s avid gaming schedule, and love for the bloody first-person shooting game be slightly related to his urge to kill (2013b)? His decision to kill all the occupants of his house did not solely result from one night of gaming, for it was an accumulation of risk factors. It is likely that his love for gaming could have had an

Now video games are getting more and more popular, and teenagers like to play them. However, many parents are worry about that some types of game are not suitable for teenagers, like violent video games, they believe it will bring some negative effect to teenagers. Although parents believe that violent video games are harmful, it cannot be banned. Therefore, the parents should supervise their children play the violent video games. In many people’s view, violent video game possible bring negative effect to teenagers in three ways, psychological, morality and aggressive behavior.

In the 1950’s parents were thrown into a panic because of the possible negative affects rock and roll music could have on their children. Much like the bad reputation rock and roll music received in the 1950’s, violent video games have been questioned and looked down upon as a newer form of influential media. Violent video games have been blamed for bullying, school shootings, increasing rape, and increasing the amount of women being abused. Despite the popular belief that video games can be very harmful to a child’s mind and cause violent behavior, video games don’t cause as much psychological damage to children as people have been trying to claim. Because there are too many factors to consider, and there is a lack of evidence proving that video games cause children to become more aggressive, violent video games can’t be at fault for increasing youth violence.

Hamilton-Giachritsis (2005), Erwin and Morton (2008), Gentile and Stone (2005), and Jason et al. (2005) revealed a correlation between violent video games with immediate and later aggressive behavior. All of the research for the effects of violent videos games are conducted on older children and current research has not yet studied young children or preschoolers. It is important to note what research exclaims about the long-term effects violent video games can have on children later in life during adolescence (Anderson et al., 2008; Gentile & Stone, 2005; Kirkorian, Wartella, & Anderson, 2008). Anderson et al. (2008) and Gentile (2014) reported, 90% of American

Violent video games are those that represent violence as the best or only way to resolve conflict. Some statistics say that in the United States, kids ranging from twelve-seventeen play video games, which is supplying $21.53 billion to the domestic video game industry. Most video games contain violence, and fifty of those are the top selling ones.

Since the late 1990s there have been a continuous increase in the standard of lifelike violence in video games. The emergence of "first person shooter" really changed the how the player felt like they were actually in a battle. This intensified the gameplay and engaged the player a lot more in the game. With new features that are even more recent like Virtual Reality you get a full 360-degree view of any game you play and you get the feeling that you are actually in the game. There are two sides to the argument of violent video games effect on children. Steven F Gruel represents the people that believe yes, violent video games are harmful to children and cause increase in aggression, poor performance in school, and damage to higher level thinking. Patricia A. Millett represent the people that believe no, there is no correlation between playing violent video games and an increase in aggression. Both Millet and Gruel use serves to discredit each other's belief. They both make great points for each side of the argument, but Millett specifically discredits all of the evidence that Gruel uses to prove his point. Millett also has her own evidence that is more reliable and valid and shows that there is no correlation between violent video games and increase in aggressive behavior.

The following paper will examine the negative effects of television and video game violence on children who watch and play these games. Speculation as to the causes of the recent mass shootings in American schools and other public places motivated me to pay more attention to violence on television and in video games and write this paper. Most of these horrible attacks on innocent people occurred by a teenager or young adult. Flipping through television channels, I started paying attention to what type of media content is available for school-age children, and questioning whether the use of aggression or violence in media influences children. An alarming concern came over me as I flipped through the channels designated specifically for children, and viewed some of the shows and movies aired. The first show I came across was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and although the four green turtles are considered crime fighters, these weapon bearing turtles showed aggression and violence to others. The turtles battled monsters and gangsters with ninja weapons like nunchaku, staffs and swords. The cartoon characters were stabbed, beaten, mutilated and clearly shown to suffer, all to prove the four turtles were macho. After making a quick review of children’s television shows and video games, I choose to write this paper to demonstrate that children who watch violence on television or play violent video games are more likely to develop aggressive behavior with

Eddie Makuch stated that "Finding that a young man who committed a violent crime also played a popular video game, such as Call of Duty, Halo, or Grand Theft Auto, is as pointless as pointing out that the criminal also wore socks.” (Makuch, 2014). According to Background on the Issue (2016), 97% of children in the United States play video games. This contributes to the development of domestic video game industry, with more than half of the top-selling video game companies promoting violence (Background of the Issue, 2016). The release of the video game "Death Race" marked the start of violent video games in 1976. This gave way for many more violent video games to be generated once the manufacturers took away Death Race. Games like Night Trap, Cluster Revenge, and Murder Combat begin to surface. (citation) Violent video games have many negative effects and influences on children. Playing violent video games may result in children beginning to show more aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, and teach children that violence is an adequate way to resolve their conflicts.

“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 have become incredibly popular and pervasive form of entertainment. Most of the people prefer to spend their leisure time by playing video games. Video games increase the learning memory and multitasking skills of the children. Video games are enjoyable for children but video games with violence cause aggression in some children as the level of game increases. Now a day violent video games selling growth increases rapidly. Most of the children become addicted to the violent video games because of their parents. Most of the parents busy in their life so much as they don’t have enough time to spend with their children. They give tablets to their children which result in addiction towards violent video games. Violent video games have so much negative effect on the children. Violent video games effect the children mentally and physically. Violent video games should be limited as it changes behavior, causes distraction and health problems.