The Negative Effects Of Violent Video Games On Children

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.

It is agreeable that there are some correlation between teenagers playing video games and how it affects the youth mentally. Heavy consumption of violence video games does indeed stimulate a change reaction in the brain waves, but there is no hard evidence stating that those changes causes teenagers to act aggressively and violently. On the contrary, it is a popular beliefs that violence video games does indeed causes teenagers to displayed unpleasant behaviors and actions because that is what they learned and observed from the games. Therefore, parents should limit and regulate the amount of time their teenagers are playing violence video games so that they can protect their children from negative behaviors.

Many times, I have walked into a room watching children play video games, but not just any video game, but specifically violent video games. In which they feature endless shooting, blood and gore splattering the screens, drugs, sexual violence towards women, criminal behavior, and obscene language. According to the Education Week Magazine, “Two-thirds of all households in the US have at least one video gamer, and 97% of kids ages 2-17 are already playing video games, with an average of over 11 hours a week.” Some of the most popular violent video games today include, Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty. Children who frequently play violent video games are more likely to become passive aggressive and view violence as a solution to problems; therefore, young children should not be allowed to play violent video games.

With the rapid development of new gaming systems, violent video games have become well-liked by children and adolescents. The playing of violent video games has always been a controversial topic, but in recent years it has become a heated debate. Whether the playing of these games desensitize the player or not. Video games have been around since the late 1970s, however violent video games were introduced in the 1990s. In recent years the violence in games have increased along with the enhanced graphics making the games more realistic. Violent video games can have positive and negative effects on children and adolescents.

From the beginnings of the industry, violence in video games has been an issue of discussion. From the pixilated weaponry in 'Space Invaders' to the myriad of weapons in 'Unreal Tournament 2003,' games have evolved over the years. Newer games are more real. Their environments are more immersive. Small details such as rain drops or a falling corpse are now realistically detailed in the games we play. Because of this, some people believe that this level of realism is desensitizing our kids and making them violent. Fueled by the school shootings of a few years ago, these people are calling for the censorship of video games and regulation of the industry by the

“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.

There has been a long-standing debate that violent video games are harmful to the rising generations. The article that was selected to be critiqued is, “Are Violent Video Games Harmful to Children and Adolescents?”. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of violent video games on the development of children.

Do you ever just think and realize if your child is surrounded by violence it will end up being someone who is very violent? In a harvard medical article it explains both the AAP and AACAP reason that children learn by observing, mimicking, and adopting behaviors which is a simple principle of a social learning theory (“Violent Video Game”). Which can lead for a child to observe a violent video game and later on mimick the violent parts of the game into reality. These organizations show concern that exposure to destructive behavior or violence in video games and other media may, over time, desensitize youths by numbing them emotionally, cause nightmares and sleep problems, impair school performance, and lead to aggressive behavior and bullying.(“Violent Video Game”) If we let children get used to videogames that include violence in their everyday life they will end up being influenced to do brutal crimes. Another part of the harvard article is a 2001 report of the U.S. Surgeon General on the topic of youth violence made a similar wisdom. They have discovered an association between violent video games and increased aggressive thinking and behavior in youths; some casual bystanders go further, guessing that tragic school shootings have a link between games and real-world aggression.(“Violent Video Games”) Games like call of duty, grand theft auto, and even battle field may sometime lead to an addiction towards the game and some people just want to end up actually doing it in

Majority of teenagers today spend countless hours of their free time on mass media either watching movies and T.V shows, scrolling through social media, or playing video games. A media source that is becoming more prevalent among the adolescents are video games, particularly those that encompass violence and weapons. With an expanding number of youths playing violent video games, people come to question the effects such games have on children. On one side of the argument, we have people that claim exposure to violence in games reaps negative behaviors among adolescents, such as increased aggression, desensitization, physiological arousal, and decreases in helping behavior. On the other side of the argument, we have individuals that assert video games have positive effects on spatial navigation, perception, and reasoning. Taking into consideration both sides of the argument and comparing the evidence of scholarly primary sources, one can conclude what the psychological effects of exposing a teenager to violent video games are, and what is the best course of action that parents need to take when allowing adolescents to play video games.

Have you ever wondered what would you do if you could play God for a day? That’s exactly what the video games can provide to you. Nowadays, video games becoming more and more popular and take the place of young people’s entertainment. Many teenagers are attracted by the video game as a consequence of they are eager to do the violent things in the video games that wouldn’t be allowed in reality. Violent video games destroy people by endow the terrible character to them, disturb their nature and ruined their life.

Since the rise of video games in the last decade younger kids are spending a lot of their time on games. One problem with children having access to video games is the bloody and gory violence some games contain. With children growing up playing these violent games it raises a question that most parents wonder, do violent video games make children more aggressive towards others? There are results from studies and incidents in real life that prove violence in video games does influence certain children. Violent video games do increase aggression in children who are already aggressive in nature but do not have a negative effect on most children.

In today’s world, violence has become a very persistent and unwavering problem. In fact, not a day goes by that one doesn’t see a story about violence on the local and/or national news stations. Unfortunately, the rise of violent massacres has become all too common in the present day. What could potentially be causing all these fits of violence and rage? Although there are many factors to consider when answering this question, one potential factor could be due to the increased violence in today’s video games. Though this topic is controversial, there is current research available to suggest that video game violence can affect behavior based on at least three reasons: violent video games can affect human behavior by skewing their reality, being exposed to violent graphic depictions can lead to a decrease in empathy and sensitivity, and violent video games could lead to an increase in aggression and anger problems.

Violent video games are some of the most played highly rated and played games in the gaming industry. Violent video games are also some of the most controversial types of video games, many people blame these types of video games for aggressive behavior. There have been many studies about how violent video games affect people's mood and behavior, and many people from the president to many scientists who think that the games will make a young mind become much more aggressive than their mind was originally. However there have also been many studies that have gone to prove this theory wrong, which ever one might be right or wrong there are many benefits that these people should not deny. The effects of many of these game are mostly positive in

Today, entertainment surrounds people through their televisions, computers, phones and video games. Essentially, video games developed into several various genres causing today’s entertainment to crave a unique experience. But, violent video games, regarded as a controversial genre, causes more negative controversy within modern society due to its glorified scenes of blood, killing, sexual context, and language than its counterparts. Not only does this minimize their favorable factors, but additionally, it generates a believable correlation between violent video games and aggressive actions. However, violent video games can produce a proactive change in health status, cooperation skills, and knowledge of various age groups

With the rapid technological advancements, the culture of video gaming has gained popularity, as computers occupy an essential part in life. These games are sources of entertainment for users and they help in improving social skills. In the recent past, experts have expressed concern about the effects of these games on users. Some studies indicate that video games have various benefits to children (Granic et al. 66). Importantly, they enhance coordination, problem solving abilities, social skills, memory, and concentration. From this vein, it is evident that these activities may improve a child's academic abilities that imply benefits in future life. Nevertheless, engagement in violent video games might have negative consequences for the user. Some perspectives suggest that video games promote aggressive behaviors and parents should regulate the time their children spend in such activities. Despite these cognitive benefits, exposure to violent video games promotes aggressive thoughts and inhibits pro-social behavior.