The Pros And Cons Of Violent Video Games

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

Video game effects are relatively new in modern society. Even though these games are often entertaining, the content of the game has been increasingly more and more violent as technology becomes more prevalent. The popularity of violent video games has caused an increase in controversy. Parents and experts feel that some games are just too violent and they demand the government to regulate the sales of these games. However, violent video games do not cause an increase in aggression, in adolescents. The forceful plan by the government is caused by an exaggeration of the effects of violent video games and this plan are indeed pointless.

According to Jeff Grabmeier, "‘Broad Consensus’ that Violent Media Increase Child Aggression," news.osu.edu, Oct. 6, 2014, 90% of pediatricians and 67% of parents agreed or strongly agreed that violent video games can increase aggressive behavior among children.

As many as 97% of US kids age 12-17 play video games, contributing to the $21.53 billion domestic video game industry. More than 50% of games have violence. (Procon.org) Video games that have violence have been blamed to have caused bullying, mass shootings, and violence towards women. (Procon.org) An estimated four out of five US households with a male child own a video game system and worldwide series of video games are predicted to reach $102.9 billion in 2017. (Procon.org) Critics argue that these games desensitize players to violence and it rewards players for simulating violence . (Procon.org)

It has also been revealed in studies that exposure to violence in video games can produce violent behavior, and possibly even lead to violence at school or home. The resolution of this problem is not easy, but one short-term explanation is for government guidelines for game sales. If the government makes retailers keep track of which games are being sold to young kids, then children would not be able to buy violent games. Because video games have a rating system, it would only be needed for retailers to guarantee that minors and young children are unable to buy games with a rating greater than their age limit. I do think that as parents we need to focus on what we let our kids see and the activities they participate in. The debate about whether video games have a negative or positive actions depends on one’s philosophical perspectives. Parents need to reexamine their method on how their kids should interact and engage with video games. This good vs. bad approach might be comfortable, but it also seems to be out of touch with the kinds of thinking that we consider through to be in the highest attention of our kids. Is this exactly how we show our kids to ponder about things? I do not think so! We insist that they learn to be at ease with some level of

Lately, it seems that there has been an abundance of horrible mass shootings and brutal violence in our world. In today’s seemingly dangerous world, parents are yearning to protect their children from getting involved in these savage crimes. Now, a great deal of people, especially parents, accuse violent video games as the cause of this growing epidemic. The controversy of video game induced violence has a long history, but it didn’t appear in the spotlight until the disturbing Columbine shooting in 1999, when the gunmen were said to have been addicted to violent video games. Since 1999, there have been more mass shootings and vicious crimes that have been accursed on video games. While siding with the belief that video games create violence

“97% of US kids between the age 12-17 play video games...more than half of 50-Top-Selling video games contain violence” (Guardian US interactive team). Video games are present in almost every home around the world, their commercialization and popularity are increasing abruptly, reaching in hands of a lot of teens who can spend hours and hours just playing them. Because of the huge demand that video games have, their creators are in the necessity to make them more attracting, to increase their sales, and give more satisfaction to their consumers, in this case the majority young people. However violent video games have been blamed to be a very influential factor in child development, contributing to youth violence. In other hand different organizations and personalities had different opinions about it, arguing that violent video games had no link with social violence.

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

Consequently, people argue that video games need to be regulated to protect America’s youth. Their way of regulating is to ban the sale of violent games to minors. However, as discussed above, this is unconstitutional and does not work anyways. They also do not have a solid plan as to how to regulate video games. Therefore, the best way to regulate video games is for parents to educate themselves on the current

In the 90’s there was even enough media attention to video game violence that the United States Congress had a hearing on issuing age appropriate labels, much like in movies, to video games to warn parents of the contents of a game. Each of these matters have only helped further tarnish the reputation of video games, and draw worse misconceptions about them.

In the latter half of his first argument, Roberts boldly claims “Violent video games equate to violent behavior, especially in children whose brains are not fully formed yet” and “a game rated MA (Mature) doesn’t stop a kid from playing it,” yet there is utterly no evidence supporting these poor claims. In reality,according to the Entertainment Software Rating Board’s official website, a majority of parents check the video game rating before purchasing it for their child (ESRB). Robert draws a hasty generalization in hopes that readers will gloss over such details and ignorantly agree with Robert’s meaningless and false claims.

In the 21st century, society is noticing a drastic change in the new generation. Going outside has become a thing of the past for some and many parents struggle to get their children to stop playing video games. Submersed in the world of violent video games, society has started to scorn the idea of them. Though video games seem to have a lot of drawbacks, other parts of society encourage the development of video games. While many believe that video games are detrimental to society they actually hold many benefits for all age ranges.

Ever since the nineteen eighties people, usually politicians and the news media, have been quick to blame video games for societal woes, saying violence in video games causes violent behavior and makes people anti-social. Some have even argued video games cause racism, sexism, and cause health problems, but most research that points towards video games being bad are inconsistent and sometimes contradictory. And yet people still want to restrict and censor video games, even though they are an art form just like film or paintings or what have you, and because they are an art form they are a form of media and are protected under the first amendment. Violent video games do not cause real world violence like any art form they only mirror the violence of the real world, and it is contradictory to think that they cause actual violence. Video games have even been shown to be healthy, they relieve stress and increase hand eye coordination, and are a positive, non-violent form of relieving aggression in a way that does not cause physical harm to others.

Children in the world today are being given an enormous variety of choices for their life, and though there should be a balance between work and play, violent video games give kids an easy addiction and upset that equilibrium. In the article To Play or Not to Play: The Great Debate About Video Games, author Chai Woodham states that “[…] there are no negative consequences for bad behavior. Players are rewarded for violence with points, reaching a higher level or obtaining more

Aimee Tompkins (2003) claims that children are being affected by everything what they see around them in the youth, and people, who see violence in the youth, always tend to be more hostile and less responsive to images of violence. That 's why parents try to border children from any possible negative influences. But they often do not even realize that by buying to child a game console, they put them into the risk. Since most video games contain violent character. According to statistics given by the ‘Children now’ organization (2001), 89% of the top-selling video games have violent character and serious violence is contained in half of them.