Video Games Do Not Cause Violent Behavior

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.

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.

Violent video games do not cause violence. Just because a kid plays video games and shot someone does not mean it was because of the video games. According to an article written by Henry Jenkins on www.pbs.org, “But young people, in general, are more likely to be gamers - 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts.” This shows two things. Just because a kid that happens to play video games and did something violent, does not mean it was because of the video games. His older sibling probably bullies them at home. This also shows that playing video games cause violence, but quite the opposite. Now speaking from personal experience, If I’m playing video games, I’m not thinking of how I am going to bully the school nerd, or shoot someone, I’m focused on the game and how to beat it. Me thinking of how to beat the game is preventing me from doing something else violent. It also means I’m sitting in the dark in my room, not out and about doing things to people that

Over the past few years, the United States has seen violence that has come from the inside of the country. Various high schools, have had shootings inside of them from some of the high school students that go to that specific school. Some experts blame the shootings by categorizing the students as someone who has been tormented and bullied basically most of life, while other experts believe the shootings were caused by the violence in video games. There has been a lot of nation-wide discussion about if violent video games really do cause violence and aggression in young gamers ever since shootings at high schools increased. However evidence has shown differently than what most experts think. Violent video games do not cause violence and aggression in young gamers.

People play video games mainly for entertainment. It’s just like a hobby such as bike riding, fishing, and swimming or playing sports. Video games are also a form of art through which you can experience a story interactively and can also challenge you mentally through using problem solving skills to work through difficult scenarios. Some video games are even designed to be a fictional representation of life, allowing the player to experience or do things they would never be able to do in real life. In a society where we are responsible for our own actions, individuals may wonder whether these video games can have an influence on our actions. One of the main reasons that attract people to certain games is the inclusion of violence. People become immersed in a world where they are able to take risks and be able to break laws without suffering and harmful consequences that reality or real life would serve. This report is about ‘Do violent video games have an impact on a person’s behaviour?’, Based on the information I collected, the following guiding questions will help in concluding an answer to my research topic. The questions that mostly relate to my topic are the age of people who play games, what do violent video games contain, gaming addiction and effects on behaviour.

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.

Video games have created controversy in the United States and around the globe since they first arrived. Some games depict acts of violence, such as gunfights, fistfights, and even show acts of terrorism. People say that these violent video games cause violent tendencies and put vicious thoughts in the heads of mass shooters, but the research shows otherwise. Experts have studied the effect of video games on violent thoughts in teens, and controversy surrounds the topic. However, upon analyzing the data, the information becomes clear. Video games do not cause violent tendencies and have no part in mass shootings.

In this article by Roanna Cooper states that between the age group of 9-24 years of age, are making the choice to be violent in real life and trying to be more “popular”. Many researchers also researched on this particular topic and what they got out of these articles that if violent video game exposure resulted in increase in aggressive behavior over time. Results indicated that children who played more violent video games early in a school year changed to see the world in a more aggressive way and also changed to become more verbally and physically aggressive later in the school year. Changes in attitude were noticed by both peers and teachers. Dr. Olson points out that violent video games may be related to bullying, which researchers have found to be a risk factor for more serious violent behavior. Researches, for example, have found that living in a violent neighborhood and experiencing violence as a victim or witness is associated with an increased risk for violent behavior among youth.

Video games and their alleged link to violent tendencies with people who play them and younger children in particular is not a new controversy in the gaming industry whatsoever, or is it really one that is currently being talked about. At least not as much as Mass Effect: Andromeda's atrocious character facial animations. But it's always good to address the inanities that are made by activists and conservatives who constantly attack and attempt to boycott developers from releasing a game they have spent years making saying that it's because of political correctness. The argument that games can cause violent behavior is one that does not provide any solid facts that games and behavior are correlated in any way. In fact there are more studies

Video Games have come a long way since their first introduction into the main stream. With video games becoming more sophisticated and using advanced technology, it seems as if video games are closing in on the gap between games and reality. However, as video games become ever so life-like it brings up the question of if the violence associated with video games is having a negative consequence. There have been many accusations over the years over the harm video games are causing children and teenagers. Experiments have been conducted trying to associate a link between video games and aggressive behavior. Even the media has been known to point fingers at video games for the cause of children

Video game violence has been a discussion dating back to games like Pac-Man and Space Invaders to current games like Call of Duty and Mario. Many people are lead to believe that video games can cause children to act violent. However, video games do not cause violence in children. Video games can help in many ways either in society, people with certain disorders, or improve some mental issues.

Looking into the world of video games I will explore research that has indicated the exposure to video games directly results in aggression or violent acts. Additionally, I examine research that has stated that a direct relation cannot be determined and that there may be other important factors not sufficiently addressed like societal influence. Also, I will introduce observations about the study of video games and their relation to aggression and violence and how they may be faulty or biased making any results reported necessitating additional scrutiny.

Past studies have shown a link between violent video games and an increase in aggressive behaviors. The intent of the present study was to further investigate these findings. It was predicted that players who engage in violent video games would show higher rates of aggression. Participants (N = 20) were asked to complete two short surveys, the Buss and Perry (1992) aggression questionnaire and Anderson and Dill’s (2000) video game exposure scale. The results of the study did not support the prediction, nor did they corroborate the findings from previous research. Identifying the relationship between violent video games and aggression is rather complex. Earlier studies have shown varying results; however, much of the research has shown a positive correlation between video game violence and real-world aggression.

Video games have been widely popular in the last decade. Although these games are very entertaining, the contents in these games have become much more disturbing and violent as technology has advanced. The wide popularity for these violent video games have created controversy, with parents and psychologists demanding the government to regulate the sales of these games due to the fear of abuse and shootings. However, violent video games will not lead to violence, and should be encouraged rather than looked down upon.