Video Games Should Be Legal

Thousands of teens in the United States play violent video games everyday, for hours on end. Teens and children playing violent games are now accepted as a part of life. They sit in front of a screen and watch blood and gore, with no emotions and without cringing. The games become increasingly more violent, as the age that children begin to play these games drops, from twelve to ten to eight. Now, we have six or seven-year-old children playing games rated M, for 17 and older. Teens should not be allowed to play violent role-playing games because it teaches them that violence is acceptable, that it is fun to be violent, as well as desensitizing them to violence.

Video games are prevalent among impressionable children and teenagers. There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the violent themes used in video games. Teenage shootings in schools have led society to question the relationship between video violence and criminal activity. After considerable research, expert opinions, and research findings, the American Psychological Association found that there is no link between gaming and criminal behavior (Casey). With this, the pursuit of video violent games continues to grow in our society. With games that show execution style murders, blood oozing from gunshot wounds, and victims moaning from wounds, it certainly is gratifying for the indulgent player. The ongoing concern about aggression and violence has once again been proven to be non-existent (Alert). My thoughts are that this cartoon like violence is appeals to the need for violence in an artificially designed environment. In this manner, violence is contained within the boundaries of fantasy. This is unlike “The Crucible” which occurs in with real people, events, and situations. Thus, directing violence in the realm of societal dysfunction that has endured with

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.

to begin, violence in video games are at an all time high. The acts and crimes you can commit range from, murder, rape, and assault. This demonstrates,especially to children and teens, that violence is okay and you commit all these horrible crimes with no consequences. In the article

The topic of whether or not minors should be allowed to purchase violent video games containing violent content is very popular in current years and there are many arguments to support either side of the debate. I personally believe that minors should be allowed to purchase video games with violent content. In this essay I will argue why I feel this way.

Video game violence has been a wildly debated topic since the beginnings of the industry. The topic evolved from the debate on media violence or violence in print media. However, the video game debate brings a new angle. Video games, because of their immersive nature, are said to have more impact on children. The proponents and opponents of video game censorship do not really fall into traditional political boundaries. The proponents of censorship tend to be some parents and doctors. Those opposed to censorship tend to be those who play the video games themselves. There is a center faction, however. The center faction consists of those doctors and psychologists who evaluate media violence on a

As technology as progressed, more people, especially youth, take part in playing video games. There has been an steady increase of video game usage because of the fact that video games have become more life-like and realistic. While they have become more realistic in aesthetic ways, they have also become more violent in content as well. Games like Call of Duty

There weren’t any problems seen with games or gamer behaviour until 1976 when the company Exidy released the game Death Race, due to the gremlins human-like appearance, the context of its inspiration Death Race 2000 (1975), and the game’s working title being Pedestrian. The uproar around the game actually promoted sales and sparked the release of its sequel Super Death Race in 1977, and Atari’s release of the 2600 home console. In the following years there was great success with games that weren’t thought to be particularly violent like Pac- man and Space Invaders, however rising concerns came with public success. In 1982 the combination of a warning from C. Everett Koop-- the U.S. general surgeon at the time-- that video games contributed to family violence and the release of Custer’s Revenge (1982) by Mystique created astigmatism against games made and marketed for adults. There was a short break before the Mortal Kombat (1992) series reopened the discussion on violent video games with it’s gory and brutal “Fatality” scenes that included: decapitation, ripping the organs or skeletal structure, and incinerating or freezing your opponent. At the same time the less popular Night

In recent years, the debate of whether violent video games has any relation on violent behaviors has been gaining momentum. Studies have indicated a link between violent video games and higher levels of aggression but there is not enough evidence to support the risk of criminal or violent behavior. Often the video game is not the brute of the blame but the manufacturer. Video game manufacturers get a rating based upon their content. These ratings leave the choice up to the consumer (or the parents) on the level of violent (adult) content and are as

More than half of the video games purchased are from underage children. The sheer scope of media choices renders futile any effort to rein in content through regulations. Regulations which nobody seemed to follow or obey. Occasional pixilated displays of violence or sex can be found in some games that are sometimes sold to children. These comprise a tiny part of the total array of media content freely available to anyone. (Koffler 51). Further, hearing from Mark and Keisha Hoerrner, parents allow the exposure to violent video games, without even checking the industry ratings. Victims susceptible to increased aggression learn that violence is acceptable to solve problems, and they perfect the art of shooting as though the virtual gun was a real weapon (39). Hoerrners’ concede that parents need to be aware of the inappropriate content that is viewed, as well as inform the players reality to socially acceptable behavior in the real world. The Hoerrners and Koffler agree to such statement that violent video games don’t have any further effect on aggression, due to the fault of parents and the video games stores themselves. Even though such belief is valid in the sense that parents have to have a watchful eye, but in order to make the statement true, more information must be

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.

Violence in video games has been a hot topic ever since the beginnings of the industry. From depictions of a polygonal frog being run over in Frogger, to stealing cars in a realistic environment a la Grand Theft Auto, this topic has sparked serious debate. The traditional liberal stance is that the government should forcefully regulate the video game industry. The conservative stance is that the industry does a good job of rating itself, and that government should not get involved. The liberal stance has its points, in the fact that video games are getting more realistic and more violent. With increasing technology in computers, the video game industry also makes advances in graphics and what they can display. The

The evolution of video games has taken a drastic change since the 1970’s when video games were first introduced. Since then every decade video games have become more violent in nature with strong language and realistic to suit society today. Craig Anderson states that with more violence in video games they would sell better than games with less violence (Anderson, Gentile, and Beckley pg.5). Violent video games really became popular when the first person shooter games were invented so that we could see through the eyes of the player, as if we were really experiencing it. Society wanted better graphics and games as time went on new technology was invented and society matured in electronics. This meant that for game creators would have to come up with something better selling than the last. Creators would make the games more violent and more realistic each time so that way they can keep the interest of their consumers. Each game would increase in blood or gore slowly, but what really got consumers to buy their games would be the update of graphics in the consoles or games. This is due to the drastic changing of technology and the maturing of consumers wanting better and newer violent video games. Violent video games can cause children to behave violently if not correctly supervised.

When a child wants to play a video game, it is up to the parents to decide if the game is too violent or okay for their child to play. Many studies have researched into this topic and provided many examples of side effects, like being more aggressive and antisocial, or enhanced motor skills and reflexes. In recent years, those who oppose violent video games have influenced many parents and government officials to try and censor or ban violence in video games. Because violent video games do not cause any harmful effects in children, they should be considered safe for all.

In the past few decades video games have become extremely popular among children and young adults alike. In the early days of video games the children of which became captivated by these fictitious worlds still hold on to the loving value of playing these games and destroying their opponents, over time graphics and violence grew stronger in some of these games. Today, computer graphics in video games are incredibly realistic and there is an astronomical amount of people who are now pointing the finger towards video games for making them too violent resulting in their children to have violent outbursts and growing violent tendencies. I do not believe it is the video games that are making these children act in fits of anger and rebellion; I believe it is bad parenting that make these children lash out. Although, there have been numerous studies on the effects of video games and how they link violent acts carried out by young adults, most of the findings are inconclusive, meaning no physiologist can actually prove that video games cause violence. Parents are the direct result of why children act out in violence not video games. Video games have gotten to the point where gamers can become a character in a virtual world and basically carry out any action to the gamers choosing, even if that means to kill whomever the gamer would desire in multiple explicit gory ways that the user desires to do in their twisted minds yet, people are still pointing fingers at this X-rated portion