Research Paper On Video Games And Violence

According to Henry Jenkins, an American Media Scholar and professor at MIT, “young people in general are more likely to be gamers —90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play.” That is an overwhelming amount of young people. In recent years, there have been incidents such as the Columbine school shooting which have shown young people committing terrible acts of violence. In the case of the Columbine shooting, the teenagers who committed the shooting were both found to be avid players of a violent computer video game known as Doom (Ferguson, 26). This has raised lawmakers and concerned parents to begin opposing violence in video games. These people believe that video games (and violent video games in particular) can cause young people

In two studies conducted by Anderson and Dill, Study 1, found that real-life violent video game playing was positively related to aggressive behavior and delinquency. The second study found that laboratory exposure to graphically violent video games increased aggressive thoughts and behavior. In both of these studies men had a more hostile view than that of women. The findings from these studies are consistent to that of the General Affective

Have you ever wondered how games impact children? or why kids love to play them? Well your about to find out and the answer may be surprising. Video games were first introduced in the 1970s. By the end of that decade they had become a preferred childhood leisure activity, and adults responded with concern about the possible ill effects of the games on children. Early research on these effects was inconclusive. However, a resurgence in video game sales that began in the late 1980s after the introduction of the Nintendo system has renewed interest in examining the effects of video games. The increasingly realistic and exciting nature of electronic games has helped to make them enormously popular with children and youth. 79% of American

This research paper will discuss the various effects that playing video games have on children. They impact children’s lives socially and they increase violence among children (Sherry, 2001).

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.

When you look around these days, kids as young as five years old are holding their portable devices as their eyes are glued to their screens and their minds clueless about their surroundings. Increasing violence and contents of the video games have a huge impact on our generation of young children mentally and physically. When I was growing up, video games used to be a source connecting people around the world with their mutual love of fun filled games. However, over a period of time with advanced technology, more techniques of realistic graphics that are violent and gender biased were introduced. There are varieties of gaming system in the market such as Xbox One, Wii, Playstation, and unlimited computer games. Even though the violent video games have age restrictions, children can still manage to get their hands on it and observe the violence within the games. Children are more inclined towards buying games which have more action and violence. These video games have a negative impact on our young adult generation in the name of "fun", as they promote aggressive behavior, unrealistic popular and awkward approaches to the world, and time management problems.

The Psychological Group reports that more than 90% of children in the United States play video games. Among kids that are between the age of 12 and 17 the percent rises to 97%, more important that 85% or more of these video games contain violence in them. “CNN channel’’ That tells us that almost all of the video games that we let our children play contains some form of violence and we should do something about that. Our children are a gift that we should keep safe.

In 1976 the arcade game "Death Race" was released based on the movie "Death Race 2000". The objective of this game was to use your car in order to run over fleeing goblins. This video game was so simple and yet brought forth so much controversy that it led to the first study on the physiological effect of video games on the human mind. Ever since Death Race, video games have continued to make huge advances in order to create an almost endless amount of possibilities on what you can or cannot do in a video game. Since the first video game was introduced, the gaming industry has seen a huge spike in the popularity of video games. Not only have they become more popular, but they have also become significantly more realistic. So realistic, that it 's now hard to tell the difference between an animation and an actor in a movie. I 've been playing video games now for as long as I can remember. Since childhood, I 've played every kind of video game, from the educational and harmless ones to the mature, bloody and gruesome ones. While I, personally, have never experienced any type of violent thoughts or behavior due to games, can the same be said about today 's youth? With video game popularity on the rise and violence so pervasive, can violent video games really be held accountable for it all? The intent of this paper is to first examine the psychological effects of violent video games and to secondly give reasons as to why they in fact do not desensitize youth and to finally give

As many as ninety-seven percent of US kids age 12-17 play video games, contributing to the billion-dollar video game industry. The unprecedented technological advancements to this entertaining culture have caused many gamers to acknowledge it as the ultimate fantasy. According to many studies, video games can increase aggressive behavior, cause emotional outbursts and decrease inhibitions in many people. Social scientists have been studying and debating the effects of video game violence since the 1980s and such issue is especially relevant today, because the games we see today are more realistic and bloodier than ever. Studies claiming a causal link between video game violence and real life violence are flawed with many studies failing to control the factors that contribute to children becoming violent. For example, family history, family care, mental health, social skills, etc.… Most studies do not follow children over long periods of time, as a result, video game experiments often have children playing a game for as little as ten

Currently, a popular opinion in America is that video games are bad for individuals. This idea stems from the idea that violence is a socially learned, and thus playing violent games can help learn violence in adolescence. I decided to write my paper on this topic because I grew up playing video games, both violent and non-violent, and still play video games. In my experience, looking at myself and my friends who play video games, I never saw a correlation between video games and learned violence. A journal published by the American Psychology Association written by Christopher Ferguson makes the argument that while video games have negative effects, they also have significant positive effects. However, journals from the Journal of Adolescence, Pergamon Press, and a different journal from the American Psychology Association make claims that video games can have negative effects on adolescence in the form of learned aggression. I believe that it is important to discuss this topic because more and more adolescences are playing video games and the effect of these video games on the development will be very important as time goes on.

In this day and age videogames are increasingly popular. Some of these games include “Grand Theft Auto,” “Mortal Kombat,” and “Call of Duty,” etc. Not only are these games popular though, they are also exceedingly violent. In New York, the game “Killer” has become a very popular end-of-the-year ritual in high schools. It is not a video game, rather a violent role-playing game. This game can last anywhere from from 1-2.5 weeks. It is a game that involves water guns, where kids make teams (mostly seniors), create strategies, and lurk around, camping out all night in vans waiting to ambush people, and the ultimate goal; killing your opponents, meaning they shoot them with the water guns. Video and role-playing games like these can be very fun, but they also pose a bigger problem. Violent role-playing and video games are perilous because kids could get hurt, bring the violence into their real life, or they could get in trouble.

Did you know that more than half of the 50 top-selling video games contain violence? I’ve been playing video games since I was six and 5 of my friends and I haven’t even been in a physical fight. Violent video games do not make kids violent, because kids can release anger or stress, kids know better they can tell the difference between the real world and fantasy, and crime rates go down as violent video game sales go up.

In the last 25 years, video games become very common public debates, especially following the school shootings in late 1990s. The killers were believed to exercise the acting role in the video game they were playing (Gimpel 7-21). Much research has been conducted regarding the effects of video games on the behavior of children. The results of the research are controversy; some claims positive effects and others debates for the negative. On top of this, video games have continued to be developed and used in highly attractive ways using the state of the art technologies.

The long-standing controversial issue of the correlation between aggressive video games and violence committed by adolescents has been debated and researched since the early 1980’s. The video gaming business has become a multi-billion dollar business which has great influence on our society. Due to the financial gains and the technological advances, video games have become more realistic over time. Some current popular video games are so realistic that many perceive them as simulations. These so-called simulations are nothing more than just a game with advanced graphics. Often times, video games are described as only having negative effects on today 's adolescents, but this is not true. Research has documented many positive effects as well. Some people view video games as just another opportunity for adolescents to release their aggressions, however, it can also be a learning tool in multiple ways. The technological evolution is making video games more attractive to potential gamers and thus has become a part of a lifestyle, rather than just a cool invention.

The mind of a child is fragile, and any little exposure to violence at a young age could cause corruption with negative results. The mind of a young adult is far more developed, but can still be pushed the wrong way through exposure to negative imagery. Take for example the tragedy that happened at Littleton High School in Columbine, Colorado. Two teenagers, Eric Harris and Bryan Klebold, acted out a video game they had created, which was a modified version the video game “Doom.” In the game, a player goes around using various high powered weapons ranging from pistols to rocket launchers, to defend the earth from the denizens of hell. In Harris and Klebold’s modified version of the game, the player goes around killing monsters which were replaced with pictures of athletes in their school, who were unable to fight back within the game. On April 20, 1999, the two boys acted out their version of “Doom” by bringing various guns and explosives to school and murdering 13 students. 23 other students were injured as well, before the two boys