Violent Video Games Cause Increased Violence Essay

Whether violent media content leads to real-life violence is always debatable. And in recent years, school shootings have made video games a new focus of public concern and scientific research. In public opinion, video games cause more aggression in comparison to traditional violent media contents because video games have more features of interactivity, "due to the active engagement and participation of players" (Hummer and Wang et al. 137). But more and more reports tell us that video games are not the main cause of school shooting issues; rather it is the negligence of parents, schools, and communities.

The article by J. Ramirez, Clinton Village News, states that Violent Video Games Harm Our Kids ensuring the reason of violence in young people who have played countless hours of violent video games.

Video games and violence have been a big issue that has been the start of many arguments in today’s society. There have been many studies that have tried to support either side and no one can seem to come to a conclusion. The documentary that I watched, “Are Video Games Really That Bad” by BBC Horizon, was a document showing the benefits of video games and how they do not cause violence in people. Video games can be helpful to many people and can improve concentration, improve awareness, and can stop the brain from deteriorating as fast. These are just a few points that they make in the documentary. These stakeholders are trying to show their viewers that video games do not hinder gamers but instead they help them by increasing brain activity,

As many parents and educators like to emphasise, “Violent video games make kids more violent”. Video games affecting youth is a very debatable topic. Most people just come to that conclusion without acquiring any evidence or reason, but there are some reasons why this is a wrong assumption. I believe that violent video games are actually good for people. They allow them to have an escape from real life which is positive, the violence allows people (young people in particular) to think morally about what they are doing, and most violent games let children have fun with their friends.

Video games also play a big role on promoting violence. Even though most adults don’t play video games, our children do. And if we let our children play violent video games, wouldn’t you say that they are going to become violent? Kids learn by their surroundings. So playing a video game that teaches them about punching and kicking others they will do the same with their friends at school. And then we ask ourselves why the kid next door took a gun to school and shot his best friends?

In their research of violent videogames and the effect on children, they have found that “the simplistic belief that exposure to media violence will lead directly to individual violence is clearly wrong.” (Kutner, Olsen, 2008) I am going to ask you to look deeper than this. I assert that although violent video games are thought to encourage real world violence, they actually help to prevent it.

Video games have become a staple in the entertainment industry. Families coming from various backgrounds across the world own a video game system. Shooting games such as call of duty have become particularly popular amongst young teenagers. These types of games have led to a very popular debate. The question being do violent video games make children violent? Prosecutor Steven F. Gruel believes that they do cause children to become violent while defense attorney Patricia A. Millett argues that there is not enough evidence to prove this to be true.

In this age of technology, it's very safe to say that a large majority of the world's population has played at least one video game. This can vary from playing games on console, like Xbox-One, Playstation 4, and for the older generation, the NES to playing mobile games like Tetris. There are many consoles that span from the creation of video games. This has opened opportunities to make several kind of games. These can vary from side-scrollers like Super Mario Bros. on the NES, to Role-playing games (RPG) like Final Fantasy IX on the Playstation 1. While this has caused some great games to surface, it has also allowed intense violence to be let into games. Parents and anti-gaming communities state that this is why kids can become violent. This is false, because violent games can be avoided to prevent this issue, and the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has even made various precautions to make sure parents know what they're purchasing. Comprehensible symbols, detailed lists, and age restrictions prevents children from "becoming violent".

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 games are very misunderstood by adults. They seem to believe violent video games leads to violent kids, but that is just not true. Violent video games really don’t do any damage on the psyche of a child that was not already damaged, and if there is no damage already than no damage shall be dealt. People say violent games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto have been the cause of many school shootings which is just not true. Millions of people play violent video games every day and none of them go out and kill people. The person that goes out and kills people was sick in the head long before they played the violent video game. Maybe they enjoyed killing people a bit too much but that was not the intention of the games creators. They can’t help how some person who is sick in the head chooses to play their video game. I have three reason that will prove violent video games do not equal violent kids. The amount of time spent playing, how you spend your time playing, and violence in other media will help me to prove my point. First, we must discuss the amount of time spent playing.

Playing video games does not cause violent behavior. Don’t get me wrong, some video games show horrific acts of violence. “A recent survey found that 92 percent of U.S. kids--ages 2 to 17--play video games, and their parents bought 225 million of them last year to the tune of $6.4 billion.” (Sider 79).What’s here to argue is that violent video games do not cause violence among children, but the blame for violence should be on the individual and people who should have taught the individual better. If kids are not able to see the difference between reality and fantasy, then they really can’t be blamed for committing acts they see in a game and then imitating, not fully understanding the consequences of doing it in the real world.

“No one is suggesting that [violent video games are] the only reason they went out and committed those horrific acts, but was it a tipping point? Was it something that pushed them over the edge? Was it a factor in that? Perhaps. That’s a really big deal,” This is a really controversial subject amongst gamers and parents, on whether violent video games cause real-life violence. Lots of people think they do, while lots of people think they don’t. There is research that points both ways in the subject, although I believe that the evidence points to it not causing violence.

Technology is advancing and with that comes advancements in video games. Most games such as Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Assassins Creed, etc. focus their attention on violence and killing enemies. More and more techniques are introduced by video game companies to make this certain entertainment interesting for young children. That brings up the question, “Do video games cause violent behavior in children?” Children that spend a lot of time on these games will hurt their behavior patterns as they grow up.

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