Violent Video Games Cause Our Youth

Since video games have been introduced, video games have been accused of contributing too many atrocities, and acts of violence. News outlets paint video games as being a source of which some acts of violence happen. Yes, violent video games have become more popular, meanwhile becoming controversial, but still there exist no links between aggression and video games. The University of Bologna says that “owning videogames does not in fact seem to have negative effects on aggressive human behavior” (Koffler par.7). Meanwhile, news outlets keep on missing the point on how beneficial video games are. Video games do not contribute to violence, can be educational, and they can improve us in different ways.

A ponderous medium of media is video games in co-relation to violence. Video games encourage violent behavior in children as they are at a crucial stage of adaptation.

Americans have been blaming violent forms of entertainment since colonial times. From dime novels to music, to movies to television shows. The most recent medium are video games. Aided by crime-saturated news reports, a lot of people are convinced that video game violence transfers to real-life youth crimes like the school massacres. They think that violent video games make people violent, but that is not the case. Violent people play violent video games. Not everyone who plays video games are violent, but those who already are violent will play them as an outlet for their frustration and rage. If anything, video games keep violent people from going out and killing people in real life because they can vent in the virtual world.

“Violent video games increase aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and aggressive behaviors and decrease empathic feelings and prosocial behaviors” (Gregory Ferenstein). Gaming devices not only desensitize us, but it heightens our chances of going out and committing acts of violence. Such as, James Holmes because of the games that he played (Call of Duty, Advanced Warfare and etc.) he believed that for every person he killed; he would receive a point for doing so. “There are definitely games kids shouldn't be playing, she said, for example those where hunting down and killing people is the goal)” (Anne Harding, CNN). After playing these games, many kids feel as if the real world is like a game and killing people to earn points is rewarded. Video games have changed our America to believing that death and violence should be rewarded, but with a twist and that includes handcuffs and a prison

Violent video games are blamed for causing violence, aggressive behaviors, crimes, bullying, fighting, and school shootings. The media portrays video games as a tool that influence children and teenagers to commit violent acts. During the Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association case, the United States Supreme Court ruled the rejection of banning video games in California because studies have not proven the violence caused by video games. Statistics have shown the decrease in juvenile crime rates and increase in violent video game sales. Studies conducted by medical professionals have also proven that video games do not cause violence but rather increase moral sensitivity, prosocial behavior, and moral compass for children and teenagers. Video games do not cause violence because there is no evidence that suggests that video games cause violent behavior in children and teenagers.

Media has portrayed violent video games as the root cause for violence and school shootings, but is it really? Violent video games are predominate in the industry of gaming with consumers being primarily children. Furthermore, as the sales of video games increase studies have shown that violence has actually decreased in younger consumers. There are many studies performed on children to truly test these accusations made against video games and violence. Many people believe that playing video games will lead you down a path of anger and evil, but this isn’t the truth at all playing video games doesn’t have to lead you to becoming a villain to

Technology is an important aspect of change in our world. As time goes on, we are introduced to more and more technology every year, which includes media such as video games. The increase of technology has also increased and improved the world including ways of communicating and distribution of information. More often used outlets of media are those used for entertainment purposes, like television, internet and video games. The ones who are most likely to engage in these media outlets are millennials and the most recent generation Z, because they have been introduced to these outlets from a young age. In fact, a study found that children spend around 9 hours a week playing video games (Polman, de Castro, & van Aken, 2008). It is evident that video games are progressively becoming more violent in nature, and with children spending as much time as they do playing video games, there are questions that must be asked, is the violent nature of video games effecting today’s youth? And if so in what ways?

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.

I think that video games are causing youth violence among underaged children. One claim to support this is, “video games are uniquely problematic in that the viewer isn’t simply sitting back and watching the violence.”As said by Timothy Winter. If you were to compare a child who had no violence video game experience vs a child who did have violence game experience, you could clearly see the difference (when they would be playing a video game that includes violence). The Parents Television Council even showed us the rate that an underage child was able to purchase an adult video game. The results were 36% of the time. I agree with this because, when purchasing an adult rated video game, the salesman just gives you the slightest reminder

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

“On the other hand, considering a specific violent video game may have the reverse effect and actually reduce perceptions of negative effects if it is difficult to generate arguments for negative effects of the specific game” (Ivory, Kalyanaraman 4). Although you may believe that violent video games increase the youth violence rates, in actuality some violent video games can have separate effects on youth depending on the child for instance, one child could become more violent whereas another child will not have the urge to be violent.

Ever since their conception, video games have contained violence; violence being to cause pain or death onto other beings. From early video games to the most advanced, violence plays an important role. Early games like Wonder Boy and Space Invaders contain violence. Space Invaders involves shooting and killing as many alien as possible. Wonder Boy has our hero killing monsters that vanish upon death. The hero is also subjected to violence as enemies swing swords, and throws rocks at him. The degree of violence in video games is based upon personal preference. Does violence in video games contribute to violent act committed by teens? And, what makes teens turn to violence?

Upon further research, author Tobias Greitemeyer stated how, “One national survey showed that 88% of American youth between ages 8 and 18 play video games.” (Greitemeyer 19) From the statistics I gathered stating that more than half of video-games rated by the ESRB have violence, along with the 88 percent of American youth that plays video-games. It is fair to assume that most children are playing some type of violent video game. However, does violent video-games really affect the minds of our young people? It remains a debate, because video game developers are protected by laws and every type of playable electronic software is regulated by the Electronic Software Rating Board. The people totally against violent video games feel as if violent titles should be taken of shelves.

Video games, Movies, music videos, and tv shows, more or less, have all been used as either as either a starting point or a scapegoat in media to entice news and controversy among the populace. It's been used as a claim to incite violence in children, causing them to act out and interpret what they are viewing on their tv screens. Video games causing real-life violence is a matter of debate that has been tossed back and forth since it's inception, but which side is right? Given the science and functionality of the human brain, Video games do not cause violence or misbehavior in youth but instead, help boost mood and general mental, actually help stop and reduce the violent crime rate and when involved, is only used as an excuse for the

Video games are the most popular form of entertainment and they are enjoyed by people from all age groups. Playing video games can have tremendous impacts on the different age groups, most importantly on the youth. The impact of video games on the youth has many different sides and it is a highly debated topic. One side feels that it has no impact on the youth and is only a game in which the content is meant to be enjoyed. However, the truth is that video games have a detrimental impact on today’s youth, especially violent games, and this is the position of the other side. This side believes the violence in video games is one aspect of