Violent Video Games

Also, newspapers focused on video games being the major explanation for school shootings. However, “Some stories mentioned other explanations… but these were treated mostly as minor factors compared with video games” (pg.14). Much less attention were given to the other reasons.

Many theories are speculated of what drove people to create such massacres and harm to innocent victims. One of the most popular is that violent video games have an influence on these attacks. However, Matt Peckham, in “Researcher Says Linking Video Games to Gun Violence is a ‘Classic Illusory Correlation’” explains there isn’t much evidence to prove that theory and researches haven’t found a reasonable link between the two. Actually, on the contrary video games seem to benefit a person mind rather than harm them according to Mary Flanagan, in her article “Don’t Demonize Video Games for Violence.” Video games don’t influence a person’s mind because there is a psychological explanation to these occurrences therefore violent video games has no contribution to violence incidents across the nation.

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.

Does playing video games increase aggressive behavior in children? Both the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, according to Susan Scutti, take a firm stance against children and teens playing violent video games. Violent video game playing and aggressive behavior are correlated, but not causational. With the use of scientific experiment and random sampling, one can conclude that violent video games do have a significant effect on aggression, but not in the way that we think.

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.

“According to data recently released by The NPD Group, in 2012, U.S. video game software sales reached $6.7 billion (174.8 million units) and computer game sales were $380 million (13.2 million units)” (Improving Economy). To many, the violent video game industry has turned all adolescents into mass murderers. However, they’re absolutely wrong. Very seldom do adolescents who play violent video games commit acts of violence, and the ones who do usually have a mental disorder. Instead of blaming the tragedies that occur on violent video games, the news media should explain to people that a large percentage of young males play violent video games, indicating that the two are uncorrelated. They should alternatively research other possible solutions to the crisis. In lieu of negatively affecting people’s lives, video games could potentially improve their lives!

In the late 90s, it seemed that school violence was on the rise as three separate devastating school shootings occurred over a three-year span. The most severe of the three due to the high death toll was the shooting at Columbine High School, also the one most associated with violent video game influence. The two assailant's levels of gaming expertise and their participation in online gaming was in question as motivation for their killing spree. It was this knowledge that sparked a media frenzy over who's to blame for the heinous acts being committed by these obviously troubled youths. However, other issues in these children's lives can contribute to a deeper explanation.

Parents around the world are blaming video games for their children's violence. Lets talk about that, firstly, you don’t see kids running around the world with guns pretending they're playing “Call of Duty” or anything. Yes there are school shootings once in a while, that doesn’t mean “Oh man, Video games are to blame” the number one cause of shootings is bullying or getting revenge on the bully himself.

It is scientifically proven that kids that play video games have an increase in violent behavior compared to kids that do not. 91 percent of children ages three

Rose, Mike. “Video games and gun violence: A year after Sandy Hook.” Gamasutra, 10 Feb. 2014, www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/210322/video_games_and_gun_violence_a.

In another article called “The Media’s Focus on Rampage Killers Reflects the Public’s Desire for Answers”, school shootings are not judged by the outcome, but rather by input, meaning that if people look at shooters who are taking part in these events they may see only half of what the media wants them to see. America is full of psychotic, mentally ill, and insane people that will always be around and for others to generalize them all as mass murderers is incorrect. When one judge based on input on these situations they gain understanding of what shooters like Dylan and Eric from the Columbine shooting, were going through at the time leading them to want to enact these chaotic

They shouldn’t just assume that the video games are causing these mass shootings and all the gun violence. There are so many other reasons why people are committing this crime. So, there has been a study that said violent or competitive video games cause aggression. In the Text Violent video games on pg 8 paragraph 3 it states, “The common thread running through all of these games is that that player becomes the shooter, from whose vantage point behind the gun the player sees the world. I understand that some teens and adults might fantasize about the real world while playing these video games.

After the elementary school shooting of Sandy Hook in 2012 this issue of violent video games became a hot issue calling for a connection of violence to video games. However, the final investigative report suggested that he was more a fan of nonviolent games (Ferguson, 2015). Video game violence is an issue that continues to be studied due to the inability to come to a general conclusion on whether or not the games provoke violence in connection to mass shootings. With shootings occurring and receiving mass coverage the media and public often seek a person/item to place the blame on. After the tragic events that left people dead or injured one of the topics that emerged was that of video games affects/effects on the person.

Aimee Tompkins (2003) claims that children are being affected by everything what they see around them in the youth, and people, who see violence in the youth, always tend to be more hostile and less responsive to images of violence. That 's why parents try to border children from any possible negative influences. But they often do not even realize that by buying to child a game console, they put them into the risk. Since most video games contain violent character. According to statistics given by the ‘Children now’ organization (2001), 89% of the top-selling video games have violent character and serious violence is contained in half of them.

Most of us have certainly pondered on the thought if video games truly create violent citizens, I personally believe that video games do not what so ever. One must distinguish this topic accurately and consider learning to differentiate and not have a biased or radical opinion. There have been many attempts from a number of different people who have tried to give a bad name to video games due to the simulations and realness and say that video games will create a negative environment for anyone who plays them, especially in children. Enthusiasts of video games have spent decades asserting that there is no underlying link between playing violent titles and engaging in the violent real-world behavior. Brand-new data confirms their contentions.