Violent Video Games and Their Effects on Adolescents

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

The negative impacts that are associated with violent gaming are a growing list. These many negative effects could build up into a more serious situation, with all of the possible outcomes of these side-effects mixing together it could quite possibly take a turn for the worse. The use of violent video games could cause players to participate in criminal violence, because of the increased levels of aggression and rage. NBC News reported of a gory incident in January of 2013, which involved Nehemiah Griego and his murderous actions toward his parents and three of his siblings in his home. The fifteen year old boy killed his family because he had been angry with his mother in the days before the murders. When questioned about his family, the boy was emotionless, but immediately after the investigators asked what his interests were, his face lit up and he immediately began reminiscing about his favorite video games, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Grand Theft Auto (2013). Common sense media explains the game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, with a vivid description; a “bloody military shooting game with disturbing cinematic moments” (n.d.). Could Griego’s avid gaming schedule, and love for the bloody first-person shooting game be slightly related to his urge to kill (2013b)? His decision to kill all the occupants of his house did not solely result from one night of gaming, for it was an accumulation of risk factors. It is likely that his love for gaming could have had an

Now video games are getting more and more popular, and teenagers like to play them. However, many parents are worry about that some types of game are not suitable for teenagers, like violent video games, they believe it will bring some negative effect to teenagers. Although parents believe that violent video games are harmful, it cannot be banned. Therefore, the parents should supervise their children play the violent video games. In many people’s view, violent video game possible bring negative effect to teenagers in three ways, psychological, morality and aggressive behavior.

Video Game Violence has been a controversial topic for many years, dating back to even the most simple classic video games like Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede and Space Invaders, eventually pushing into more modern games like Grand Theft Auto V and Call of Duty: Black Ops. This investigation attempts to expand and analyze the idea that due to the historical trend of video game violence being accused of blame for seemingly related violent events, some of the research may be faulty. The way we look at video games and how we research their tie to violence could potentially need corrected. Within this investigation we will be looking very closely at how these tests were done, analyzing if they were valid, considering the people behind these tests and the general misconceptions people may have of video games and their impact on violence. Just about anyone in most modernized counties has heard the claim before, placing the blame on a video game, music or television for the violent acts seen in their youth today. Typically these trends seem to pop up when we are referencing school shootings, gang related crime and other domestic terrorist acts done by our youth. It is too easy to quickly blame something like a violent video game for their behavior. This investigation examines the actual statistics of these violent crimes and how they are tied to video games specifically.

The future of entertainment is greatly entrenched in technology and video games are an integral part of this. Video gaming is utilized as a great pastime and leisure activity by many people across the world. The number of people who play video games is particularly high among adolescents with a recent survey showing that 97% of Americans aged between 12-17 regularly play video games (Wittek et al, 2016). However, despite the entertainment benefits of video games, overplaying violent video games negatively impacts of teenagers and adolescents. The purpose of this paper is to explore the negative impacts of excessive violent video gaming on adolescents with the sole aim of informing classmates on the disastrous effects of overplaying violent video games.

Motorist in Toronto were in shock when a driver was spotted driving so recklessly on a major highway that the local law enforcement had to be alerted. The reckless driver was driving at about 120km/h which was well over the speed limit for the highway. Soon later after the call, local police officers managed to get the car to a halt and keep the situation safe. The police officer would have never anticipated what about to happen when they got the driver out of the car and interviewed the driver. They found out that the driver was “… an 11-year-old boy” who “… had just been finishing playing Grand Theft Auto at home and wanted to find out what it was like

The question is why children are being affected by these games. Is it that the child are mimicking what they see or is it effecting the child’s brain. At Indiana University, Dr. Vincent Matthews decided to create a study to watch brain patterns after playing violent video games. They performed three different tests to find out how these games impacted the brain. They picked out 28 students from campus to play either violent video games, first person shooter games, or non-violent games. What they found was after a couple hours playing these games that those who play violent video games showed no brain activity in areas involving emotions, attention, and impulses. There is science behind violent video games and their negative effects on people. Researchers ran another test after the participants played the games. They held up cards with non-violent words like run or walk, and they were in different colors. They also held up cards with violent words like hit or push which were also in different colors. Those who play violent video games were equal to the non-violent video game players in the original testing but when it came to the violent words, violent video gamers should no brain activity in the area of emotion like the non-violent gamers. When faced with violent topics, the gamers were desensitized to the topic. Alice Park stated in her article, How Playing Violent Video Games May Change the Brain, “The brain changes that Matthews’ group saw were similar to those seen in

Many people have theorized that violence in video games have contributed to violent outbreaks of behavior in real life. Violent video games have been a political issue since the early 1980s; however, people forget to look at how people of all ages spend their free time playing these games for entertainment. 97% of 12-17 year olds in the US played video games in 2008, thus fueling an $11.7 billion domestic video game industry. In 2008, 10 of the top 20 best-selling video games in the US contained violence. Video games are a source for entertainment, not a possible source of corruption to our society. “According to an Oct. 28 USA Today article, up to 50 percent of children and teens have some type of gaming console in their bedrooms” (Pittman). I do agree that kids do spend too much time being entertained playing video games and too little time riding a bike or playing sports with friends in the street being active. However, violent video games are not turning kids into violent psychopaths. If they were, statistics would show a dramatic increase in youth violence in recent years based on the amount of time modern kids spend playing such games. However, violence in video games doesn’t directly correlate with violence in young youth because of the decrease in crime rate, mental stability and the quality of home life, and it’s stress reliever.

One of the hottest issues in the media in the past decade is violence in video games and how violent video games influence aggressive and violent behavior in children and adolescents. Some psychologists believe violent video games influence violent behavior in children through social learning and modeling behaviors after characters in video games that “glorify” violence and criminals (Schultz & Schultz, 2013, p. 331). Other psychologists argue that other factors, such as poor socioeconomic status and negligent parents, are the main factors of violence in children and adolescents instead of video games. However, many studies have found varying levels of correlation between video games and violence in adolescents and children, and no study has found violent video games to be the cause of violent behavior.

“Recent contents analyses of video games show that many as 89% of games contain some violent contents” (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, Walsh 3). More than half of video games being sold around the world contain some form of violence. All of the violence involved in the video games being played by children is a pattern leading to aggression. Aggression can be caused by many things; however, violent video games are the main cause of aggression in young adults. “If a child began playing violent video games at a young age, then he might think that violence in real life is the same as the game violence and that it doesn’t have a real impact on others” (Gilad, Alto 1). Thinking that violence in the virtual world is the same as in the real world is the first step to showing aggression. Aggression in children caused by video games is the biggest effect parents and researchers worry about. Violent video games teach children that shooting and killing people are

Since the rise of video games in the last decade younger kids are spending a lot of their time on games. One problem with children having access to video games is the bloody and gory violence some games contain. With children growing up playing these violent games it raises a question that most parents wonder, do violent video games make children more aggressive towards others? There are results from studies and incidents in real life that prove violence in video games does influence certain children. Violent video games do increase aggression in children who are already aggressive in nature but do not have a negative effect on most children.

Originally, the purpose of violent video games is to entertain. However, its content encourages violence and invites to enjoy cruelty. When playing video games, kids are required to kill a human being to get a perfect score. If kids are left to spend plenty of time playing violent video games, they will be obsessed with brutality. As a result they will have difficulty to tell apart fantasy from reality and start dreaming about killing and scoring in real life. As it can be addictive, it also isolates them from human contact, which leads to lack of sympathy. That’s why most school shooters are great video gamers. I will support my thesis with evidences and quotes from expertise.

Video games have been around for years and have become increasingly more popular with today’s youth however, most people may think that video games are just games that children all over the world engage in but, what about violent video games? The amount of video games, especially violent games that children and teens are investing most of their free time has grown exponentially. This fact has led to many psychologists wondering whether or not violent video games are on the same wavelength as aggressive behavior. Furthermore, in 2010 a California law was calling for restrictions on video game sales to minors and psychologists Steven Gruel and Patricia Millett debated if violent video games had a correlation with aggression before the Supreme Court. In order to back up their evidence, their argument they used psychological and neuroscience research, both of which are prevalent in their field of psychology.

Video games are a favorite past time in America. Early on, there was Pong and Pac-Man. Games have evolved from two dots moving around on the screen to a realistic-looking man being decapitated with a chainsaw. This incredible evolution has made gaming from something people would play in a bar into a multi-billion dollar industry that grosses more than the movie and music industries combined. However, because video games have become so realistic, the violent ones have been questioned for their impact on one’s mental health. Scientists have looked into the increase of bullying, how games reward violence, how games desensitize violence, and they’ve even related them to school shootings. On the other hand, Scientists have also looked into the good side of playing violent video games; making links such as juvenile crime decline, reducing violence, and the fact that opposing scientists can not actually find a link between violent games and violent behavior. Violent video games have been associated with both positive and negative behaviors, however, it can be argued that the benefits of these games far outweigh the setbacks.

The concern over how much of a child’s actions, if any, are influenced by the violence contained in the video games they choose to play, has been become a topic of debate in recent times. Certain heartbreaking events, such as the Columbine High School shooting in April of 1999 where two students open fired on their fellow classmates killing in total 13 victims followed by their own suicides, sparked a renewed interest in researching if video games could cause acts of violence in adolescents. (Baertlein, 2007) This apprehension is mostly due in part, because children are in theory, more inclined to behavioral influences when they actively participate, as opposed to when they are merely observing. The belief has been that, a child playing violent video games can have more of a tendency to commit violent acts. On the contrary, there has been no clear-cut substantiation to show these violent video games are to blame for youth violence. The fact remains; it is actually not an easy task to prove a real world connection between violence and video gaming. Youth violence reports show crimes rates have decreased while video game playing has become trendier. (Baertlein, 2007)