Violent Video Games and Their Effects on Adolescents

The article, “The Truth About Video Games and Gun Violence” by Erik Kain discusses how video games and gun violence correlates. The author opens up with someone by the name of Aaron Alexis who resorted to gun violence while playing video games that contained violence. There is a violent video game that scares parents and behavioral experts. There has been a debate on whether people who play video games later have violent behavior. Throughout the years, video games continue to show images portraying violence.

Moreover, many kids deal with violence and can’t control it. As a result of having issues with violence some people play video games to let their violence and anger out. People need to understand that “ [b]ut overall, violent crime is down in the US-indeed, as violent games have become more popular, violent crime has fallen." (Erik Kain 1) The more popular the game is studies show violent

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.

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.

“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

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

Over the years, the popularity of computer and video games has grown. Specifically violent video games make up more than 50 % of the top selling games. These games include violent themes that involve guns, crime, blood, and gore. There is an ongoing belief that these types of games are to blame for the many acts of violence in society and have encouraged America’s youth to act out in aggression. Several organizations, such as the PTC (Parents Television Council) have moved to discourage the development of violent games while also pushing for stronger regulations when purchasing such games. There is also debate among parents and concerns on how games can negatively influence their children. So is there a direct link between video games and violence? The truth is video games do not encourage violence in society based on several factors which include scientific studies, statistics on crime, and prevention measures adopted by game publishers.

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 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

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.

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.

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.

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)