Category: Violence in Video Games

Across the globe, the use of video games has been on the rise since they first hit the market. These video games are designed on various platforms thereby targeting their usage amongst children, teenagers as well as young adults. Playing video games occupies a big part of the way they spend their free time and some have even ended up being addicted to playing video games. This has raised an alarm especially considering the influence they might have on the young minds.

Video games that involve violence and combat have elicited reactions from different circles like the regulatory bodies and experts on mental issues who argue that they should be restricted since they might have a negative influence on the kids prompting them to engage in violent crimes.

Upon this concern being raised, various studies have been conducted seeking to show a relationship between video games that involve violence and existence of violent behavior amongst the young people.

Video games hit the market in 1970’s but the graphics were very simple and were not as combative. Games such as Pacman were built on a simple platform that would not be termed as excessively violent.

The video gaming field was later to be revolutionized in the 1990’s as technology advancements allowed for more descriptive and detailed graphical images most notable being the ability to view blood as fluid and making killing look as it happens in the real world. This marked the entrance of video games such as ‘Mortal Kombat’ which allowed the video game player to enter a killing mission.

The alarming nature of the violent video games elicited reactions from the law makers prompting the U.S congress to issue a regulation seeking to have the game developers come up with a way to rate them in the basis of age limit. This did little to halt the developers’ efforts to come up with advanced video games with the next innovation being more interactive 3-dimensional violent scenes where the user was able to be placed in the middle of the battle as the ‘first person shooter’.

The trend has since continued with more and more combative video games being invented and used by the young people and the situation has further been fueled by the rise in the usage of internet.

Studies conducted on this field in the past resulted in arguments with some showing that there is a relationship in playing violent video games and aggressive behavior while other studies showed mixed outcomes. Most of the research however showed that violent video games brought about aggressive personalities.

These studies were backed by recent cases of violent cases in schools e.g. the 1993 case of Columbine High School where two students (Eric and Dylan) went on a killing spree and in the end shot 12 students and a teacher. The two were said to be addicts of ‘Doom’, a violent video game.

Further evidence to link the two was seen in the video they had recorded just before they went on the killing rampage where they mentioned the “Doom’ video game. Several other cases of young people going on shooting rampages have been reported and substantial evidence given to prove the link between the murders and playing violent video games (Ferguson 30).

To try and explain the relationship between violent video games and aggression amongst the users, experimental, correlation and longitudinal methods have been used. Experimental research studies have only so far shown that playing violent video games only arouses a temporary short lived arousal of aggressive behavior. In correlation studies where the participants are required to fill in forms, the aim is to investigate the effect violent video games may have on personality and behavior.

Correlation studies are said to be influenced by one recalling past influences but all in all the final results have indicated that violent video games result in hostility and aggressiveness. Young people who are regular users of violent video games are likely to engage in more physical confrontations. Longitudinal studies involve the study population being observed in their natural living patterns.

These have shown mixed results concerning the relationship between playing violent video games and aggressive behavior. The immediate point to note is that such studies are open to a lot of influences with the biggest being that the subjects being studied are also exposed to other violent influences like Film and Television making it hard to point out the video games influence alone (Kooijmans 3).

Results from the various study methods have indicated a considerable amount of correlation between playing violent video games and aggression behavior leading to an increase in the criminal episodes reported amongst the users. Due to lack of a clear cut link on the influence of violent video games alone, calls have been made for a theoretical framework to be designed that will best explain the correlation.

The recent greatest contribution in this area is the development of the general aggression model (GAM) by Anderson and Bushman in 2002. The model explains a person’s resultant internal state e.g. aggression by looking at the how the differences in personalities and situations come into play when considering the effect playing violent video games might have (Shin 6).

The model explains that aggressive behavior is the resultant decision made by a person after thoughts, feelings and arousals interact. GAM model explains that playing violent video games produces effects that are both short lived and long-term effects. Playing violent video games in short term leads to aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings and a feeling of violent arousal.

These only contribute to aggressive behavior temporarily. In long term, playing violent video games leads to steady development of violent beliefs and formation of aggressive attitudes. This leads to formation of aggressive behavioral thinking which eventually becomes a normal way of thinking causing the young person to be insensitive to aggression which makes them view it as a normal way of life. Most young people undergoing puberty have a lot of biological changes that go on in them.

As a result, as they grow mentally owing to environmental influences, the effects of violent video games may be incorporated as their minds go through the GAM model processes resulting in an aggressive lot. Violent video games have therefore been linked to the rise in cases of school shooters who go killing sprees as well as bullying in schools (Anderson and Gentile 2008).

Video games are in this age being developed with focus on appealing to the target population which is the children, adolescents and the youths who are in their early adulthood. This has been inspired by the recognition that more and more young people have been taking to playing video games during their free time and the facts are proven by the massive increase in video games sales by the owner companies.

According to Anderson, Gentile, and Buckley, as competition between companies in selling video games intensifies, they have resulted in innovative ways of designing the video games which has ended in a lot of arguably undesirable content in the video games (123).

When violent video games hit the market in the 1970’s, the violence content was very minimal and the effects further suppressed by the fact that the graphics were not as developed.

As time went on and technology advanced, it became possible to create simulations of the real life images making it possible to show killing as real. Nowadays the video games have been associated with certain characteristics which make them more appealing. They have become more interactive and hence addictive, and the environment in the gaming world is mediated for an appeal to the users.

Most violent games nowadays have sessions where the game player exchanges messages with the game making it possible to include violent language use. The narratives in most violent games explain to the gamer the variety weaponry available for use while further explaining how to use them. This has increased the young people’s awareness of assault riffles and other weapons that can be used in violent scenes while further instructing them on how to use them (Porter and Starcevic 4).

As the game developers struggle to stay ahead of the competition, more and more content has been added in the video games with the most notable one that have elicited mixed reactions being; graphic violence, sex acts, revealed nudity, blood filled violent scenes, and making taking criminal roles seem like a heroic act. Thanks to technological advancements, now graphic representations in the video games are now close to real life and so is the representation of violence.

With clear graphics, now the young people are exposed to a lot of complicated violent moves that are executable in real life. Playing Grand Theft Auto series presents one with simulations of real life violent acts where the gamer can steal cars, knock down pedestrians, take an assault riffle and shoot down a whole city population by killing anyone in sight.

Scenes in the gaming world filled with blood which increases the violent feel of the games. Some games have very elaborate manner of killing but exaggerated blood spills where to mark a victim who’s been hit and died, blood splashes. The recently introduced Suda51’s No More heroes on the once considered non violent gaming world Nintendo, is made up of scenes where the gamer crashes the targets limbs and includes a lot of blood splattering (Pramath 2010).

In quite a number of video games today, scenes of people exposing their partial or fully nude bodies have become very common. This corrupts the young people’s minds. The line was however crossed when games surfaced involving pure sexual acts. A certain gaming company took the idea further and incorporated use of violence in the game.

RapeLay, a game that hit the stores in 2006 sees the gamer take the role of a rapist and goes on a mission to violently undress and forcefully get sexual favors from unwilling victims in a crowded train. A certain level requires the gamer to take the role of the rapist and rape a woman and then two of her young daughters.

Such a video game clearly soils the mind of the young people and makes rape look like a fun activity. In most of the violent video games today, the user takes up the role of a criminal. The mission is committing a series of criminal acts while earning points for each successful act.

In Hitman Contracts, the game player takes the role of a hired killer who is sent on a mission to kill a certain high profile individual. You must in the process kill the soldiers among other crimes in order to earn maximum points. The heroic deeds praised in most violent video games give the young people’s minds an impression that one should commit crime to feel heroic (Pramath 2010).

Some violent games have been made with the ideas based on current points of conflict amongst states. After the September 11 attacks of the U.S by the Alqaeda terrorists, numerous games were developed with their story line revolving around terrorism.

Most of them however sees the gamer take up the role of a terrorist and sends them on a mission armed with heavy weapons which enable them to bomb cities and buildings. Breeding a young lot that sees terrorism as a heroic deed really serves little to fight the act itself. Other games have story lines that elevate current conflicts.

Postal 2 has scenes that seek to display the fall out of the nuclear bans between the U.S and North Korea while other games show the heroic deeds of using nuclear bombs. Some violent video games have caused a stir due to their abusive nature of a respected concept such as racial differences and respect for religious belief of honoring our dead. Left 4 Dead 2 came under much criticism for its story that revolves around killing zombies.

These zombies are African-Americans which makes it clear that the issue of racial discrimination may be supported in this game. Religious beliefs also dictate on the respect of the dead who are represented as Zombies in this game. This does much harm for the young minds and can shoot down the efforts to raise religious kids (Pramath 2010).

Despite the continued cries to restrict a number of violent video games and issue regulatory measures, more and more video games keeps on coming up and which seek to bring in new concepts. Some games have been totally banned in some countries owing to their nature to possibly corrupt minds including the young people and touching on sensitive issues that touch on a particular country. However their sales still continue in other countries prompting for production of more games.

Companies that develop these video games are in business at competition increases as more companies come up but the population keeps demanding for more and better ones. This pushes the companies to come up with new video games that bring in new concepts or are fiercer than their competitions. This way the flow of the violent video games continues as more are put in the market Cooper and Mackie (730),

Owing to the established influence of the violent video games on the children, parents are faced with the burden of bringing up kids whose minds have been spoilt by aggressive tendencies picked from the video games. As parents embark on the all important role of parenting their kids, they should be aware of the influences shaping the child’s behavior and take direct action to control it.

Several discussions in the recent past have been directed on the influence violent media content has on the kids and experts have pointed out violent video games in particular as having the most influence. Anderson and Bushman attributed this to the fact that playing video games creates an interactive atmosphere as well as requiring the gamer to play the major role in the violent scenes as opposed to a passive role in watching violent films.

Parents therefore should know this and be in a position to control the content in the video games their kids play. As a parent it is also very important to be always aware of what stage your child is in development phase. This way you will be better positioned in deciding the information they take in and the effect it will have on them.

This is because young people are in a stage where their form of learning is mainly experiential and their behavior is shaped by observing, imitating and adapting to the prevailing environment. Exposure to such experiences as playing violent video games can lead the young people in mimicking the roles taken in the games thereby resulting in aggressive behavior (6).

The understanding of the issues raised concerning the effects of violent video games, numerous studies have conducted on the subject with several models being developed to explain the effects. Most results have indicated a negative influence of playing violent video games arguing that they contribute to elevate aggressiveness.

It is however evident from other findings that there have been reported some positive correlation between playing violent video games and children’s behavior. Skoric, Teo, and Neo, stated that violent video games arguably act as an avenue for the young people to relieve their aggressive behavior thereby resulting in calm non-rebellious kids. Playing video games also act as a social activity where the child can interact with peers as they play the games.

Other positive results reported from playing video games include improved hand-eye coordination and ability not to be distracted and attention to details. A combination of these factors has been said to better academic performance for kids who play violent video games. This justifies why playing violent video games is still a very valid option for raise a better kid (6).

In taking active roles to regulate their child’s learning experiences and filter the contents of the video games, parents can make several efforts. It is important to check the video game for the rating which establishes whether it is appropriate for the kid’s age. This has been made possible by establishment of regulation seeking to have all video game developers provide rating for each game which restricts usage according to age limit.

Let the video playing sessions be within an area where you can monitor the kids as they play and if possible make attempts to play with them so as to understand the game content. Limit the amount of time spent playing video games to reduce attachment and negative influence. Encourage the kids to interact with their peers by participating in other extra curricular activities other than playing video games online (Sisson 5).

In conclusion, although there has not been established clear evidence as to whether violent video games cause aggressive behavior, many studies have pointed out toward a possible link between the two. Everyone is however in agreement that the violent video games are in compromise of morals and expose the young kids to in appropriate content. Further studies will however need to be done to support the issue of negative effects since some studies have shown that it is beneficial to the young minds.

Works Cited

Anderson, Craig, and Douglas Gentile. “Violent Video Game Feed Aggression in Kids in Japan and U.S.” Science Daily, 2008. Print.

Anderson, Craig, Douglas Gentile, and Katherine Buckley. Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Policy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print.

Anderson, Craig, and Brad Bushman. “Effects of violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Effect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-analytic Review of Scientific Literature.” Psychological Science, 2001. Print

Cooper, James, and David Mackie. “Video Games and Aggression in Children.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1986. Print

Ferguson, Christopher. “The School Shooting/Violent Video Link: Causal Relationship or Moral Panic.” Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling, 2008. Print.

Kooijmans, Thomas. “Effects of Video Games on Aggressive Thoughts and Behaviors During Development.” Great Ideas in Personality, 2004. Print.

Porter, Guy, and Vladan, Starcevic. “Are Violent Video Games Harmful?” Australian Psychiatry, 2007. Print.

Pramath, Gregory. “Top Six Video Games Censored Because of Violent Content.” Gamingbolt. Gamingbolt, 2010. Print.

Shin, Grace. “Video Games: A Cause of Violence and Aggression.” Journal of American Psychological Association, 2008). Print.

Sisson, John. “Violent Video Games and Young People.” Harvard Mental Health Letter, 2010. Print.

Skoric, Marko, Linda Teo, Rachel Neo. “Children and Video Games: Addiction, Engagement, and Scholastic Achievement.” Cyber Psychology and Behavior, 2005. Print.

Researchers have been conducting research since 1950s to find out if exposing children to media violence leads to subsequent violence as they grow up. Out of 3500 studies, only 18 studies have shown a negative correlation (Cook, 2000). Since children learn about different things in their environment by imitation and observation, it is not easy to keep them away from the influence of the media.

When they watch violence on the media especially where dramatic heroes are involved, they accept that violence is a good way of resolving conflict. Some of the media outlets pass the message that the world is full of violence and justify why individuals should carry weapons to protect themselves and be more aggressive. Media violence insidiously causes the viewers to become insensitive to violence occurring in real life. Frequent playing of video games among children increases their chances of developing violent behavior (Cook, 2000).

Video games use graphic capabilities to show damaged body parts. They personalize the games by using digital images of recognizable personalities depicted as victims in the scenes. Research has shown that there is a high correlation between media violence and violence exhibited by young people.

Below the age of eight years, children are unable to make a distinction between fantasy and reality. To them, the violence they watch on screen is as real as what they witness in their homes and the larger communities. Adolescents are expected to develop abstract thought and social controls from their magical thinking as children. If this important developmental stage of children takes place in an environment that is violent, their minds become distorted .

Since the time video games came into existence, they have been replete with violence intended to inflict pain or cause death on other human beings. From the games that were developed some years ago to the ones that have just been developed, violence is treated as a central component in the games.

The process of determining if a certain video game contains violence is therefore an easy one. Some of the video games that were developed earlier and contained violence include Space Invaders and Wonder Boy. In space Invaders, the player shoots and kills many aliens in successive attacks while in Wonder Boy, violence is depicted when the hero kills monsters that disappear after their death. The hero is subjected to violence when the enemies shoot and throw stones at him.

When he dies, he falls while the enemies or the attackers disappear in a smoke explosion. This is one of the oldest video games that depict a lot of violence. When young people involve themselves in playing such video games, they eventually develop violence as they grow up. They are unable to differentiate between reality and fantasy and to them what happens in the video games should happen in real life (Cook, 2000).

Apart from the early video games that depicted violence, there are also modern video games that are full of violence. The video game Goldeneye 007 is one of the current video games depicting violence. In the game, the bad characters who are killed do not disappear but rather conduct some maneuvers after their death. It is a shooting video game and involves performing different maneuvers depending on where the character has been shot.

Characters shot on their feet move around clutching to their feet while those who are shot around the neck region go down on their knees holding the neck. In these games, there is splashing of blood when a character is shot. When explosives are used in the games, the characters burst into small pieces which are easily recognized. This makes the video games so real to young people who play them.

Kentucky, Paducah, Colorado and Jonesboro are some of the towns which experienced a spate of school shootings. It was discovered that the shooters were students who had developed the habit of playing video games. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were two students from Columbine High School who killed 13 people and wounded 23 others before they killed themselves. It was discovered that the two found great enjoyment in playing a bloody video game. Harris developed a customized form of the video with more weapons, two shooters and victims who had no ways of fighting back, features that were characteristic of real shootings .

The other way through which video games encourage violent behavior is the fact that the games contain passive gaming. To play and become the winner requires the player to take the role of the aggressor. As opposed to watching the violence on TV, in these video games the player is the one who commits the acts of violence.

This active involvement in the games has been described as a major way through which the thoughts of the players are altered hence increasing their chances of developing violent behavior. Secondly, instead of punishing violence in the video games, rewards are given to the winners. Some games like sniper and army games increase the level of the players according to the number of people he kills. Frequent watching of these games by young people distorts their thinking by convincing them that engaging in violence is a rewarding affair.

To understand the complex relationship between video games and violence, the General Aggression Model (GAM) was developed. It employs physiological responses, thoughts and feelings to determine how individuals respond to video games depicting aggression. It was identified that violent video games have an impact on the response exhibited by gamers. For instance, individuals who are not naturally violent respond with increased hostility and aggression after they watch violent video games.

The games turn into situational variables responsible for changing the perception of players towards acts of aggression. Apart from the short term effects associated with video games, the games may also contribute towards the development of long-term effects. For instance, watching violent video games may cause the development of aggressive attitudes and beliefs. In addition, players of violent video games may be eventually desensitized to aggressive behaviors .

To find out the relationship between video games and violent behavior, a survey was conducted during this study. In the survey, a group of 10 young men were allowed to play violent video games. They were compared with another group that did not play the video games. The results indicated that the group of young men that played violent video games exhibited high physical and verbal aggression towards their peers and even inanimate things when allowed to interact freely.

On the other hand, the group that did not play the video games did not exhibit such aggression. In addition, when the two groups were asked questions based on hypothetical stories, the answers were different. The answers given by the group that played the video games were in favor of violence while answers from the group that did not play the video games did not favor violence.

Such results are an indication that violent video games encourage young people to become violent. The results of this survey can be interpreted to mean that playing video games actually leads to violent behavior.

References

Cook, D. (2000). Testimony of the American Academy of Pediatrics on Media Violence. Web.

Kalning, K. (2011). Does Video Violence Make Teens Violent. Web.

Kirby, G., & Goodpaster, J. (2006). Thinking:an interdisciplinary approach to critical and creative thought. New York: Prentice Hall.

Pamf. (2011). The Impact of Video Games on Children. Web.

One of the most fundamental questions that psychologists ask themselves is what leads to violent behavior in people. There have been arguments that such behavior is as a result of a pre-disposition to violence in the media as well as in video games.

This theory is heavily criticized as it is supported. Proponents of this theory claim that playing video games especially by children may lead a psychological formation of violent behavior; however, opponents of this theory claim that there is too much violence in the society and that video games cannot be solely blamed for such violence.

It has been found out that the average child plays an average of about 43 minutes of video games every day. Proponents of the theory explain that video games leads to violent behavior argue that active participation in an activity reinforces learning.

As such when children actively play these video games they are actually learning and involuntarily adopting violent behavior. This is because exposure to video games leads to imitation and further modeling of violent behavior (Rathus, 2008).

This theory is further supported by the fact that repetitive action increases learning about that action, thus repeated playing some video games increases the chances that they will be violent.

It also argued that playing video games has more than physical effect on the child. Exposure to video games has cognitive as well as psychological arousal.

The child cognitively grows knowing violence as a way of life. The child thus builds violent emotions involuntarily, which leads to violent behavior. It has also been found out that children who are exposed to violent games grow to be anti social (Gentile & Anderson, 2003).

On the other hand, this theory has been greatly criticized. To begin with, critics argue that there are concourse studies on the effects of video games on children behavior that can lead to such strong conclusions.

This is because there are no valid procedures that can measure the effects of video games. Such studies also have several weaknesses. It is argued that those who study the effects of violent video games on children fail to have a parallel study on non violent video games.

Furthermore there are a number of positive effects of playing violent video games on children. Other than being active in video games activity, video games act as avenues for children learn how to compete with each other.

Such competition is done of friendly basin and as such reinforces friendship bonds between children. Furthermore children also derive a lot of satisfaction from teaching their playmates how to play and win in such games.

Therefore video games act as a motivator to other socially constructive behaviors that are helpful to the normal growth and development of a child. Therefore violent behavior in children can be attributed to other factors such as the broken social-cultural norms as well as mal-functional homes (Grapes, 2000).

It is factual that exposure for a long time to video games does involuntarily and over a long period of time shape a child’s emotions and cognitions to accommodate a lot of violence as a normal way of life. Moreover violence that is in video games is very similar to violence on the television and as such there is a relationship between violent behavior and exposure to violent video games.

As such the effects of video games cannot be ignored, However, there need to be done extensive studies which will yield conclusive findings that will finally link exposure to v violent video games to violent behavior.

Reference List

Gentile, A., & Anderson, C. (2003). Violent video games: the newest violence hazard.

In Douglas A ed. Media violence and children: a complete guide for parents and professionals. West Port, CT: Praeger

Grapes, B. (2000). Violent children. Pennsylvania: Greenhaven Press

Olson, C. (2008). Video games and children friendships. Document for interpersonal theory and research newsletter.

Rathus, S. (2008). Psychology Concepts & Connections: Media & Research Update. Ontario: Thompson Learning

Introduction

All over the world, children and adolescents play video games nearly every day. Could this seemingly harmless hobby be harmful? Below, you will find a negative effects of video games essay.

Video games are games in which people interact with electronic devices like computers and small handheld devices like mobile phones to create tactile and visual displays. Tactile displays are important for blind people, whereas visual display is understood by those who can see.

With improvements in technology, video games are played in many countries over the world. The number of children playing video games increases from time to time. This is because the cost of electronic devices has been lowered, making them affordable to many families. Many parents are also willing to buy these devices for their children (Rideout, Vandewater & Wartella, 2003).

Hazards of Video Games: Essay Thesis Statement

Recent studies have concentrated on the effects that video games have on children. Video games have positive and negative impacts on individual children playing them and society at large. The paper will discuss the negative impacts of playing video games on children and society, like poor performance in schools and diseases.

Discussion

Performance in schools

Playing video games has negative impacts on a child’s education. Studies have shown that out of four children, playing video games interferes with the academic performance of one child. Some children spend most of their time playing games to the extent of not sparing some time to do their homework. Others dedicate all their time to playing games so that they do not study.

Because of failure to take their studies seriously, most of them perform poorly in their academic work. This affects their lives because, without education, there are no good jobs for them. Studies have shown that poor performance in school is directly proportional to time spent playing games. The more the time, the poorer the child’s performance in school will be (Block, 2008).

Diseases

Playing video games has negative effects on the health of young people. Some youths tend to spend most of their time sitting and playing games without engaging in physical activities like sports. In addition, youths tend to feed on junk foods like cakes that supply the body with much energy.

Consumption of excess energy-giving foods and lack of exercise results in overweight. Obesity is a common disease among youths who spend most of their time playing games.

Other healthy related problems include knuckle pads, seizures, muscle, postural, and skeletal disorders like carpal tunnel syndrome, nerve compression, and tendonitis (UK, House of Commons, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, 2008).

According to Rushing, Sheehan, and Davis (2006), knuckle pads are painful keratotic, circumscribed, and fibrous growths that develop on the joints of the figures. Knuckle pads continue growing, become permanent, and they have no cure. The development of knuckle pads in children is associated with addiction to playing video games.

An input device called a game controller, which varies from one platform to another, manipulates video games. Some controllers may contain one or more joysticks and many buttons, whereas others may have a joystick and a button. Chronic use of a joystick may lead to the development of knuckle pads and other figure-related diseases.

Violent/Aggressive Behavior

Recent studies have concentrated on the effects that video games have on children. Studies have shown that the likelihood of children who play violent video games to be violent is high.

Most children cannot differentiate between right and wrong, and they tend to copy what they see and put it into practice. With continued exposure to violent video games, many children become more aggressive (Rideout, Vandewater & Wartella, 2003).

In most of the games that children watch, violence is used as a method of solving problems. The result of this is many children accepting violence as an appropriate way of solving conflicts. For instance, some will be found to engage in fights when trying to solve minor differences with their friends instead of using a better conflict resolution approach.

In some games where people winning in conflicts are recognized as heroes, children tend to see this as an achievement such that whenever in conflict with other children, they will use all means, however exploitive and dangerous they are, to win. There are incidents in which characters are rewarded for violence (Block, 2008).

Inadequate Lessons

Playing video games is confusing to young children since they cannot differentiate between fantasy and reality. Most young children tend to think that what they see in video games is a reality.

Some videos, like adult videos, are not good for youths because the content is not fit for them. Children learn vices from videos in which women are sexually abused and displayed as helpless and weaker characters (Bryant, 2006).

Socialization

Bryant (2006) argues that playing video games affects children’s socialization. Children spend much of their time playing games, such that they lack time to socialize with their peers and parents. The activity contributes to antisocial behaviors among the youths.

For instance, children borrow behavior and abusive language from characters. Abusive words are common among children who play video games compared to those who do not.

A study conducted by National Institute for Media and the Family based in Minneapolis showed that children become addicted to watching videos that they cannot do without them. Addiction to video games increases anxiety and depression in children. Moreover, social phobia characterizes addicted children.

Conclusion

Children should be discouraged from playing video games because of the negative effects they have been found to have on children. Instead, outdoor games should be preferred because engagement in physical activities helps in the proper physical development of children.

References

Block, J. (2008). Issues for DSM – V: Internet addiction. Journal of clinical psychiatry, 67(5), 821-826.

Bryant, J. (2006). Playing video games: motives, responses, and consequences. London: Routledge.

Rideout, V., Vandewater, E. & Wartella, E. (2003). Zero to six: Electronic media in the lives of infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Menlo Park (CA): Kaiser Family Foundation.

Rushing, M., Sheehan, M. & Davis, L. (2006). Video Game induced knuckle pad. Pediatric Dermatology, 23(5), 455-457.

UK, House of Commons, Culture, Media and Sport Committee. (2008). HC paper 353-ii House of Commons culture, media and sport committee: harmful content on the internet and in video games, volume ii. London: The Stationery Office.

Introduction

Exposing children to aggression in the mass media predisposes them to aggressive behavior. Research shows that this observation emanates from physiological, psychological and situational variables. In order to show that there is a positive correlation between observance of violence in the mass media and aggression in children, one must back the above-mentioned variables with proof from scientific analyses as seen below.

Positive correlation

Denny (2011) explains that violent media causes aggression in children by changing their brain patterns. Therefore, the negative effects emanate from physiological changes in the viewer’s body. In an experiment quoted by the latter author, a group of young men were divided into two categories. All participants had minimal exposure to violent video games before the experiment. One group was subjected to violent video games for a period of ten hours a week.

The control group did not play any games within the study period. After exposure to the violent games, all participants’ brain functions were analyzed through magnetic resonance imaging. Researchers compared the findings after the intervention with the results prior to the experiment. In the tests, subjects were required to complete a task in which violent words were mixed with non violent ones. The left frontal lobe of the participants was analyzed and found to be more active in the control group than in the exposed group.

Additionally, the results in the control group were closely tied to the tests done before the experiment. However, the exposed group’s results were quite different from the initial findings. After one week of none exposure, the participants’ brain activities closely mirrored those of the control group.

Findings from this research indicate that exposure to violent videos has significant effects on a person’s ability to maintain functional or emotional control. When the left frontal lobe is less activated, then people tend to report less control of their emotions or their functions. As a result, one is likely to become aggressive. Although this research was carried out among young adults, one can deduce that the same effect would be reported among children who have even less control of their emotions.

Psychological issues also provide a tangible explanation of how aggression can emanate from exposure to violence in the mass media. The social learning theory explains that children learn from their surroundings. They first observe phenomenon around them such as violence. Most of them will eventually mimic this behavior as will be seen in their interactions with other children. After imitation, the children will eventually adopt the behavior, and this is what predisposes them to aggression.

Prolonged exposure to media violence leads to over-learning of aggression-based structures. Some of the structures include having a belief that other individuals are innately aggressive and that violence is the best way to deal with them (Gentile et al. 194). Not all children will respond in a similar manner to violent mass media; some are more inclined to commit aggressive acts than others owing to their psychological profile.

If a child has certain personality traits, then he or she will be severely affected by video games or other similar violent activities. For instance when one is highly neurotic, that is; one who is too emotional, and susceptible to depression, then that child is likely to become violent after watching video games (“Violent video games” 12).

Additionally, a highly disagreeable child also tends to report higher levels of aggression than one who is responsive to others. Minimal conscientiousness also leads to aggression after exposure to violent mass media. A child with such a personality finds it easy to break the rules and act impulsively. If these traits are already present in a child and a parent fails to control exposure to video games, then chances are that the factors will amalgamate and lead to aggression (“Violent video games” 12).

In the psychological context, cognitive distortions also play a vital role in explaining why media violence can lead to aggression in children. Moral standards assist individuals in controlling their aggressive acts. It causes them to think about their actions and refrain from acting inappropriately owing to these tendencies. Sometimes people may abandon their moral standards about aggression when they believe that their actions are justified (Richmond and Wilson 350).

Usually, this occurs through the use of eight mechanisms. They include dehumanization, blame attribution, distortion of consequences, responsibility diffusion, advantageous comparisons, moral justification and the use of sanitizing language. All these processes cause a child or teenager to disengage from moral standards, and this makes it easier to display deviant behavior such as aggression.

A person can dehumanize another by refusing to give another person human qualities. This makes it easy to behave aggressively or violently towards that person because, in the mind of the deviant, he does not deserve pro-social considerations. Conversely, blame attribution occurs by placing the responsibility of the violent act upon the victim or other entities that have nothing to do with the assailant.

Video games tend to distort the consequences of violent behavior; in fact they reward it. They teach children that violence has no negative effects and should thus be pursued. In essence, such individuals can easily behave aggressively because they do not think about the effects of their actions upon others.

Responsibility diffusion ensures that the child has apportioned blame for violence to someone else. Video games and other violent sources of mass media make it easy to push aside one’s personal role in the commission of certain behavior. Advantageous comparison and moral justification occur when the person sees himself or herself as an attacker of another ruthless person.

The child, therefore, has a justifiable motive which makes it desirable to use aggression against others. Video games often have many brutal adversaries that can only be countered through the use of violence. These justifications may be perpetuated in real life. Sanitizing language refers to the use of favorable words to describe deviant behavior. Such language covers up the intensity and seriousness of aggression among children and causes them to disregard or ignore the consequences of their actions.

Once children are exposed to violence for prolonged periods of time, they will develop an aggressive outlook owing to alterations in their beliefs, attitudes and biases. Gentile et al. (194) explain that all people have cognitive scripts that determine how they behave.

Exposure to media violence activates aggression-related scripts and this makes it more likely for the subject to display aggression in the future. These parties will become morally disengaged through the above mechanism and thus cause persons to justify violent behavior. It eventually leads to greater levels of aggression.

A study carried out by Richmond and Wilson (352) supported these theories and thus illustrated that violent mass media provides the right psychological environment to cause more aggression. The experiment was carried out among 51 males and 35 female subjects between the ages of 20.25 and 21.3. The researchers determined the rate of exposure to violent films, video games and music and then assessed how aggressive these individuals were.

The aggressiveness test involved analyzing participants’ propensity to harm or hurt others. It also entailed an analysis of anger through the emotional and physiological state of arousal within a subject. This test also considered hostility through measurement of ill will or resentment of others. The analysts found that the subjects who had disengaged themselves from moral standards were more susceptible to aggression and violence.

This result confirmed what other authors on the subject have stated before, but it added to the literature by showing how aggression occurs. It was confirmed that violent media facilitates cognitive distortion of moral values and thus perpetuates aggression. The findings were carried out among young adults but can also be applied to children as the same distortions do occur in minors.

In order to settle the debate on violent mass media and aggression in children, one must consider experiments that directly analyzed these variables. Gentile et al. (193) did a research that intended on finding the link between exposure to media violence and the use of aggression among children. 430 children from the third, fourth and fifth grades were selected for the study; therefore, the mean age for the participants was nine years.

The researchers obtained information from the children themselves about their media habits and their hostile attribution biases. They also asked their peers and their teachers to complete a survey on the aggressiveness or the positive behaviors of children in their classes. In this analysis, peers would respond to questions concerning physical aggression such as whether their classmates kicked, punched or pushed others.

They responded to questions on relationship-related aggression, such as the spreading of rumors and giving others silent treatment. Teachers and students also rated their peers’ aggression on the basis of their verbal attributes such as insulting or saying mean things about others.

Parents also corroborated information provided by the subjects concerning the media watching habits. The various levels of aggression or pro-social behavior were compared to the media watching habits. The researchers found that there was indeed a positive correlation between exposure to violent mass media among the children and physical, violent and relational aggression (Gnetile et al. 200).

The above study was strong in rigor and validity. Furthermore, many other researches support the same findings in this report. As such, one can state that these scientific methods prove that there is a positive correlation between observing violence in the mass media and aggression in children. Consistency and strong statistical significance testify to the truth behind this claim.

Conclusion

Exposure of children to violence in the mass media leads to aggression through physiological alterations. Research findings show that violent video games and other similar media platforms alter the brain’s ability to control emotions and this predisposes children to aggression.

Additionally, media violence exposure also alters subjects’ psychological structures. It causes cognitive distortions and makes it easier for children to justify aggressive behavior. This was supported by measures of moral justification and aggression in research. Observing media violence also increases the aggressive tendencies of children by intensifying the effects of certain personality traits such as neuroticism and disagreeableness.

Works Cited

Denny, Dann. “IU Research Links Violent Video Gaming with Brain Changes.” McClatchy – Tribune Business News. 05 Dec 2011: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web.

Gentile, Douglas, Coyne, Sarah and David Walsh. “Media violence, physical aggression adn relations aggression in school age children: a short term longitudinal study.” Aggressive Behavior 37 (2011): 193-206. EBSCOhost. Web.

Richmond, Jill and Clare Wilson. “Are graphic media violence, aggression and moral disengagement related?” Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 15.2 (2008): 350-357. EBSCOhost. Web.

“Violent Video Games and Young People.” Harvard Mental Health Letter. 22 September 2010: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web.

There is a common opinion that violent video games and aggressive behavior are connected. However, some researchers and public authorities challenge this opinion and argue that there is no relationship between violence and cruel video games (Przybylski and Netta 16). The dispute exists as there is evidence that violent video games may cause severe outcomes that are supported by the acts of violence recently committed by children and adolescents after playing video games. The purpose of this paper is to discuss violent behavior associated with video games, measures stakeholders undertake to resolve the issue, and the feasible outcomes of policies and actions done to handle the situation.

There are different views on the connection between violent video games and aggressive behavior. Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that video games may influence violent behavior; however, “these effects are almost always quite small” (Mathur and VanderWeele 708). Furthermore, Gunter claims that observing violence played out on a screen leads to the loss of empathy for victims of violence, “combining with a greater acceptance of violence” (4). Those arguments are often circulated after violent events such as mass shootings as the media and society focus on what might have caused an individual to act that way. This discussion might mention video games as a factor that triggered violence. Thus, considering the possibility that there is a causal relationship between violence and video games, it is necessary to discuss measures to be undertaken to prevent aggressive behavior that might arise.

The American Psychological Association (APA) has recently published a resolution on violent video games that states the necessity to implement education strategies for young people that raise awareness of the effects video games may cause. Moreover, the APA impels the authorities and producers to decrease the level of violence and reflect on the possible rating to ensure young children will have no access to aggressive entertainment (Calvert et al. 126). Researchers also suggest putting an emphasis on encouraging manufacturers to produce “games for health” for children and adults (Kowert and Quandt 49). Other potential measures also include putting tax obligations on violent video games, restricting Internet usage for children, and other actions that are not analyzed yet.

There might be adverse outcomes if the authorities and the public will not pay attention to the situation and will not adjust policies regarding violent video game regulation. People may observe a rise in the homicide rates across regions, and parents may find the increase in children’s aggressiveness or the appearance of psychopathic traits. Disinhibition, loss of attention, and other adverse effects may also emerge. As mentioned previously, people who play violent video games may lose empathy and accept cruelty as a normal practice (Gunter 4). On the other hand, if proper solutions and policies would be undertaken, the public may observe a decrease in violent acts in the future.

To conclude, it is assumed that the dispute among researchers, the public, and authorities on the question of the relationship between violent video games and aggressive behavior may not have a universal answer. Violent video games may cause various adverse effects on people. However, it is not proved yet that a cruel video game is a major factor affecting the ruthless behavior of people. As the public is not sure whether there might be other triggers of violent behavior or not, the best strategy might be the prevention of violent acts rather than the reaction to them. Thus, society needs to undertake measures such as educating children, introducing a tax on video games, or reviewing the rating system for games to protect people from cruelty and violence they do not deserve.

Works Cited

Calvert, Sandra L., et al. “The American Psychological Association Task Force Assessment of Violent Video Games: Science in the Service of Public Interest.” American Psychologist, vol. 72, no. 2, 2017, pp. 126-143.

Gunter, Barrie. Does Playing Video Games Make Players More Violent? Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

Kowert, Rachel, and Quandt Thorsten, editors. The Video Game Debate: Unravelling the Physical, Social, and Psychological Effects of Video Games. Routledge, 2015.

Mathur, Maya B., and Tyler J. VanderWeele. “Finding Common Ground in Meta-Analysis “Wars” on Violent Video Games.” Perspectives on Psychological Science, vol. 14, no. 4, 2019, pp. 705-708.

Przybylski, Andrew K., and Weinstein Netta. “Violent Video Game Engagement Is not Associated with Adolescents’ Aggressive Behaviour: Evidence from a Registered Report.” Royal Society Open Science, vol. 6, no. 2, 2019, pp. 1-16.