Mortal Kombat characters partook in some incredibly violent maneuvers, including decapitation and hearts being ripped out of chests. As one of the most violent video games of the time, Mortal Kombat also contained copious amounts of blood. Parents were concerned with their kid’s behavior after playing such a violent and graphic video game. Many people believe that Mortal Kombat was the tipping point that led to the establishment of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) in 1994. This was an official and standardized rating system for video games.
The youth will buy these games, play them and without realizing it take what they have seen on the games and remember it. There are numerous games that have extreme violence in them such as Grand Theft Auto , Assassins Creed, Halo, Call of duty, Left for dead and so on. Of those games, a murder case arose. Two teenage brothers shot both of their siblings, murdering their brother and wounding their sister. The boys told the investigators that they decided to go on a shooting spree after playing the video game Grand Theft Auto III.
Many studies and statistics will back up both sides to this debate leaving the controversy still being debated. This paper will cover three articles that cover both sides to this debate as well as some statistics that will still not prove which side is correct. Video games such as shooting games that demonstrate violent behavior have been linked to many violent acts that teens and children have done. The Columbine high school shooting that took place in 1999 the victim’s families blamed video games for the acts of the shooters (Cate, 2013). Every bad experience or violent act that has been seen in the public somehow will get linked to violent video games causing the violent acts of the people that do the crimes.
News spread that one of the gunmen, Dylan Klebold, spent much of his time playing violent video games. Other similar situations have occurred in history. Michael Carneal and Adam Lanza, both participants in two different school shootings, have both been said to be imitating violence they witnessed in video games. Senator Chuck Grassley, who graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a Ph.D., states, “There are too many video games that celebrate the mass killing of innocent people — games that despite attempts at industry self-regulation find their way into the hands of children.” Video games offer “rewards” to players who annihilate their opponents, giving children the mindset that violence in real life may bring the same effect. The link between video games and school shootings is prominent.
The truth about videogames Videogames are the most money makers among today’s society from all the other things including, some sports like, hockey, basketball, tennis and many others. What people don’t realize is that videogames are not only bad for their children, but they are also bad for the adults. Videogames not only influence kids for violence and aggressive behavior, but also for many social issues. A kid playing videogames for at least twenty hours is less likely to go to school and more likely insensitive to violence. Statistics have shown that the violence among young people is increasing every year.
Video games primarily serve as a source of entertainment and although they have been quite influential on our generation, video games have had a lot of negative effects on the children of today. Since the start of Atari in 1972, the video game industry has expanded into a 10.3 billion dollar a year market and will only continue to expand with the growth of technology. And although these games provide much entertainment, it does not come without a cost. This pastime can become an addiction, carrying with it, many negative effects. Aside from the extreme amount of time wasted, video games teach players questionable life lessons.
Is the amount of violence in the media a problem? To begin to answer this, you must first know what media violence is. Examples of violence in media are kids playing first person shooter games such as Counter-Strike, a television report relaying the details of a gruesome rape/murder case complete with photos, the latest action movie with the hero slaughtering his enemies with an ice pick. Media violence’s effects are impossible to escape because media violence is not limited to one form of media, it is present in every form of media, books, television shows, movies, websites, music, theatre productions, and video games. Is it the frequency of violence in media which is problematic?
Playing violent video games increases aggressive behavior and arousal. Playing violent video games causes the development of aggressive behavioral scripts .Violence in video games may lead to real world violence when scripts are automatically triggered in daily life, such as being nudged in a school
Michael Madigan Mrs. Stamp 11/21/08 English 101 Violence in Today’s Media In the world today society is facing a problem with violence in children. Children are choosing video games and computer games that are violent. Television shows and films of today are showing violent gun shootings and gory hand to hand combat scenes. The daily news escalates the problem by showing terrorist attacks and car bombings.
Is it true that violent video games turn people into mindless mass murderers? In recent years there have been a number of mass shootings in the United States which the mass media has blamed mostly on violent video games. Since these types of games have only been out for less than 25 years there is a slight issue with trying to answer that question at the moment. The problem is that experts and researchers agree to the fact that at this moment in time it is impossible to tell due to the lack of significant research on the topic. There needs to be more research conducted, analyzed, and published for anyone to make such claims.