With the new DVD that shows sex and violence or computers that gives kids access to unauthorized sites, technology is something that many parents need to look out for. As technology continues to forge ahead concerns about its effects on the general population are raised. Whether it is microwave ovens causing cancer or cell phones causing accidents, people are always interested in researching, and often accusing, these new products. Such is this case with videogames. Ever since PongÒ swept the nation, scholars have been researching videogames effects on children.
People are very quick to shoot down violent video games as a key factor in criminal behavior. When in fact, many studies have shown that there is indeed a connection between video games, criminal behavior, and youth addiction. For years violent video games have been affecting the behavior of young children. They have been proven to be a risk factor for criminal behavior and aggression amongst younger children. The youth will buy these games, play them and without realizing it take what they have seen on the games and remember it.
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.
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.
Seventy-nine percent of children play video games, and at least sixty percent of middle school boys have played one or more mature rated game. Some psychologists suggest that video games are positive- they are creating an alternate reality for adolescents to release their anger. However, studies have consistently proven that violent video games cause more aggressive behavior and, overall, are negatively affecting America’s youth. The debate whether or not video games are positive or negative has been a major controversy in the U.S. ever since Columbine, a tragic school shooting in 1999. News spread that one of the gunmen, Dylan Klebold, spent much of his time playing violent video games.
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
The harm that video games cause can be evaluated by many different factors, and the most obvious among them is the negative effects they can have on physical health. Some experts in the video gaming industry can claim that the first-person shooters and real-time strategies sharpen reflexes, increase concentration and muscle coordination, in reality, youth who spend an ample amount of time playing video games experience effects which are not so beneficial at all. There is a possibility of the vision impairments. “Playing video games for extended amounts of time can cause children to experience many of the same symptoms seen in computer vision syndrome in adults. Extensive viewing of the game screen can lead to eye discomfort, fatigue, blurry vision and headaches.” (Bedinghaus, Troy) Vision impairments can cause many negative effects on a persons quality of life and can last a lifetime.
Excessive playing of video game can cause violence, addiction, and poor academic performance in children. During the past years, the playing of video games was investigated to observe and analyze its negative impact on children. Violence, addiction and poor academic performance were determined as some of the negative effect of video games on children. Video games over the last 30 years have made an impact on the way children spend their leisure time, by keeping them from being bored, but also have caused children to develop violent skills the use to hurts the society. Many of today's video games, especially the ones that are suitable for young boys, focus their attention on
Are video games causing violence amongst today’s children? Nowadays, video games have caught the attention of both the Media and parents. Increasingly, the media tends to remind people how much violence these games contain, thus blaming them for the violent behavior a child may be imitating. In addition, video games seem to be the scapegoat for a quick point of blame and is a much easier answer rather than finding what truly may lie behind the motives for violence in a child. With RPG (role playing games) becoming ever more so popular, so does the demand for realistic violence in them.
D which tested children ranging in age from 9-18 in Japan and the United States. Anderson recorded their behavior both before and after playing violent video games; after three to six months every child that had been exposed to violent video games showed an increase in aggressive behavior over time. Harding also quotes several other doctors throughout her article to support the theory that violence in video games leads to violent behaviors. One doctor, Dr. Cheryl K. Olsen, offers a slightly varied opinion from her peers, stating that childhood aggression should not be blamed on all violent video games; Olsen states, "It's not the violence Violent Video Games ¬3 per se that's the problem, it's the context and goals of the violence" (Harding, 2008). She concludes that some