Statistics have shown that the violence among young people is increasing every year. Many people blame musicians and other types of artists who portray negative actions as something positive. Others might blame the parents for not watching over their children. But many people fall short to bring up technology as an issue. 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.
Do video games lead to violence? I totally agree violent video games are not all so bad. I mean they teach you hand-eye coordination and can teach you things to help you one day in a violent situation. Yes it may cause aggression; I will get into depth about this in the next paragraph. But long ago violent games were invented based on violent movies so if someone says it causes aggression then some movies in the world cause aggression too.
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. In 1994, a system was put together to help rate video games to help keep underage children from being able to play these games that are rated inappropriate for their ages, this board is called the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) ("Esrb History", n.d.). However, even though this guideline was put into place some adults will purchase the games that are rated for mature audiences for their younger children. Some research will prove the opposite of the violent actions coming from playing a video game such as the video game will calm down a person or even kids that play video games that are on the honor roll in school. What is the meaning of violence?
Sex and Violence in the Mainstream Media: Hurting Our Youth With the increase in violence in the media and multiple forms of entertainment, our youth are viewing violent acts on a regular basis. The violent acts haven’t been viewed by the public forever either, just recently since the rise in the TV and the internet the media has become easier to broadcast to a broad range of people. “Indeed, six medical and public health professional organizations held a Congressional Public Health Summit on July 26, 2000, and issued a Joint Statement on the Impact of Entertainment Violence on Children.” This statement noted that, “Entertainment violence can lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values, and behavior, particularly in children.” (Anderson, 355). Although this was around eight years ago, the issue with violence in the media is still affecting the way today’s youth acts. Today violence is just a part of everyday activity, flip on the TV to watch the news and there is another homicide, or robbery.
By setting an example of violence, the media has taught children to resort to physical violence when feeling angry. Everything from films, shows and even the news displays violence. The violence on television depicts people killing other people for power, money or just ‘because‘. Violence is everywhere on television. People can’t escape the violence in the media; just watching television exposes people to violence.
Unfortunately, many of today’s television programs are violent. So does TV influence kids that violence, drugs, alcohol and sex are ok? How much violence, drug references, alcohol usage, and sex references does the average American child come across? How much of this do they take in? Hundreds of studies have found that children and teenagers that watch television may: • Become “immune” or numb to the horror of violence • Gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems • Imitate the violence they observe on television; and • Identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers Also, Extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness.
Violence in Mass Media: Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence? Tracy Brown January 18, 2013 English Composition III Dr. Kay South University Recent shooting tragedies have sparked the controversial topic of whether playing violent video games has contributed to the increasing youth violence in today’s society. Video games are a very popular form of entertainment for today’s youth, which in turn has raised the question whether playing violent video games causes negative effects on children; this will be the topic addressed. Most popular video games feature aggressiveness or violence as the primary theme in the game but most parents do not restrict the types of games they are allowed to play. Critics of violent video games argue that these games desensitize players to violence, reward players for simulating violence, and teach children that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflict.
In the movie, they gather to fight not out of spite or hatred for each other but because fighting is a common medium of release for them. Various studies conducted state a direct correlation between the aggregate of time spent watching violence portrayed in media, the television in specific, to aggressive behaviour in adulthood. Aggressive behaviours in children are also observed to increase when they are exposed to violent media because they seem to take it as an encouragement of sorts, because new forms of aggression are brought to their notice. The Tasmanian Devil in Looney Toons and Baby Looney Toons is an example of a violence in children’s entertainment.Berkowitz says that a number of different aversive stimuli, frustration for example, may initiate aggressive responses but aversive stimuli alone do not by themselves orchestrate aggressive behaviour; they simply bring about a readiness for aggressive action. Only if appropriate aggressive cues are present as environmental stimuli, will such conduct surface.
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.
Violence has become a common trend throughout the world and can be found in schools, workplace and mostly in films,for example Pulp Fiction, Saw, Kill Bill, and on television. ''By the time the average US child starts elementary school he or she will have seen 8,000 murders and 100,00 acts of violence on TV''.With the constant increase of media outlets, most children and many adults spend an enormous amount of time camped in front of a television screen, a video game or in the internet. Media violence has become omnipresent through music videos, video games, music, tv and films in today's society. Studies show that people who watch plenty of television violence not only behave more aggressively but are more prone to hold attitudes that favor violence and aggression as a way of solving conflicts. ''Over 1,000 studies point overwhelmingly to a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children.".