Effects of Violent Video Games, Essay Example

Children in the millennial generation is solely dependent on cell phones, internet, social media, music, movies and video games2.  Throughout the past years, studies have shown that there have been reasonable concerns regarding the effects of video games, both long-term and short-term.  Gaming in this generation can desensitize and introduce individuals to violent encounters, especially displayed within the younger crowd.  If you listen to the politicians and the pundits, the relationship is blindingly clear: playing violent video games leads children to engage in real world violence or, at the very least, to become more aggressive (Kutner and Olsen 2008).

The longer a child watches and plays violent games, or any video gaming for that matter, this child will enter into a virtue reality, which can easily convince that these events within the game are reality or can be demonstrated into the real world.  Some researchers believe that video games that display violence can trigger aggression within a child.  In 2003, Washington State representative Mary Lou Dickerson stated:

“We’ve been seeing a whole rash of shootings throughout this country and in Europe that relate back to kids who obsessively play violent video games.  The kids involved as shooters in Columbine were obsessively playing violent video games.  We know after the Beltway sniper incident where the seventeen-year-old was a fairly good shot, but Mr. Muhammad, the police tell us, got him to practice on an ultra-violent video game in sniper mode to break down his hesitancy to kill (Kutner and Olsen 2008)”

Video games in todays generation doesn’t only display different types of violence.  Most video games within this generation displays ultimate bad behavior, such as alcohol, drugs, stealing, criminal activity and even prostitution. A very popular example is known as “Grand Theft Auto” which is explanatory on the name itself, its sole purpose is to steal cars.  Though stealing cars may not exemplify violence, it displays a criminal action.  Furthermore, within the task of stealing a car, the character must hit, kick or pull out the owner of the vehicle.  Also, the player violently attacks innocent bystanders on the street,  shoots guns; hurting and killing individuals, rob them of their money, perform in high speed chases and entertains prostitution.

According the the various studies from Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do there has been researches exemplifying correlation between mass killings and violent video gaming. One major example that was demonstrated within the book is the infamous mass school shooting, known as the Columbine High School Massacre.  “Columbine High School shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were avid computer gamers.  According to psychologists Craig Anderson and Karen Dill, “One possible contributing factor is violent video games.  Harris and Klebold enjoyed playing the bloody shoot-‘em-up video game Doom, a game licensed by the U.S. Army to train soldiers to effectively kill (Kutner and Olsen 2008).”  Though this video game may not be the main course of  action as to why the mass school shooting occurred, it definitely could have been a major factor.  This school shooting is one of the biggest school shooting to date and is widely known throughout the world.  The massacre ended in a total of 12 students being murdered, as well as one teacher.  Additionally, 21 people were injured due to shooting injuries and three more were injure trying to escape the school and flee the danger zone. Ultimately, Klebold and Harris committed suicide.  Another example displayed within this writing was a popular young shooter infamously known as “DC Sniper.”  In this writing, Kutner and Olsen expressed that “the attorney for Lee Malvo, claimed that the teen had taught himself to kill by playing Halo on his Xbox game console. “He’s trained and desensitized with video games…to shoot human forms over and over (Kutner and Olsen 2008).”

Children that become extremely preoccupied with video games have proven to have poor social skills, false reality and an uncontrollable aggression and temper.  “We hear that youth violence, as reflected in violent crime and school shootings, is a growing problem, and that young game players are socially isolated and unable to form interpersonal relationships (Kutner and Olsen 2008).” Furthermore,  violent gaming or any excessive amount of gaming will lead to lack of social of skills and trouble forming relationships with other individuals.

“A British study by Save the Children was described in the press as finding that “children are struggling to make friends at school because they spend too long playing computer games.”  A spokesperson for that organization added, “Children have always played alone, for example with dolls or train sets, but these activities required a certain level of imagination—they stimulated their brains.  That is not the case with modern computer games, which do children’s thinking for them and put them in their own little world (Kutner and Olsen 2008).”

Furthermore, younger children have new and innovative minds, which they absorb situations and occurrences very quickly and easily.  Violent video games can affect children more depending on their age.

Like films, all video games carry age ratings, and it’s worth paying attention to these. If you wouldn’t let your child watch an 18-rated film, they shouldn’t be playing an 18-rated game. Fortunately, it’s a myth that all games are about shooting stuff. There are 18,000 titles on Amazon with an age rating of 3+. Some of them are even good (Gibson 2007).

Younger children are very influences but violent video gaming more than teenagers.  Video games that are rated T (“may be suitable for ages 13 and older”) are less likely to desensitize a child to real-world violence than video games that are rated M (“may be suitable for ages 17 and older”) (Kutner and Olsen 2008). Since teenagers have already developed their social behavior and personality, violence in video games wont be enough to influence a teenager.  Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that constant video gaming wont affect the social skills of a teenager.  “There are many games which are wholly nonviolent in nature and which require players to use a range of cognitive abilities both to play the game and successfully to achieve the objectives that the game presents to them (Gutner 1998).” Especially in a circumstance where teenagers aren’t going to social events based off him/her playing video games for long periods of time.

There is a lack of conclusive evidence about the link between video games and violent behaviour, and lots of debate. A small amount of exposure is unlikely to turn your child into a homicidal maniac. The important thing is to maintain an open, honest exchange of dialogue. Or if you have teenagers, just do your best to interpret the eye-rolls (Gibson 2007).

In conclusion arguing that violent video games can affect an child and/or teenager in a negative matter and can be the cause of aggression or bad behavior is extremely hard for many reasons.  Though many have a strong beliefs that video gaming can cause negativity, some will argue that gaming or technology in general can cause positivity.  “Research has also surfaced to show that video games engage young people’s minds in such a way that they may help to cultivate important new cognitive skills, which enable children and teenagers to process information more effectively than older generations can from multi-media presentations (Gutner 1998).  On the other hand, it is easy to argue that violent video games can cause a lot of negative and aggression repercussions.  In all actuality, its a strong argument that video gaming can have several effects on children and teenagers, regardless if its aggressive, criminal and/or social.  Nonetheless, children whom allow violent video games to effect their aggression will most likely already have an aggressive and violent trait within them.  Therefore, the violence in the video games can definitely trigger more negative behavior.  Video games exemplify and express a virtual reality for children, teenagers and even adults, therefore if an individual is viewing violent throughout a game then they may mimic the behavior.  Especially when they see no serious consequences concluding from this aggressive behavior.  Overall, some video games can be educational and a great pastime, but like anything, the activity should be used in a time manor and not consume the individual’s life.  The individual should experience reality on a daily basis which will help them distinguish the difference between the two worlds, which is the virtual world and the real world.

Works Cited

Gibson, Ellie. “Children and Video Games: A Parent’s Guide.” <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/11/children-video-games-parents-guide-screentime-violence>Accessed on November 20, 2017.

Gutner, Barrie. “The Effects of Video Games on Children: The Myth Unmasked.” England: Sheffield Academic Press.

Kutner, Lawrence and Cheryl Olsen.  “Grand Theft Childhood:  The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Should Know.” New York: Simon and Schuster