The Negative Effects of Violent Video Games on Children

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Recommended: Negative consequences of playing violent video games for young adults

“Life is a video game. No matter how good you get, you are always zapped in the end” (“Video Game Quotes” 1). Over time researchers, psychiatrists, and parents have often wondered how damaging violent video games can be to the youth in society. This is an important matter to people with children in their personal lives or work environment. These games have become a large risk factor for aggressive behavior in children. Researchers have been saying that video games do affect adults as well; however, they have even more effect on younger brains in early development. Video games have negative effects on childrens’ behavior. Some effects that video games have are reduced academic performance, aggression, obesity, and emotional disorder. Reduced Academic Performance Children who play video games often without being watched by parents forget about their homework and start to fail classes. Children get distracted fairly easy when it comes to the simplest things, such as video games. They can even lose track of time and stay up too late playing these games, then there becomes a pattern of falling asleep in class. Falling asleep in class and failing tests show a reduced academic performance in children. Video games with aggressive behavior also teach children to become disrespectful. Children who pick up on this habit start to do poorly in school because they are too busy becoming a trouble maker and disturbing others during class time. Some may say that children, who play video games all the time, start a trend in daydreaming about different video games. Think about the situation, if a child stares at a screen all afternoon, the screen becomes one of the only visuals contacting the child’s mind. They start daydreaming in class ... ... middle of paper ... ...nd David A. Walsh. “The Effects of Violent Video Game Habits on Adolescents Hostility, Aggressive Behavior, and School Performance.” Journal of Adolescents 27 (2004) 5-22. Web. Gilad, Jonathan and Palo, Alto. “Violent Gaming.” Teen Ink December 2007: 29. Web. Hull, Kevin Boyd. “Video Games/Computer Games as a Play Therapy Tool in Reducing Emotional Disturbance in Children.” Liberty University Nov 2009: 1-166. Web. Mayse, James. “Games on the Brain: Researchers Worry About the Impact of Violent Video Games.” Messenger-Inquire 03 February 2007: 2-5. Web. “Playing Video Games May Lead to Obesity.” Obesity.ygoy.com. Latest News. 08 November. 2008. Web. 23 April 2011. < http://obesity.ygoy.com/2008/11/08/playing-video-games-may-lead-to-obesity/> "Video Game Quotes." Thinkexist.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Apr 2011. .

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