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Impact of video games on children
Relationship between video games and violence
Relationship between video games and violence
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Children are fast learners and what they see and do is how they learn. One of the ways to help children learn are through games because it grabs their attention from being fun or entertaining. A real-and the newest-concern we have with our children’s exposure to violent video games is what the device teach them physically (Grossman, D., & DeGaetano, G. 2014). When they play video games, what they play, they learn from and copy. Tests has shown people having an increase in aggression with moods, thoughts, and hostility, when playing the violent games (Fournis, G., & Abou, N. N., 2014). Games are meant to be fun but it can have some negative effects, an example would be bringing out aggression in a person. Even though video games have rating …show more content…
With such an increase of violence in movies, and an increase in crime, it would be understandable for one to connect the two. Along with the media saying a murder or a shooter was arrested and found violent content in their bedroom or house, many would believe the reporter and blame to content for one’s actions. However, to fully understand and have the evidence to prove one’s reason to shoot or kill, a study needs to take place with enough evidence to back up or prove a theory correct. One study was created and their findings was not what many would believe. Whether people say violent behavior is because of violent movies, there is not enough evidences to state that such a link is true in the United States (Markey, P. M., French, J. E., & Markey, C. N., 2015). Another study was conducted, to see if violence in movies or on television has an effect on their audiences behavior. While limited exposure to real-life violence appeared to have some developmental benefits in the form of higher empathy, experiencing higher levels of real-life violence was linked with maladaptive outcomes including higher trauma symptoms, escape to fantasy, and reduced empathy (Mrug, S., Madan, A., Cook, E. W., & Wright, R. A.,
At this day in age we bask in the luxury of having easy access to advanced technology at our disposal. From the World Wide Web, to cell phones, music, movies and video games the human race has thought of any and everything to keep us entertained. Over the years studies have shown reasonable concerns regarding the long-term effects of video games. These games can desensitize gamers to real life violence, which is usually seen in the younger crowd. The studies especially hit on the games containing player-on-player violence. Though these games are extremely entertaining and can get kids to settle down for a while, if not properly supervised, they can produce adverse effects. Other studies have shown that video games can be used as way to yield positive outcomes such as, good problem solving skills, cooperation in a group and the ability to flow. Although there has been psychological research on children learning through the actions of others some believe that children are automatically able to distinguish between what is just a game and what is reality. The longer they are allowed on their game system the more they become convinced that their games are real. Some researchers believe violent video games can channel the aggression of the child but the parents are to blame for what happens to the child after playing an excessive amount over a period of time. Children can become preoccupied with these violent video games which have been proven to be the cause of poor social skills, uncontrollable aggression and a false reality.
Today’s society thrives on violence. Young children made pretend guns and shot at siblings, teenagers enjoyed video games which praised the player for kills, and adults flocked to see the latest horror movie, few people asked what effect this has on people and society. Some psychologists have started researching this effect. A study by Dr. Ferguson;...
Children that play violent video games at such a young age will have a bad effect on them. “Not everybody who plays these games will become murderers, just as not everybody who smoke gets cancer” (Quittner, J). Every day people play with these games will have an effect on the way they look at things, they will begin to have aggressive thoughts, and they will begin to have a change in behavior. On average boys spend thirteen hours per week and girls spend five hours on video games. This amount of time a week will have a major effect of these children minds. “Violent video games effect people. They increase aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and physical arousal symptoms.”(Rollins 1)
Studies have been conducted to find if violent movies influence a person’s judgement and violent behavior. Psychologists have said that brutal imagery in films, games, and other media sow aggression in society by rendering viewers insensitive to acts of these type. The long term effects of exposure to these movies depicting murder, rape, robberies, and so on is pernicious. Another study concluded that the crime rate would actually decrease during the showings of these movies because for 2 hours during the movie any violence prone persons that wished to see the movie would be in the theater which meant they wouldn’t be on the streets committing crime. Dr. Michael Rich of Children's Hospital of Boston testified that the correlation between violent media and aggressive behavior is stronger than that of calcium intake and bone mass, lead ingestion and lower IQ, condom non-use and sexually acquired HIV, and environmental tobacco smoke and lung cancer, all associations that clinicians accept as fact, and on which pr...
When families sit down to watch television, they expect to watch family type of shows. Family type shows meaning rated PG or PG13, sitcoms and movies that do not include weapons, killing, foul language, and non-socially accepted actions. When children killing, they start to believe that it is accepted. Do children think that killing and hurting others and themselves have little meaning to the real life, children can become traumatized. Most killers or violators of the law blame their behavior on the media, and the way that television portrays violators. Longitudinal studies tracking viewing habits and behavior patterns of a single individual found that 8-year-old boys, who viewed the most violent programs growing up, were the most likely to engage in aggressive and delinquent behavior by age 18 and serious criminal behavior by age 30 (Eron, 1). Most types of violence that occur today links to what people see on television, act out in video games or cyberspace games, or hear in music. Media adds to the violence that exists today and in the past few decades. It will continue in the future if it is not recognized as a possible threat to our society. When kids go to a movie, watch television, play video games or even surf the web, they become part of what they see and hear. Soaking violence in their heads long enough becomes a part of the way they think, acts, and live. The line between pretend and reality gets blurred.
There are many views as to whether video game violence causes children to behave violently. Many children play violent games because that is what most people are playing and they feel that they need to do so as well. Violence is not only in video games but also in all other forms of media because that is what sells and what will make entertainment companies more money.
The allegation that videogames cause violent behavior in children has been present as long as videogames themselves. Some researchers said that the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, was one intense gamer. “Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech Shooter was seen by his roomates as odd because he never joined them in video games.”(Beresin) This debate will continue to go on in this country as long as there are horrific crimes that occur. There is much written in the research regarding this issue, and many differing views. The research that is presented in the next few paragraphs supports the theory that it is not the graphic video games that produce aggressive behavior, but other factors in a child’s life that create violent actions.
In a research analysis of Media and Violence, studies show that “Although the typical effect size for exposure to violent media is relatively small ... this ‘small effect’ translates into significant consequences for society as a whole” (“Media and Violence: An Analysis of Current Research”, 2015). This states violent behaviors can come from the smallest variables, or clips from videos, which is why it is important for parents to control what their kids see, read, and watch, and limit the amount of violence exposure.
By far the largest concern of technology today is video games. There have been so many experiments and studies to try and figure out if video games have a negative or positive effect on our children. A growing body of research is linking violent video game play to aggressive cognitive, attitudes and behaviors (D.A. Gentile, 2004). Video games can obviously be dangerous for our children causing aggression, bad performances in school and obesity. Although we cant blame all of these problems on the use of video game...
One article points out that video games have a big impact on children’s lives and that many of the games played are violent. Researchers have found that “nearly all children spend time playing video games” and studies have found that “8th graders spent an average of 17 hours per week playing video games” (Tamborini 336). Moreover, 68% of the most popular video games contain violence (Tamborini 336). So it is clear that many children have access to violent video games and they have a big impact on their lives simply because of the amount of time spent playing them.
Over the past 30 years, playing video games has become one of the most popular hobbies worldwide. Not only has the video game industry become a multi-billion dollar industry, but it has attracted people from all age types. While video games today are played by both kids and adults, there are many issues being raised regarding the effects of video games. More particular, is the effect that violent video games may be having on children. Some critics argue that video games are direct indicators of child aggression while video game supporters argue that there is no direct link between child aggression and violent video games. While many people have their own personal stances, this issue is unique because it is unfolding everyday. Scientists and researchers all over the world are continuously doing research regarding the effects of video games on children. Even though this remains a field of uncertainty for researchers, parents should definitely be involved in being aware of what it is that they’re children are playing when they play video games.
Video games first appeared in the early 1970's. It all started with a simple white ball bouncing back and fourth on the screen. In 1986, Nintendo introduced its first line of home video game consoles. With the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) on the market, the home video gaming industry surged and immediately became popular among children. Since then, not only have video games increased in popularity, but there have been vast improvements in graphics, game play, and forms of gaming. Today, video games have become the preferred choice of entertainment among children and teenagers. Research done in 1998 has shown that kids who own video games spend an average of 90 minutes a day playing them. Clearly the video gaming industry is a profitable one. With the increasing competition between gaming companies, the advancement of technology and content of games began to change. One of the most significant and concerning changes in gaming is graphics. With the improvements in graphics the content of the game became more and more detailed and realistic. Visually violent actions can now be displayed on the screen. Images of blood, flying body parts, and gore have been integrated into every aspect of today's video games. Violence has always been a common factor in many games, but with the improvements in graphics and capabilities of gaming consoles, a growing number of people are becoming concerned about the effects on our children and society.
Television violence, and media violence in general, has been a controversial topic for several years. The argument is whether young children are brainwashed into committing violent real-world crimes because of violent and pugnacious behavior exposed in mass media. In his article “No Real Evidence for TV Violence Causing Real Violence”, Jonathan Freedman, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and author of “Media Violence and Its Effect on Aggression: Assessing the Scientific Evidence”, discusses how television violence, claimed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), does not cause real-world aggression among adolescents. The FCC determined to restrict violent television programming to late night hours only because their “scientific research” proves of increasing aggression among young viewers (Freedman Par. 2). Freedman goes on to explain that the FCC has no substantial scientific evidence stating that there is a correlation between fictional violence and real-world aggression among young audiences. He has completed research in 1984 and 2002 on the relationship between media violence to actual acts of violence on the street. Because he has completed research projects related to this topic, Freedman’s statistical evidence shows that there is a reduction in youth violence and it essentially does not cause real-world crimes (Freedman Par. 1). The FCC continues to claim that exposure to media violence does in fact increase aggression, and yet their readers continue to believe their fabrications. Freedman argues that people who research media violence tend to disregard and omit the opposing facts. No one type of violence is more effective on aggression than another type. There is no evidence showi...
The concerns of parents are that theses types of games are going to change their child’s life in a bad way. These ideas are true through tedious experiments that prove that violent games produce violent children. The games that cause the most fear are ones that give the players the opportunity to select their own weapon and decide what violent adventures they long to experience. A well known fact is that repetition increases the learning process. For example, when students are studying for a test they will incorporate the use of flashcards. Using the flashcards exposes the child to the information repeatedly until it is memorized. While playing these games, the player learns the patterns of games through repetition. By doing this they are unconsciously learning to act in the same way as the game. In March of 2014, the Center for Study of Violence at Iowa State participated in a study where they followed over 3,000 children over a three year period who played video games. Since the experiment was carried out over a long period of time, it was easy to spot out the effect of the games on the test subjects. The report discovered that the boys who played the hostile games had an increased amount of recorded aggressive behaviors, and although the girls in the experiment played less violent games than the boys, they still displayed violent behaviors (Gentile, 2014). The
Television violence causes children and teenagers to be less caring, to lose their inhibitions, and to be less sensitive. In a study on the connection between violence and television done with 1,565 teenage boys over a six-year period in London, William Belson, a British psychologist, found that every time a child saw someone being shot or killed on television they became less caring towards other people (Kinnear 26). William Belson also discovered that every time a child viewed this violence on television, they lost a fragment of their inhibitions towards others (Kinnear 26). In addition to William Belson’s study, studies done by many scientists and doctors show that seeing violence on television causes viewers to become less sensitive to the pain of others (Mudore 1).