Tommy is a nine year old avid video game player. After coming home, doing his homework and eating dinner, Tommy spends the rest of his evening, at the permission of his parents, playing video games. As excited as he gets about the idea of a new release, Tommy begs his parents to buy him Bioshock, a game that is rated "M for Mature." His parents, knowing just how badly he wants the title, buy it for him without a second thought. Tommy is elated and spends the entire evening, well into the wee hours of Friday night, shooting, slamming, and slaughtering his way through the overtly violent and morally grey title. As the days pass, Tommy continues to play, and starts missing dinner. Eventually, his grades start to ease down from A's and B's into B's and C's, then subsequently further as the months begin to pass. His parents, sensing something troubling, begin to ask Tommy what the problem is. After sitting down and discussing things with him, he becomes defensive, rude, and disrespectful. Lashing out, he pushes his mother and runs outside. Over the coming months, Tommy's parents continue to buy him video games, hoping it'll keep him happy, and affording them a chance to escape from his increasingly violent outbursts. His parents notice a sharper downturn in his school performance and his desire to eat in his room instead of with them at the dinner table. His attitude takes a sharp downward spiral, his respect for both his parents and others fraying and causing both concern from his parents and trouble from friends and classmates. Tommy's struggles with school and friends causes emotional depression, leading them to a counselor in town. The counselor, asking of Tommy's home life and habits, discovers that his parents are allowing him... ... middle of paper ... ...r in today's youth. The Entertainment Software Ratings Board was designed to combat the potential for the wrong materials to fall into the wrong hands. Parents have a moral obligation to follow these warnings and suggestions and police the content their children are allowed to see. With enough negative influence in their lives as it is, children could do worse than to have parents that restrict what they are allowed to participate in. Instead of being their "friends," parents need to be "parents" and provide a sound, intelligent, morally upright home in which to raise their children. Controlling the content their children are allowed to view is just one such means to raise their kids to be productive, respectful and outstanding members of today's society. Works Cited Gross, Doug. "The 10 biggest violent video-game controversies." 29 Jun. 2011. Web. 22 Sep. 2011.
The MPAA rating system is outdated. The recent advances in technology allow children to see movies regardless of the rating. The rating system worked well for the early years, but recently “kids slip into the movies they want to see. . . . They also see them at home on widely available DVDs, on cable, and via popular streaming services like Netflix and Amazon” (Ebert 2). Even when kids go to the theater to see movies they can “theater hop” or buy a ticket to a low rated movie and slip into the R rated film of their choice. DVDs and the Internet both provide ways for kids to watch movies that contain objectionable material. Websites that offer the o...
The author primarily appeals to the audience using logos. He brings statistics and data from research studies throughout the essay. He either provides background information on why the studies are misleading or just presents a fact. For instance, “According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General 's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure” (Jenkins, “Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked”). He provides data like this through the essay. He is strongly trying to appeal to the audience’s sense of logic and
Imagine for a moment, a world of death. For 200 years your family has been sealed away with a thousand other people, to protect you from the dangers outside. Now your father has disappeared, and it’s up to you to find him. After a harrowing escape from your subterranean home, you walk through a tunnel to the outside world, past dead bodies, stretched out in front of the door, as if to say “don’t leave us out here to die!” As you walk through the gate to the outside, and as your eyes slowly adjust to the sun you have never seen, a wasteland emerges before you. The world is devastated, destroyed and annihilated. Broken twisted hunks of metal lie next to a sign on the side of the mountain saying “scenic overlook” on your right, the broken remains of the interstate bridge stand as a monument to a destroyed culture. Petrified trees are all that remains of the local fauna. Off in the distance, all that remains is destruction. While you may think of this stunning visualization of a wonderful novel, this is actually one of the opening scenes from Todd Howard and Bethesda Game Studios’ “Fallout 3.”
Despite the fact that the ACB admits adults should be able to watch, play and read what they want, the sole criterion provided for RC classification is “content that is very high in impact and falls outside generally accepted community standards.” (Australian Classification Board, 19/5/2013).... ... middle of paper ... ...
The authors first reasoning to help support his claim was “Censorship can also protect us from the circulation of dangerous information.” Another reasoning the author had stated was “It is also wrong for information that is false or misleading to be easily available for anyone to find.” The author gives logical reasoning to support his claim, but does not give sufficient support. Not only does the author give insufficient support, but he also doesn’t organize the passage clearly, so that the reader can understand his reasoning clearly. If the readers were trying to detect the supporting evidence he used to back his claim up, they would take longer than they should. The author also uses exaggeration in his article. They say “Parents have no power at all over the entertainment.” This is exaggeration because they say “no power at all,” by saying this that means there is no possibility of any parent in the world having any control over entertainment. How about the people that work for entertainment industry? What if they are parents? Technology these days also allow parents to block
The debate about media violence has been going on for hundreds of years. The newest form of media being scrutinized is videogames. I will be taking you through this debate and sharing with you some things that you may find surprising. This is not a new topic and has ...
The more kills, wounds, hit & runs or attacks the player accomplishes in the game the higher the score and more reward. This action is consistent in most games with a high violent content. Research studies have shown that the exposure of violence in video games does not “turn off” because the game is turned off, but rather the violent behavior displayed in the video game then reenacts and manifests itself in the behavior of the child (Anderson & Dill, 2000; Ballad & West, 1996; Bushman & Anderson, 2002). In study presented by Professor Jeanne Funk in 2004 review 150 fourth and fifth graders and how violent video games lowered the amounts of empathy, a person’s ability to understand another’s feelings, in the player.
...pornography with such ease, parents are going to have to figure out a way to keep their children off these sites. The only other option is coming home and finding them looking at something they shouldn't. Because some children, given the opportunity, are going to seek out these sites, even if you ask them not to. After all, children will be children.
Whether they be first-person shooters like Call of Duty, sports games like Madden or Fifa, racing games like Forza or Mariokart, or even games and apps on your phones, there are quite a bit of gamers in here. According to the Entertainment Software Association, about 59% of American play some sort of video game, so gaming isn’t all that uncommon (Entertainment Software Association, 2014). As such, there must be some sort of effect on the audience of this growing form of entertainment.
Costikyan, Greg. “The Problem of Video Game Violence is Exaggerated.” Video Games. Detroit: Greenhaven, 2003. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Web. 5 Nov. 2005.
Many kids like Tommy, who spend most of their childhood and adolescences emerged in imaginary lands rather than dealing with the real world at hand, become socially anxious and have low self-esteem later in life. Instead of thriving with a career and family, they relapse back to the same virtual interaction they had as a child. They float through life barely able to support themselves or result to living with their parents. Adulthood seems to them a mere task they must complete in order to continue their gaming. Excessive videogame play for children and adolescents cause social anxiety, depression, and aggression because more time is spent alone engrossed in dynamic storylines and complex situations than outside building face-to-face relationships and other healthy social skills that better prepare them for their future.
This world has become immersed in online media from socializing on networking sites to seeking information on search engines. People of all ages have become reliant on online media, but the most engaged users are the younger, more easily impacted generations. Although there are many positive uses for online media, there are many negative uses as well. Unfortunately, it is all too easy for these negative effects to impede upon the perceptions of adolescents. Some countries have been trying to reduce this effect by expelling the inappropriate content of online media ("Influence on Children Media...”). However, in the United States, children are thrown in the waves, expected to stay afloat in this massive sea, but many are being dragged under the surface by the nefarious temptations media creates. Content that is not appropriate for the young, growing minds of children are easily accessible; a myriad of devices may be used to access this material, all at the click of a button. Without adult content filters on online media, adolescents of various ages are exposed to dangerous conceptions. A world of pornography, violence, and public humiliation lay in the user’s fingertips.
“As video games have become more violent and more sophisticated and the sales of video games has skyrocketed in the last few decades, youth violence has plummeted,” Ferguson says, citing evidence compiled by various federal agencies (Adams 3). Violence in video games is not a new issue. It has been debated and argued since the release of the first violent video game. As time has progressed, so has the evolution of violence and strong language within video games. Ratings have become more relaxed, and the lines between T (Teen) and M (Mature) rated games has gotten closer together. Violent games are becoming the normal and accepted of all games, and are being demanded by the gaming industry more heavily. Parents have always shied away from these games for their children, regardless of age. However, kids are getting these games whether they are the correct age (17+) or not. Young kids, less than ten years of age are playing horribly violent games and parents are fearing the repercussions. But video games are not to be blamed for child violence. Violence in video games does not cause children to become violent people later on in life.
It is also know that video games do contain violence. Mike Snider?s piece, ?Violent Video Games With in Kids Reach,? shows researchers to find that 70% of 150 games studied did contain high levels of violence. Violence is put into games in different forms; punching, biting, kicking, and shooting with various weapons. Although it may not be the main objective to do these violent acts in all games it is awarded in many with points. Even sport games, which were fairly free of violence in early video game days, have found a way to make violence part of the games. Gary Baum?s piece ?Virtual Morality? emphasizes that 27% of games show violence upon females. Death and killing are all parts of video games today. When vi...
Media has become a very powerful tool. The combination between television, internet and videogames and more have blended in with many of our life styles despite how different we are. But at the same time there are many exposures by the media that shouldn’t be out there, causing young people to behave negatively. Many younger kids get their influence from television programs, such as violent cartoons, music videos, and movies. The content and language used in these media categories can cause a child or teen to use the same kind of language against another teen, an elder, and event their parent. This can result in a children using foul language against their own parent. Therefore, media shown during the day time should be censored to minimize the exposure young kids have to explicated co...