Video Game Violence

In this essay, the author

• Analyzes how the issue of media violence on children extends back to the beginning of the mass media, with reference to films, radio, television, comic books, etc. popular sources and scholarly address this issue, asking how violent video games change children's behavior and make them more violent.
• Argues that violent video games have a detrimental effect because they require direct participation and involvement on the part of the young player, which affects behavior outside the game itself.
• Explains that gale (2003) cites video games as one of the most popular and profitable types of entertainment, and that 80 percent of u.s. households have rented or owned a video or computer game.
• Concludes that television violence and aggression among children are linked by the american psychological association, american academy of pediatrics, and american medical association.
• Analyzes how provenzo (1992) shows that concerns about this are not new, though the spread of such games has increased greatly over the past decade.
• Opines that video games are a means by which children can activate the "passive" medium of television.
• Explains that children acting out violent actions as television heroes may transfer this behavior to other situations. television heroes influence children's behavior, and the lesson learned can be even stronger.
• Cites kanellos' analysis that violent games may put the human brain in a fighting state, based on the study in which thirteen males played violent video games and were subjected to brain scans showing that eleven of the subjects showed effects "characteristic of aggressive thoughts."
• Explains that a research study from russia determines that most video games contain scenes of violence, killing, fighting, disasters, simple shooting games, and more complex games of strategy. grossman links this idea directly with the spate of school shootings.
• Explains that sheese and graziano conducted an experiment to examine the effect of video game violence on the specific issue of cooperative decision making.
• Analyzes van horn's view that games are training young people to be killers, and this idea has been accepted by many without a critical examination.
• Analyzes how van horn cites observers who do not see these games as being as harmful as they are made out, such as costikyan.
• Concludes that violent video games can contribute to violent behavior for some players, notably for young males who play for hours at a time. the degree of effect will vary greatly from person to person.
• Cites costikyan, g., federov, a.v. and funk, j.b.
• Cites gale, d., rosenman, and kanellos, m. (2005, october 12). violence in games stimulates brain for aggression.