Video Game Influence

1827 Words4 Pages

Do you play video games? Or maybe your friend, your sibling, your child plays video games? From the earliest games, Pong and Pac-Man, to the most recent games, Star Craft II and Halo Reach, it has been about 40 years. Evolving with our technology, video games originally played on big arcade machines have moved to small consoles we see today, making it available to all those that can afford it. With the wide variety of old and new video games, it has become one of the most popular entertainment in the world, especially with the recent rise of social gaming made available by social website like “Facebook”, allowing video games to reach a much more broad audience from the very young to the very old. With so many people playing video games, video games, like television, soon became the topic of many controversies. Such as video game addiction, gender stereotypes, age of people playing video games, and video games in relation to aggressive behavior. After hearing all the controversies claiming that video games are a bad influence to the children, many parents started to prohibit or completely ban their kids from playing video games. But do video games really as bad an influence on the children as they say it does? No they don’t. Parent should not try to stop their children from playing video games based on the fact that they believe video games are an absolute bad influence on their children without actual research and proof. Let first discuss video game violence, does it really have an aggressive influence over the people that plays violent video games? On December 1, 1997, in Paducah, Kentucky, Michael Carneal, a fourteen-year-old boy, open fired on a prayer group at Heath High School with a stolen pistol. He manages to kill three... ... middle of paper ... ... Games May Violate Children's Health. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003. Elisa, Hae-Jung Song and Jane E. Anderson. Violence in Video Games May Harm Children. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003. Gutierrez, Karen Samples. "Michael Carneal." 14 9 2002. The Enquirer. 23 7 2010 . Hanson, Gayle M.B. "Insight on the News." 28 June 1999. FindArticles.com. 23 July 2010 . Mike Z. Yao, Chad Mahood, Daniel Linz. "Sex Roles." 22 9 2009. Springer.com. 23 7 2010 . NowChildren. Many Video Games Reinforce Gender Stereotypes. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2003. Walsh, David. Video Game Violence and Public Policy. 7 1 2007. 23 7 2010 .

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