People have always been looking for a reason why horrible things happen. The media is quick to blame video games as the target and cause of many shootings that have occurred, ever since Columbine and Quake. People have been blaming video games for violence for years now, ever since violent video games have been made. News reports blame video games more and more for each shooting, telling the public how this person played video games for x amount of hours a day, and that video games caused him or her to shoot people, and how video games encourage and reward violence. Anti-video game lobbyists have been campaigning to have violence removed from video games, citing resources that they themselves have created as reasons for such, poorly done studies where they confirm that kids are more aggressive through how much hot sauce they put on someone’s fries. While unbiased studies of video games and their links to violence are hard to come by, recent research has shown that video games do not in fact have a casual link to violence, and may even have the opposite effect. Violent video games have nearly no link to violence in teens or adults. The ESRB rating system was created in 1994 in response to violent video games like Doom, Mortal Kombat, and Night Trap. The ESRB rating system is meant to protect those under the ages of each rating, eC (Early Childhood) through A (Adult, 18+). While it is not illegal to sell Adult or even Mature games to minors, most retailers like Gamestop and Target refuse to sell them to those under 18. Also, console manufacturers will usually not allow a game to be produced if it is unrated, or if it refuses to be rated. The ESRB rating system is a system that rates games based on how ‘adult theme... ... middle of paper ... ...e not the enemy in a war against violence America is raging. People who are psychotic, and usually who do not play video games are more dangerous than those people that do play video games, and live in a safe and happy household. Works Cited Kulling, Matthew. “GTA:Link between violence and video games lacks a smoking gun.”. marquettetribune.org. 15 Nov 2013. Nauret, Rick. “In new study, video games not tied to violence in youth”. psychcentral.com. 15 Nov 2013. “Violent video games not so bad when players cooperate”. youthsciencejournal.com. 10 Dec 2013. “Growing Up With Media: Exposure to violent material”. innovativepublichealth.org. 10 Dec 2013. “Do violent video games contribute to youth violence?”. procon.org. 17 Dec 2013 Peckham, Matt. “Researcher Says Linking Video Games to Gun Violence Is a ‘Classic Illusory Correlation’”. time.com. 17 Dec 2013.
According to the article, "Video Games and Children," by Bernard Cesarone, ever since the 1970?s, parents have been placing their children in front of televisions and allowed them to waste away the hours playing video games (31). As technology and a national surge in violent entertainment grows, so does the onset of violent video games.
In the article regarding a navy yard shooting where a man shoots and killed 12 people in a Washington Navy Yard has caused the government to reawaken a debate on violent video games and the implications of how violent video games and shootings are related. The man in question shot and killed 12 people and sources say that he would play around 16 hours of violent video games and thus brings the government to debate about whether there is a correlation between playing violent games and shootings. In the article they mentioned that the Navy contractor, friends and family who knew the person involved in the shootings say that he was a very active gamer who was very open about his love of games and many of his friends and family would say that playing
Most games today that children play depict some type of violence. However, parents neglect that the games have warnings for violence, language, and even nudity. In my own personal experience, kids will ask for the most trending games at the time and parents will buy the game to satisfy the needs and wants of the children.
Did you know violent video games cause our kids to murder? This is probably one of the alleged claims that people, whom think violent video games contribute to youth violence, would provide. There has been an ongoing dispute towards whether or not violent video games contribute to youth violence. There are very intriguing articles on procon.org regarding violent video games. Proponents of this proposal believe that violent video games do indeed, contribute to youth violence. While very distinctly the “con” stance believes violent video games do not contribute to youth violence. In my opinion, the “con” side makes the much stronger argument on procon.org.
Violent video games are becoming more popular among children and adolescents of all ages since its debut approximately 30 years ago. This growing popularity is generating an increasing concern that these sometimes very graphic videos and life like characters can have a negative influence on the younger generation. Although never proven, there has been speculation that some of the high school shootings across the country were committed by students who were habitual players of violent video games. Due to these concerns, a non-profit, self-regulatory organization was established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to appropriately rate all video games from EC (early childhood), E (everyone), E10+ (everyone 10 and over), T (teen), M (mature), and AO (adults only). While assessing the efficacy of violent video game ratings, it is unknown how effective these ratings are for the intended audience (Becker-Olsen & Norberg, 2010).
Video Games have a rating system that allows parents to be aware of the content of the games their children play. All current game...
Playing video games does not cause violent behavior. Don’t get me wrong, some video games show horrific acts of violence. “A recent survey found that 92 percent of U.S. kids--ages 2 to 17--play video games, and their parents bought 225 million of them last year to the tune of $6.4 billion.” (Sider 79).What’s here to argue is that violent video games do not cause violence among children, but the blame for violence should be on the individual and people who should have taught the individual better. If kids are not able to see the difference between reality and fantasy, then they really can’t be blamed for committing acts they see in a game and then imitating, not fully understanding the consequences of doing it in the real world. Parents should be the overall deciders of what they want their children playing, watching, and doing. Being left with the right to raise their child in their fashion, parents should find out what the child is playing and limit or restrict them, so then parents can’t blame anything on video games if their kid commits a violent act. With video games as the new part of our pop culture, many adults find it hard to understand why children would want to spend so much time playing with these “idiot boxes”. With this lack of understanding comes fear, for, as humans, we fear what we do not know. So all that will come of this cycle is people will continue to play video games, something new in our pop culture will come and replace video games, and it will be radical for our pop culture and taken on as the root of all evil due to lack of understanding.
ScienceDaily, "Could Violent Video Games Reduce Rather Than Increase Violence?" 2009 Web. The Web. The Web. 23 Apr. 2015. The 'Second http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080514213432.htm
...ally played games themselves and want a bad guy to blame and there many benefits to actually playing video games that can help anyone function in society. Choose to believe the media and this horrible misconception if you will but evidence doesn’t support so video games actually will in the long run will help reduce our violent tendancies.
Video games are a rapidly growing industry. There are nearly two games sold for every household in America each year (Anders 271). The vast majority of these are sold to adults, but there is no national law that prohibits minors from buying violent video games. A few states have legislation pending that will prevent this, but the fact is that minors do have access to violent video games. There is a voluntary rating system implemented by the ESRB, where games are rated based on their content. The games that are rated Mature are not supposed to be sold to anyone under seventeen and Adults Only titles, but “some retailers do not impose such limitations” (Anders 271). The bottom line is that minors do have access to these violent games.
Just like movies and TV shows, video games have the same rating system based on age.
Playing video games has become an increasingly popular hobby in the United States of America. Even though it has become more popular and successful, playing video games also carries a negative stigma with it. Some people associate it with laziness, wasting of time, or nerdy. Some go even further and say that violent video games cause aggression or even violent behaviors. When a major catastrophe like the Virginia Tech shooting or the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School occurs, the media are quick to jump to a cause for it, and they often link the shooter's behavior with a violent video game as a scapegoat (Markey, 2014). In those two cases where the violent video games were blamed for the cause of the shootings, the perpetrator either did not even play the game they blamed,
“90% of pediatricians and 67% of parents agreed or strongly agreed that violent video games can increase aggressive behavior among children” ("Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence?”). Pediatrics and parents are aware that kids that play violent video games see a change in their behavior. Many cases they see the kids with anger problems and causing them to do violent acts. Violent video games have been around for many years where some older titles, such as ‘Mortal Kombat’ and 'Grand Theft Auto’ both are some of the most controversial ones. The video game industry has been growing and with the large amounts of violent video games being produced. “Total US sales of video game hardware and software increased 204% from 1994 to
A common argument against video games is that they cause violence. Many studies have been done and data collected, but experts are divided over wheth...
Willoughby, T., Adachi, P. C., & Good, M. (2012). A longitudinal study of the association between violent video game play and aggression among adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 48(4), 1044-1057. doi:10.1037/a0026046