Video Games do not contribute to youth violence!

I believe that video games do not contribute to youth violence. Everyone who plays a video game knowns what they are playing is a game. I do not care what people say about video game violence relating to youth violence because for every kid who plays a video game and bully’s someone or commits a crime, there are 150 more kids right behind him who have not commited crimes or bullied others.

According to a 2000 FBI report playing violent video games is directly associated with school shootings (“Do violent”).  By saying this the FBI is saying that anyone who plays a video game that contains violencemay just go and shoot up a school. This is entirely false, if someone is that insane to go shoot up a school they are going to have a better reason, or no reason at all which is the more likely case, than becasue they played a violent video game. Besides over 97% of 12-17 year olds played video games in 2008 (“Do violent”). So the FBI is saying that over 97% of the country could be associated with school shootings.

Not only do the majority of people who play video games now right from wrong and that they are playing a game, they are also the most active members in society. Almost every high school boy in throughout the United states has played a rated M (mature) video games before. This goes to show that even the straight A students are playing the violent games that are supposedly corrupting them.  Another great example of why there is no corrilation between violent behavior and video games was a stat taken in 2005. This stat stated that there had been 2,279 murders committed by teenagers compared to 73 in Japan. The stat continued to read that per captia video game sales were $5.20 in the US compared to $47 in Japan (“Do violent”). Again showing that there is absolutly no corilation between video games and violent violent behavior.

Parents Should be “Video Ashamed” of Themselves

Exposure to violent video games in youth has led to a lot of controversy, especially in light of the recent school shootings. Parental backlash has been extreme, and many parents want violent video games to be nixed all together. Others think that the virtual violence benefits youth, in that young children can express their anger in a way that does not have any real-world consequences.

I think that the video game industry is not really to blame for the recent increase of violence in American society; I think that parents are at fault. critics of violent video games are right when they say that “playing violent video games causes the development of aggressive behavioral scripts [in youth]” (“Do Violent Video Games”). This is why parents should not buy violent video games for their children. If a title of a popular video game has the name of a fellony in the title, then it is probably not a good idea to buy it for a young child. And I know what you are thinking, “kids have friends who probably play violent video games too, so it is not all the parent’s fault.” And to you I say, you are wrong. Unless your child is friends with a 20-year-old (in which case you should probably rethink you parenting method), then your child’s friend had to have had an adult buy the game for him.

Violent video games are more of a passage into a fictional world than a violence emulator. “Violent video games provide healthy and safe opportunities for children to virtually explore rules and consequences of violent actions” (“Do Violent Video Games”). This is a very good point, as children would not have experienced the consequences for violence otherwise.

Video games are not the issue here. The issue is irresponsible parents who buy their children violent video games, and then blame video game developers for making violent games. The games are not made for children, which is why we have a rating system in the US. Parents should reconsider their actions when they purchase violent video games for their children.

Violent Video Games

The question of whether video games increase violence in the youth or not has been a very controversial topic. Many people who think video games to increase violence argue that the violent scenes make youth think that violence is more acceptable in society. Many are on the contrary and argue that video games are a sense of anger relief. I believe that every parent should have to approve a video game before their child can play it; each parent knows the maturity of their child and should be able to know if they are mature enough to handle the content of the game. I do not feel that violent video games contribute to the violence of children. If parents approve that their child can handle a videogame, their child is mature enough to not be negatively influenced by the game.

Video games are often used as a place for the players to take  out their anger or violence. The violence in the game often replaces the rough and violent play that adolescents have the urge to do in reality (“Do Violent Video”). The youth who do play video games have a sense of separation from the virtual world and reality. In today’s society, many video games, movies, and shows contain a substantial amount of violence; the violence should not influence the players or viewers if they are mature and responsible. Maturity and responsibility will have to be judged by parents and is not the companies job to decide the maturity levels of the players. Every player has a different maturity level and it needs their parents need to be aware of it.  Just because the game is violent does not mean that the players will become violent if they are responsible enough to handle the scenes that are shown. Many players who do play already have violent tendencies and use the video games to satisfy their violent urges. As stated previously, it is a sense of relief and used as a form of relaxation. A study that was conducted among boys states that 45% of them played the game to release anger and 62% used the games to relax (“Do Violent Video”).

Violent video games are not the cause for our violent society. Many teenage males play the games for enjoyment, a social activity, and relaxation. It is the parents responsibility to know what content is on the game and know if their child can handle it. The article states that research has not shown a link between video game violence and violence in the real world (“Do Violent Video”). Our society is very violent, however video games are not the cause.

Violent Video games

I believe that violent video games contribute to violent actions of young children.  It sets a bad example to a child to see all the violence and death that are on the video games.  When they are rewarded points for doing violent actions towards others, it shows them that violence is a good thing and that you can be rewarded for hurting someone.  As stated in the article, “Studies suggest that when violence is rewarded in video games, players exhibit increased aggressive behavior compared to players of video games where violence in punished (“Do Violent”).  This is because while playing the video games, children experience the rush of adrenaline when they hurt or kill someone and receive points for it.  Of course they want to win the game and in order to win they must earn points.  After the video game is over, they still have the feeling of aggression and this may cause them to physically hurt someone.

I am not saying that violent video games are going to make someone go out and kill someone.  I just believe that they set a bad example that violence is okay.  They make the players feel good when they kill someone which is not a good example to set in the minds of young kids.  I don’t think that parents should be buying their children video games that are rated mature because of violence.  These parents are exposing their children to violent acts such as shooting, stabbing, and strangling.  As a parent you would not let your child watch a rated R movie about a serial killer shooting or stabbing people.  So why would you let your kid be the killer in a mature video game?  That is not acceptable for a child to think that that is okay.

According to the article, “Violent video games teach youth that violence is an acceptable conflict-solving strategy and an appropriate way to achieve one’s goals (“Do Violent”).  This is true.  It gives the children the thought that acting in violence is the way to solve their problems.  They cannot go around thinking that it is okay to physically hurt someone in order to get their way.  The most player with the most kills, wins.  Children should not think that way.  That could lead to bullying and cause the child to believe that the biggest bully wins.  Violent video games are a terrible example for the growing minds of all children.  They should not be exposed to such harsh actions.

 

 

With all the violence and shootings appearing in the news lately, investigators have been looking for possible roots of this violence. Some have linked the violence associated in video games to be the cause. However, this is no true. The correlation between video games and real violence is, instead of promoting violence, reducing it.

I am a gamer. I love to play video games. Sometimes, when I’m angry it helps to blow something up in “Super Smash Brothers Brawl” or to hack an enemy to pieces in “Legend of Zelda”. Does that make me a violent sociopath bent on shooting up the school? No,  not really:

“Playing violent video games provide a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings. A 2007 study reported that 45% of boys played video games because ‘it helps me get my anger out’ and 62% played because it ‘helps me relax'”(Procon).

That means that video games do not promote violence, instead it helps reduce violence by giving players something to take their anger out of. So, I can take out my aggression on a pixellated monster instead of blowing up on school grounds.

Though many studies were published to point out that video games are linked to violent maniacs, there is no real correlation between the two. According to Procon, the sales of video games have more than quadrupled from 1995-2008, while the arrest rate for juvenile murders fell 71.9% and the arrest rate for all juvenile violent crimes declined 49.3% in this same period. Showing that, unlike the studies, the violence level in juveniles has dropped thanks to video games.

Games and Violence

Since the very first release of a video game with a hint of violence the question was raised, does video games promote violence in developing children?  There has been recent studies done on teens and video game violence that disprove video games poisoning the minds of developing teens.  When video games popularity increased between 1995 and 2008 the arrest rate for juvenile murders has fallen 71.9% and arrest rate for juvenile violent crime has declined to 49.3% (“Do Violent”).

Research proves that video games, contrary to most beliefs, help decrease violence in young teens.  Video games provides a harmless outlet for young adults to release their anger and lower their stress levels.  So far there is no evident link to video games and aggression in young adults although years of studies on the behavior of video game players.  Video games has also been accused of causing school shootings but only ⅛ of attackers exhibited interest in video games (“Do Violent”).

Many people worry that fantasy might be determined as reality in young children’s minds but really video players can distinguish reality from fantasy as long as they were in their right minds to begin with.  Video games are believed to correlate with aggressive behavior by providing rewards for players that commit violent acts.  The correlations that have been found with video games and violence can possibly be violent teens attracted to violent video games and not violent games contributing to the teens aggressive behavior (“Do Violent”).

Contrary to the belief that video games invoke violence in young teens is utterly based on bias views.  After all the years of study there has not been any valid research that proves video games contribute to violence in young adults.  A true link between video games and teen violence has not been established and will never be.

 

Violence and Video Games

In today’s day and age, our mediums of entertainment are constantly taking new form through the development of new technology. One of the fastest growing industries in entertainment is that of video games. In 2008 the gaming industry was reported to be worth $11.7 billion, and 97% of teens between 12 and 17 said they’d played video games in the last year(“Do Violent”).
Recently, there has been a lot of controversy regarding violent video games and their effect (or lack thereof) on today’s youth. Many argue that these suggestive games, becoming more and more realistic, have an impact on how young people see the world, claiming that the violent content within video games can lead children to social deviance. This viewpoint is mainly that of non-gamers who don’t understand the nature of games. The same expectation of discretion that applies to violent movies should apply to video games. Additionally, society has changed so much in the last few decades that to try to correlate trends in violence with just one new technology in entertainment is a futile and illogical.

Video Game Violence

Video games have become a staple of the American youth’s way of life. Obviously as technology advances, video games and game systems will flourish. But does this stampede of video gaming lead to an increase in violent youths? According to an FBI study in 2000, playing violent video games contributes to the tendency to develop violent behavior and shows strong correlation to school shootings (“Do Violent”). However, critics to this study state that the information collected was greatly biased, the study had several design flaws, and that the magnitud of study was unreliable and extreme. Instead, opponents of video violence suggest that video games do not promote violence, but violent children are drawn to violent video games (“Do Violent”).

Another flaw in the argument of those who say video game promote violence is the number of children who actually play video games.  Those who believe in the correlation between video games and violence state that 60 percent of school shootings are committed by those who play violent video games, but in today’s society, 90% of high school boys play violent video games, so by mathematical statistical coincidences there will always be a greater number of people playing video games that could possibly commit a school shooting, completely making their argument irrelevant.

 

Videojuegos

In the modern world many children have lost the importance of using their imaginations to have fun at young ages and thrown it into playing video games starting at a very young age. Some parents ignore the rating on games and buy their young child video games with violence and blood much before the child is ready for this kind of game. The modern gaming industry has become a target of people and politicians because people believe that the violence in games have began to cause an overall increase in violence in adolescence.
Video games came into the world to provide an escape to relax and for some to vent their anger in a safe manner. There are many different genres of video games for every kind of person/gamer, however the modern craze is violent games packed full of realism and blood. I personally am a gamer that started playing video games at a very young age and even played my first violent shooter game when I was around the age of 10. I agree that it might not be the best idea for very young children to get their hands on a controller and run around killing people on a video game and it is a very bad idea to let them play online on many of the games like this due to the fact that the game is made for persons of the age of 17 and up. Many people on these games have a very colorful vocabulary and that is something I personally would like to keep my child away from until I deem him/her fit. Video games really started to fly off the shelves around 1995 and the sales quadrupled by 2008, during this time the rate of juvenile murders dropped 71.9% and the arrest rate for all juvenile violent crimes decreased by 49.3% during these years (“Do Violent”). With such a spike in sales and a drop in violence this alone should be clear that this is not the prime cause of violence in young teens.
Some people who believe that video games should be censored or banned should realize that this will never happen. Many lawsuits have been filed against offensive or overly violent games and in most cases the worst that happens is the rating of the game changes to a higher rating. Many of my friends as well as myself play video games to be able to work together and to just relax, this is what many people would agree with. A 2007 study found that 45% of boys play video games to help get their anger out and another 62% played to help them relax (“Do Violent”). Most of the popular video games have some form of violence or fighting found within the game, including nearly all of the most popular MMO (Massively multiplayer online games) and many of these games have millions of players. I would say that it is something that the modern gamer wants and if others do not like this then do not play them themselves but let others choose this themselves.
I believe that young children should avoid mature rated games until they are ready for such games, it is impossible for a child to buy these games for themselves and once you are able to buy an M rated game you should be of the age that you can tell right from wrong and reality from fantasy. Video games are meant for people to experience thrills, fears, and fantasies from the safety of your own couch, they are not designed to form killers and murderers, this is something someone develops on their own.

Do Violent Video Games Promote Violence?

I believe that violent video games promote violence in children. It allows them to believe that violence is acceptable. If these children were to have poor parenting, then the children would think that this kind of behavior was okay. Violent video games that state on the package that they are for mature audiences only, then that wish should be respected and parents should not buy those games for children. Video games now are more detailed and show the gamer graphic details of the murder of people compared to in the 1980s where games did not have good graphics.
In the article, the people stated that violence in video games and violence in behavior are unrelated. I feel these people are wrong because violent video games “enhance the learning of violent behaviors” (“Do Violent”). These games promote aggression rather than making the gamer feel that violence should be punished. Although I feel that violent video games promote violence, I don’t feel that it is the cause of school shootings. Poor parenting has a huge influence on youth violence. If a child is not taught what is right and what is wrong then they are more likely to take part in violence.
Some players of violence video games may know the difference between fantasy violence, but others may not. The article states that young children without a framework for ethical decision-making may mimic the actions they see on the games (“Do Violent”). Along with violent video games, I would not allow my child to watch R rated movies. These types of media that are viewed by children can show them that this behavior is acceptable.