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Impact of video game violence on children

In the society today, video games are by any measures the most common and popular forms

of entertainment that are enjoyed by the young people despite having a lot of controversies

surrounding the games. Out of ten homes with young people and children, you are more likely

going to find seven or even eight homes with video games. The debate on the impact of video

games on our generation is far from over. The matter caught the attention of the president of

United States of America Donald Trump who ordered for a thorough investigation into the

connection of violent video games and violence. The primary aim of this paper is to analyze the

impact of violent video games on children today.

Today we are living in a society where technology has taken lead in everything. In older

days, children would gather outside their homes and play when they are on holiday or even after

school in the evening. This helped the kid to relax the mind after a tiresome day in school.

However, in today’s society, a lot has changed. You hardly see children playing outside when

they are free. Most children and young people are indoors in the computers and playing stations

competing on who wins on video games. Many experts have claimed that video games have

almost zero negative impact on people, however; the issue becomes complicated when it comes

to violent video games (Anderson, 356). When young people are growing up, they are usually

influenced by everything they see, speak and touch. In the last ten years in the United States of

American, we have had cases of a mass shooting involving young people. We have had many

innocent people dying in the hands of young people. Therefore, the main question is whether

these mass shooting cases can be associated with violent video games. There is some truth to

link violent behaviors in the society like killing with violent video games. When young people

become addicted to violent video games, they constantly withdraw from the society becoming

less aware of the true reality and shyer. This later leads to withdrawal syndrome and they see as

if everybody is an enemy (Carnagey et al., 33). Most of the American movies are exploited on

socially retarded behaviors. In violent video games, the end results are usually death and this is

what most young people are trying to practice. There are those who think that once a person gets

out a computer all the memories of the game disappears. However, this cannot be true because

people usually have memories of something they watched even five years ago. If a child plays a

game that involves horrors movie, this will not get out of head for a long time.

According to both experimental and non-experimental research, video games has both long

and short-term effect on children and this contributes to antisocial and criminal activities. A lot

of exposure to violent video games will cause aggressive feelings and thoughts. Among the

young children, it causes some unwanted arousal physiologically and a false belief in the scary

world. This is true as companies making the video games are trying everything possible to make

them look real (Bushman et al., 171). With a child playing alone, he or she will more likely to be

psychologically affected. That’s the reason why most children are having nightmares and illusion

during the day. This can affect the performance of children in the class. Most of the children in

schools never concentrate as their mind is at home playing the games. Our children are the

future, therefore, we need to make sure that they realize that best in themselves at an early age.

Studies by Lowa State University the violence found in video games will have an immense effect

on children attitude. The behavior of children will thus be influenced because their altitude

becomes more aggressive the more they play the games (Anderson, 116). The worse part of

technology on video games is that it makes the video game look exactly like a real-life scenario.

The children want to practice the violence they see in video games with their friends. That’s

why there are many cases of young children injuring their fellow children. It may seem normal

while in the real sense it is not. The kid is trying to practice what he saw happen in the video

game (Ferguson, 312). What most children fail to understand is that there is a big difference

between what is happening in the video game and the reality. The moment a young child

becomes addicted to violent video games it becomes dangerous not only to his friend but also to

other family members. If that kid grows up and hooks up with the wrong group, they are more

likely to cause harm in the society. If the young man gets a chance to access a gun he may want

to practice all that he has been seeing in the video games. In the process, many people can die as

we have witnessed earlier.

Children prefer violent video games because it is more appealing to them. When guardians

or parents are buying video games for their children, usually they have no idea of the content that

is inside. The fact is that if a young kid is given a video game that is violent but with good

graphics, he is more likely to have a better understanding of the proceedings. Therefore, the

children can be able to relate well what is happening in the game with the real world. This makes

the children believe that all that is being done in the video game is right and acceptable in the

society (Kirsh, 42). Therefore, if these children have in mind that the violence in the game is

acceptable in the society, then attitude changes and they become more violent and aggressive.

They want to emulate the stars they see in the games. Most children who watch any violence

either physically or in media can be able to internalize the message being passed across that this

world is a hostile place. Many people who strongly oppose that violent video games lead to

violence and other forms of unethical behaviors argue on the basis that the research carried out is

not supported by facts. This group of thinkers argues that video games either violent or not keep

the children busy at home, reducing exposure to bad things in the society like drugs and bad

company. A child who is at home most of the time is more likely to be safer than one who

spends most of the time outside with other children. Most people with weird behaviors in the

society usually start when they are young children. Therefore, this group of thinkers believes that

a child who spends the most time in the house when free is more likely to grow up well than a

child who will go out and play with others (Gentile et al.,13). Whether this is true or not is a

debate of another day. We have to be mindful of our future which lies in our children. Let's teach

them what’s right so that they grow up knowing that they have a responsibility to the society as

they grow up.

In conclusion, I believe that children are either under the care of either parent or a guardian.

The parents have the right to check and control what the children watch and listen. Most movies

and songs nowadays are not good for our children (Uhlmann, 47). The songs are dirty and

movies are full of adult scenes and what these children see and hear they really want to practice.

The improvement of violent video games to look real is only damaging our young children. It’s

the responsibility of the parent to make sure the content in video games is standard according to

the age of the kid. We need to show our children what is required of them in the society and this

can only be achieved only if we are at the forefront to make sure they are safe from any

dangerous contents. All we need is a society where we raise our children to be productive people

when they grow up. The future of these innocent children is in our hands. There are a lot of

activities that can help keep children busy when they are not in school.

Work Cited

Anderson, Craig A., and Brad J. Bushman. "Effects of violent video games on aggressive

behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and

prosocial behavior: A meta- analytic review of the scientific literature." Psychological

science 12.5 (2001): 353-359.

Anderson, Craig A. "An update on the effects of playing violent video games." Journal of

adolescence 27.1 (2004): 113-122.

Bushman, Brad J., and Craig A. Anderson. "Violent video games and hostile expectations: A test

of the general aggression model." Personality and social psychology bulletin28.12

(2002): 167-186.

Carnagey, Nicholas L., and Craig A. Anderson. "The effects of reward and punishment in violent

video games on aggressive affect, cognition, and behavior." Psychological

science 16.11 (2005): 24-88.

Ferguson, Christopher John. "The good, the bad and the ugly: A meta-analytic review of positive

and negative effects of violent video games." Psychiatric Quarterly 78.4 (2007): 309-

316.

Gentile, Douglas A., et al. "The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility,

aggressive behaviors, and school performance." Journal of adolescence 27.1 (2004): 5-

22.

Kirsh, Steven J. "The effects of violent video games on adolescents: The overlooked influence of

development." Aggression and violent behavior 8.4 (2003): 37-89.

Uhlmann, Eric, and Jane Swanson. "Exposure to violent video games increases automatic

aggressiveness." Journal of adolescence 27.1 (2004): 41-52.

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