Should We Continue Violent Video Games?

This is a huge dilemma for rookie officer that have just started their careers in law enforcement. As a rookie officer you are assigned a field training officer that will assist you in your training and the development of your future career. As a rookie officer you are supposed to listen and follow your field training officer’s direction and instructions. A field training officer is task with ensuring that he guides you and makes sure you make the right decisions while you are under his supervisor.

The main argument of this article is that video games have a direct link to short term and long term aggression. The author presents this argument by providing studies from peer reviewed articles that all conclude that video games do cause an increase of aggression. The main point of this article is to answer the question, “Do violent video games lead to aggression.” The article is about the effects of violent video games leading to aggression. The author uses recent examples, like the Sandy Hook and Washington Navy Yard shooting. In both of these examples, the author cites that both shooters had a history with playing violent video games. The author uses a study which selected individuals to play violent video games for a certain period of time. The study would then compare the results to a group who played non-violent video games. The study concluded that violent video games cause a direct link in aggression due to humans reenacting the actions the characters within the video games perform.

Many people believe that violent video games play a big role in the violence we see in schools today. Gaming plays a large role in children’s lives and have begun to

While anchormen and angry parents point fingers at video games for the source of all aggression in youth, studies show that the amount aggression video games cause is actually quite low. Christofer Ferguson, an associate professor at Texas A&M, studied video game violence and aggression in youth. He discovered that the effects the games had were “generally very low” and people were “overestimating the influence of violent games on aggression.” ( Jayson 3.) Instead, the main source of aggression was among peers, natural personality traits, mental disorders and, of all places, the home. Family life plays a huge part in a child’s behavior and while a violent game may add to aggression, it is not the main source and should not be to blame. For most, video games are relaxing. Eric Beaudoin, a twenty five year old graduate student in psychology says that he plays to relax and forget about his “dissertation, practicum, and clients and shoot some monsters.” (Jayson 2.) Gaming, no matter how violent, relaxes him enough so that he may deal with the people he faces everyday. However, it can be agreed upon by both sides of the argument that certain games are not healthy for certain age groups. A seven year old should

In their research of violent videogames and the effect on children, they have found that “the simplistic belief that exposure to media violence will lead directly to individual violence is clearly wrong.” (Kutner, Olsen, 2008) I am going to ask you to look deeper than this. I assert that although violent video games are thought to encourage real world violence, they actually help to prevent it.

Moreover, many kids deal with violence and can’t control it. As a result of having issues with violence some people play video games to let their violence and anger out. People need to understand that “ [b]ut overall, violent crime is down in the US-indeed, as violent games have become more popular, violent crime has fallen." (Erik Kain 1) The more popular the game is studies show violent

As many as 97% of US kids age 12-17 play video games, contributing to the $21.53 billion domestic video game industry. More than 50% of games have violence. (Procon.org) Video games that have violence have been blamed to have caused bullying, mass shootings, and violence towards women. (Procon.org) An estimated four out of five US households with a male child own a video game system and worldwide series of video games are predicted to reach $102.9 billion in 2017. (Procon.org) Critics argue that these games desensitize players to violence and it rewards players for simulating violence . (Procon.org)

“According to data recently released by The NPD Group, in 2012, U.S. video game software sales reached $6.7 billion (174.8 million units) and computer game sales were $380 million (13.2 million units)” (Improving Economy). To many, the violent video game industry has turned all adolescents into mass murderers. However, they’re absolutely wrong. Very seldom do adolescents who play violent video games commit acts of violence, and the ones who do usually have a mental disorder. Instead of blaming the tragedies that occur on violent video games, the news media should explain to people that a large percentage of young males play violent video games, indicating that the two are uncorrelated. They should alternatively research other possible solutions to the crisis. In lieu of negatively affecting people’s lives, video games could potentially improve their lives!

In my most recent essay I wrote of the violence attributed to video games in light of various shootings and other tragedies that occurred in the past year or so. In this essay I argued that despite their violent content, video games are not completely to blame for acts of violence committed by children. Throughout this essay I tried to convince the reader by, first, establishing my own credibility with video games, then sharing my own experiences with violent games, and providing both empirical data and valuable insight from trusted sources.

Since video games have been introduced, video games have been accused of contributing too many atrocities, and acts of violence. News outlets paint video games as being a source of which some acts of violence happen. Yes, violent video games have become more popular, meanwhile becoming controversial, but still there exist no links between aggression and video games. The University of Bologna says that “owning videogames does not in fact seem to have negative effects on aggressive human behavior” (Koffler par.7). Meanwhile, news outlets keep on missing the point on how beneficial video games are. Video games do not contribute to violence, can be educational, and they can improve us in different ways.

Many parents in today’s society are adamant about their teenagers refraining from playing violent video games. Specifically, parents worry about their children playing mature-rated video games that feature blood, gore, vulgar language, use of drugs, and intense violence. Quite a few of these parents believe that their children can be heavily influenced by these brutal video games, which will in turn raise their teenagers to become violent, aggressive, and criminal minded individuals. In hindsight, these parents have good reason to protect their offspring from being mentally harmed by what they interact with. This idea that parents believe that their children will develop criminal behavior and become violent individuals is actually a common misconception that many parents hold to be true. In fact, there have been studies that have shown the benefits of youth playing these violent video games and how it positively affects their mental skills and brain development.

Controversy about video games continue to escalate between parents and gamers, regarding the psychological effect of simulated, realistic, and 3D violence on the minds of young children and growing teenagers. Yet, research shows that video games contribute very little to today’s everyday violence, despite complaints and concerns that games influence a child’s normal behavior. Technology is a way of life in today’s world, computers are used by toddlers, adolescents, and adults alike. No matter what career path a person chooses, the computer plays an essential role in the job. The more our technology progresses and as our industry grows stronger, computers and electronic entertainment will grow to be found everywhere around the world. This includes videogames.

“Recent contents analyses of video games show that many as 89% of games contain some violent contents” (Gentile, Lynch, Linder, Walsh 3). More than half of video games being sold around the world contain some form of violence. All of the violence involved in the video games being played by children is a pattern leading to aggression. Aggression can be caused by many things; however, violent video games are the main cause of aggression in young adults. “If a child began playing violent video games at a young age, then he might think that violence in real life is the same as the game violence and that it doesn’t have a real impact on others” (Gilad, Alto 1). Thinking that violence in the virtual world is the same as in the real world is the first step to showing aggression. Aggression in children caused by video games is the biggest effect parents and researchers worry about. Violent video games teach children that shooting and killing people are

Many of individuals trust that violent video games should be banned by stating that video games can affect people in a negative way. A few even claim that the violence within the game can make individuals carry out violent acts. People should come to an understanding that video games take place in an alternate universe, meaning that it is not real. In addition to that, the gamers comprehend that it is just a game and nothing else. However, there are precautions that go with violent video games, for example age requirements, and the control of the parent. Violent video games do not cause behavior problems and should not be banned.

Videogames are commonly known to any adolescent because as technology grows, so does its wide range of audiences. One study showed that, “The consumption of video games is at its peak during adolescence.” (Exelmans, 2015, p. 268). A lot of households in America have some sort of gaming system whether that is a Gameboy, Xbox, or Wii. A survey taken in Swiss founded that, “…more hours per week of…video game play were correlated with several aggressive behaviors,” (Olsen, 2007, p. 78). The purpose of my study is too see how violent video games can affect adolescents behaviors. This is important because by identifying whether or not violent video games correlate with aggressive and violent behaviors from adolescents can help us to be more conscious on what content children should be aloud to play, and what ages is that content acceptable to play without fear of someone’s children acting out aggressively because of a videogame. In addition to that, we can figure out better solutions to releasing aggression than through a game that makes an adolescent more frustrated when playing. Also, while using this survey we can see how many hours playing video games can affect your behavior. This study will also look at aspects of how the family members might feel about violent video games.