Violent Video Games Are Not Bad for Kids

The article by J. Ramirez, Clinton Village News, states that Violent Video Games Harm Our Kids ensuring the reason of violence in young people who have played countless hours of violent video games.

Video Games have come a long way since their first introduction into the main stream. With video games becoming more sophisticated and using advanced technology, it seems as if video games are closing in on the gap between games and reality. However, as video games become ever so life-like it brings up the question of if the violence associated with video games is having a negative consequence. There have been many accusations over the years over the harm video games are causing children and teenagers. Experiments have been conducted trying to associate a link between video games and aggressive behavior. Even the media has been known to point fingers at video games for the cause of children

Brandon Nadeau is an anthropology student in his sophomore year at the University of Connecticut and a weekly columnist for UConn’s Daily Camus. On October 21, 2015, he wrote an article “Video Games Make Society Less Violent”. He discusses one man who is a medical malpractice lawyer, Jack Thompson, and this guy hates video games. He think that video games inspire violent behavior in people; however, all of facts are against him. Brandon Nadeau gives us a lot of examples of positive effects of video games. One example that he gives is that since video games became a mainstream industry when PlayStation came out in 1995, the violent crime rate has decreased significantly. This argument is a very important reason that video games have some positive

“I'm sure you've heard negative things about video games, our various studies show they are false.” This is a claim from the article, “5 Facts Prove That Video Games Are Good For Your Children” written by Stacie Simpson. A lot of people think videogames are bad for you, they say stuff like “video games make you lazy.” or “video games rot your brain.” this is only partially true. Video games are good for you and/or your children because they help with stress, decision making and, hand-eye coordination.

There is overwhelming scientific research that suggests that playing violent video games are harmful to children and adolescents. The scientific evidence has uncovered several areas in the development of children and adolescent that are negatively impacted because of the exposure to and playing of violent video games. Some of the key areas that are negatively affected include brain activity, stress levels and behavior.

It seems like everything coming out about video games is bad. A student tried to kill his fellow classmates, and he was an avid Call of Duty player. A study has been released that proves that playing video games will turn you into a criminal. The many benefits of games and gaming, such as their possible applications to education and their ability to tell more complex stories than other forms of media, are almost universally ignored. I know better, though. Between the lifetime I’ve spent playing and loving video games, and the articles I’ve found, I can tell you that video games do not cause violent behavior or thoughts.

Video games and violence have been a big issue that has been the start of many arguments in today’s society. There have been many studies that have tried to support either side and no one can seem to come to a conclusion. The documentary that I watched, “Are Video Games Really That Bad” by BBC Horizon, was a document showing the benefits of video games and how they do not cause violence in people. Video games can be helpful to many people and can improve concentration, improve awareness, and can stop the brain from deteriorating as fast. These are just a few points that they make in the documentary. These stakeholders are trying to show their viewers that video games do not hinder gamers but instead they help them by increasing brain activity,

Findings supporting these claims also show that with an increase in violence comes other negative health risks such as an increased likelihood of substance abuse, sexual activity, and obesity(Denniston, Swahn, Feldman, and Romero). Media use, and subsequent exposure to violent content is extremely prevalent among 8 to 18 year old children who spend, on average, 7.4 hours a day using media or computers and 80% of teens have some type of gaming console(Denniston, Swahn, Feldman, and Romero) These claims and the amount of media children are exposed to were concerning enough that the American Academy of Pediatrics started making advisory statements about violent video games and media being health risks for children in 2001. (Hall, Day, and Hall) Since then the link between violent games and violent behavior in youths has been researched across many “population groups”(Denniston, Swahn, Feldman, and Romero). The second theory revolves around any positive effects that might be gained from playing these games (Hall, Day, and Hall). Stating that these may offer “safe” outlets for negative emotions and thusly allowing players to be more emotionally balanced. (Hall, Day, and Hall)

Contrary to popular belief, violent video games may not play into violent crimes as much as you may think. Many people think that violent video games might be the main reason that violent crimes like mass shootings and murders happen. Another factor that they bring into the argument is that video games isolate the players from the rest of society and makes them become antisocial. Groups are trying to ban video games due to these reason. Being somebody who plays violent video games, especially first person shooters, I do not see this the same way as others do. I see these games as ways to pass my free time, have fun playing with friends, and to meet new people from all over. I believe that people blame these harmless games due to a lack of investigation into the offenders past where they don’t see prior problems and they want to just blame it on an inanimate object rather than the person at fault. This could also be because of a lack of investigation of the benefits that video games bring also. I’m writing this to bring awareness to the benefits of games rather than what people have heard from other sources of media.

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.

Violent video games cause dangerous and, aggressive thoughts to appear, and may make people act out in violent ways causing them to become harmful to their surroundings. In addition to making the player aggressive, violent video games are also linked to criminal activity. According to the article, "Do Games like 'Grand Theft Auto V' Cause Real-World Violence?", “The Aurora shooter, James Holmes, the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, they’re all described as essentially being addicted to video games” (Kain 1). Becoming addicted to video games, like these people, can reflect in actions, making gamers dangerous. On top of causing aggression playing violent video games, “Increases the likelihood that a person will commit a violent crime, like murder or assault” (Carey 1). Playing violent video games is harmful to the player and, their surroundings because they can have sudden outbursts causing harm to others. Video games, especially addictive, and violent games, are linked to criminal activity and, make people addicted, and harmful.Some people think that if they distract children with enjoyable video games it will cause them to be too distracted to do anything else, like violent behavior.

Video games are frowned upon by parents as time-wasters, and worse, some education experts think that these games corrupt the brain. Violent video games are easily blamed by the media and some experts as the reason why some young people become violent or commit extreme anti-social behavior. But many scientists and psychologists find that video games can actually have many benefits – the main one is making kids smart. Video games may actually teach kids high-level thinking skills that they will need in the future.

Video games have been argued about for decades. Some people have argued that video games are linked to violence. However, new research shows that video games can be used for therapeutic purposes, exercise, stress relievers, positive interactive learning, hand eye coordination, and different types of patient treatment for people all around the world.

Video games have become a major occupation of majority of the youth these days. They spend hours on end concentrating on video games, some of which are apparently very violent, yet this is actually the whole idea. Coming from the horse's mouth is an argument in support of video games coined from a video programmer's point of view, stating that violent video games allow people to do what they can not do in reality- virtual reality. ( http://www.theroc.org/roc-mag/textarch/roc-15/roc15-08.htm ) For instance, someone said to be having a bad day could use a violent video game to release stress by shooting down a couple hundred bad men than actually taking an AK-47 and spilling down a few brains down the

“Life is a video game. No matter how good you get, you are always zapped in the end” (“Video Game Quotes” 1). Over time researchers, psychiatrists, and parents have often wondered how damaging violent video games can be to the youth in society. This is an important matter to people with children in their personal lives or work environment. These games have become a large risk factor for aggressive behavior in children. Researchers have been saying that video games do affect adults as well; however, they have even more effect on younger brains in early development. Video games have negative effects on childrens’ behavior. Some effects that video games have are reduced academic performance, aggression, obesity, and emotional disorder.