A Study on the Effects of Violent Video Games on Children

Last Updated: 13 Mar 2023
Pages: 7 Views: 119

Violent video games are a large part of American culture. From Grand Theft Auto to Call of Duty, many of today’s popular video games are very violent in nature. There are many people who claim that violent video games have a negative effect on the behavior of children and young adults; making them more violent and aggressive in nature, while others claim that violent video games do not influence the personality of children and young adults. There are valid claims on both sides of the argument, but it is not as black and white as some critics and supporters of violent video games say it is. Violent video games may not influence children and young adults to become more aggressive and violent, but they may attract those who have a naturally aggressive or violent personality. Some people, such as psychologists Douglas A. Gentile and Craig A. Anderson claims that the violent images shown in these video games influence physiological and psychological changes in children that can cause them to be more violent (298).

In their research, Gentile and Anderson found that “as many as 89% of games contain some violent content, and that about half of the games include violent content toward other game characters that would result in serious injuries or death“. This is a staggering number, but many things that would be considered violent in video games are usually unrealistic; for example, in the Mario Kart racing game, players may fire a turtle shell from their racing kart to knock an opposing player‘s kan into a lava pit. By Gentile and Anderson’s definition, knocking a person into lava with a turtle shell makes Mario Kart a violent video game, but that situation is nowhere near plausible Saying Mario Kart or a cartoonish fighting game such as Super Smash Brothers are violent could be considered irresponsible.

These video games do not depict realistic violence nor do they depict realistic deaths; therefore saying 89% of video games contain violence, while technically true, is misleading. These types of video games would not likely influence children or young adults to become more violent or aggressive because the violence in these video games is so outlandish and cartoonish that it is not even possible in reality. Others, such as Cheryl K, Olson, a professor of psychiatry claims more research is needed because at this time because there is little evidence of video games influencing real world violence. A psychologist testified after the Beltway sniper incident that exposure to violent video games such as Halo and the Tom Clancy video games “make violence seem more acceptable and promotes violent thoughts and action”. In response, Olson asked, “What about the millions and millions of young American males who play video games and don‘t go out and kill random people on the street?” Olson is correct in both her claims.

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There has been very little real world link between violence in video games and real world violence. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the shooters of the Columbine High School tragedy of April 20, 1999 were fans of violent video games. They were avid players of games like Doom and Wolfenstein 3D (Layton), However, just because the two enjoyed these violent Video games does not mean that the games influenced them to commit these acts. These boys could have been depressed, they could have been influenced by their music, or perhaps they just wanted to seek revenge against a society they felt did not want them. Correlation does not imply causation, and it is impossible to say for certain that the violent video games played by Harris and Klebold influenced them to do what they did, as there were many other factors involved.

They could have been attracted to these video games for any number of reasons, but if the Beltway sniper psychologist is correct in his claim, many young American males should be massacring streets and schools at this very moment, just as Olson said. Personality also plays into whether or not violent video games affect the behavior of children and young adults Youth with violent and aggressive personalities are more likely to play violent video games over less violent video games, Steven Kirsh found in his research that “the greatest percentage of physical fights (63%) were reported by youth with high levels of trait hostility and high levels of violent video game play”. Kirsh goes onto say that “the lowest percentages of physical fights (4%) were reported by youth low in trait hostility and low in violent video game play”.

It is difficult to say from this research whether violent video games influenced the youth to be more violent, or if their violent and aggressive personalities caused them to be attracted to violent video games. However, Rebecca Chory and Alan Goodboy conducted an experiment in which personality was compared to video game choice based on the violence present in the game. In their research, they found that people who are more extroverted, less agreeable, and more neurotic preferred violent video games Violent video games may not cause children and young adults to become more violent or aggressive, but people with those traits may be attracted to that type of video game more than others. Naturally, violent and aggressive children may be attracted to more violent games, but violent video games do not influence the personalities of all children.

Researcher Jeanne B, Funk conducted an experiment wherein she divided a large group of 5 to 7—year-olds and had half play a violent video game and half play a non violent video game After the children played their respective games, she asked questions with potentially aggressive or violent answers to both groups about how they would react in certain situations or how they think their classmate should be punished if, for example, they left the room and their classmate broke their favorite toy while they were away. Funk did not find that the children playing the violent video games gave more aggressive answers than the children playing the non—violent video game. If the children interviewed by Funk were influenced by the violent video game, they would have, presumably, given more aggressive answers as to how they would punish their classmate for breaking their favorite toy when compared to the answers from the children who played the non-violent video game.

Christopher Ferguson, a psychology professor at Texas A&M argued that most of the time “studies on the issue of media violence rely on measures to assess aggression that don't correlate with real-world violence—and even more important, many are observational approaches that don’t prove cause and effect”. This statement diminishes the claims that non- realistic Violence in popular games such as Pokémon can influence youth because the violence in those games does not correlate with real-world violence; a child cannot kill his friend with a creature that fires razor-sharp blades of grass in real life, so there is no reason to believe that fantasy violence can influence a child to hurt others. Ferguson also points out that “serious violent crimes among youths have decreased since 1996, even as video game sales have soared“. If violent video games cause children and young adults to become more violent and aggressive, then the rate of violent crimes among youth should have gone up alongside the increase of the sale of violent video games.

While violent video games may cause a person to be temporarily more aggressive, they do not permanently change the personality of a normal person to become more violent. In a study where the winner of a game was allowed to punish the loser with a loud noise, Grace Shin found that, “students were allowed to play Wolfenstein 3D, an extremely violent game, or Myst, a nonviolent game. After a short time, it was found that the students who played the violent game punished an opponent for a longer period of time compared to the students who played the non—violent gamer“ Violent video games may make young adults more aggressive in the short term, but there is no evidence that playing violent video games causes young adults or children to develop changes in personality in the long term. While many claim that violent Video games are nothing but a negative influence on children in today’s society, there are many positives to allowing children and young adults to play violent video games.

For example, Olson found, “many children seem to use games to manage their emotions, particularly boys; 61.9% of boys played to ‘help me relax,’ 47.8% because ‘it helps me forget my problems,’ and 45.4% because ‘it helps me get my anger out."’ Critics need to look into both the positive and negative sides of violent video games. Violent video games may be the only thing keeping these boys that were surveyed from hurting an actual person instead of a virtual one. Having people with violent or aggressive personalities play these games as a form of therapy is a much better alternative to having them express their frustrations on real people or real things. Some violent video games are not even chosen by consumers for their violence. In a review of research, Raymond Boyle and Matthew Hibberd pointed out that many research experiments about violent video games are done by measuring reactions to games.

They pointed out that “the violent video games under research might cause more arousal or aggression simply because the comparative game is less exciting.” Just because a child or young adult chooses to play a violent video game, it does not mean they are aggressive or prefer violent games; the other option may just be a boring game to the consumer in question. The exciting games may just happen to be violent, that does not have to be the reason it is chosen. Despite the fact that video game graphics are becoming more realistic with each passing video game system release, with more powerful video cards and stronger hardware, researcher Patrick Kierkegaard asks the obvious question: "is there any scientific evidence to support the claims that violent games contribute to aggressive and violent behavior?".

Kierkegaard says no, there is not. There is no obvious link between violent video games and aggressive behavior. Even though the virtual people depicted in these violent video games are becoming more realistic, the link between violent behaviors in children and young adults and violent video games is still unprovent. Even though video game studios continue to release games such as Call of duty and Grand Theft Auto filled with blood, gore, and violence, there is still no concrete proof that these video games influence children and young adults to become more violent or aggressive. While there is sufficient evidence that more naturally violent and aggressive youth may prefer these games, they can provide a release for youth with these types of personalities, so they are not violent toward their peers.

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A Study on the Effects of Violent Video Games on Children. (2023, Mar 13). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/a-study-on-the-effects-of-violent-video-games-on-children/

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