Video Game Violence: Why Its a Problem

Introduction:

Since the early 90's and 2000's the topics of video game violence and its effects on on the current youth has been debated for many years. There is a large gathering of people who believe that violent video games are the causes for a rise in youth violence, and events like school shootings. Many articles and reports have investigated and reported that this claim is actually true.

Examples:

Do violent video games lead to real violence?

Little By Little, Violent Video Games Make Us More Aggressive

CBS: News Report:

   

What does it mean?

The argument being made in articles like these is  that over periods of time the children who play     videos games are more likely to develop less patience, this along with a general desensitization to violence that they claim games can produce leave many to believe that the children playing these games will be more likely to use violence in real life to resolve any issues they may have as that is the way they do it in games, and due to how realistic games look nowadays they believe that the line between the game and reality are blurred to the point where all children will inevitably believe that this is acceptable:

image courtesy of: gamespot.com

Many who are proponents of this claim that the industry as a whole is at fault for producing contents that ends up in the hands of children, and the industry as a whole should internally correct itself to address these issues of violence. 

Video Game Violence: Why Its Not a Problem

Introduction:

In my previous post I laid out a general argument that many people have that video games cause youth to be violent, and the video game industry should internally fix itself to stop creating these kinda of games. 

The problem with this discussion overall is that in terms of academic research the amount of reports and article that video games are not bad for people is equal to the amount stating that is is bad. So being an opinion off of research alone does not make for an informed decision. 

Examples:

Violent Video Games Don't Lead to Increases In Violent Crimes, Study Finds

Violent video games don't make you aggressive - difficult games do, says new study

Discovery Channel News Report:

Why Games Are Not Bad:

As I previously stated there is a large amount of research that support both sides so one of the arguments many people use in light of that is that the game industry as a whole should self regulate this content and fix the issue. The problem with that is you cant just regulate and entire industry no other media receives this kind of attack when television and movies both have content that could leave an impression on minors, and yes it is true that young children are impressionable so those who care for them regulate the movies and television they watch until they are mature enough to handle the content. Letting a child watch related R movies all their childhood would have a drastic effect on the child and even have an effect on how they view the world because they were not ready for that level of mature content.  They do this by using the each mediums recommended age ratings. If only games had a similar system in place... oh wait...

 Image Courtesy of: The Independent UK

Games depict many different kinds of actions from violence to baking, and parkour. Yet violence is the only one that has the power to cross into reality? Eddie Makuck wrote an article  for gamespot.com (Article Here) as to why games are not bad his comparison is very similar to this explanation "Finding that a young man who committed a violent crime also played a popular video game, such as Call of Duty, Halo, or Grand Theft Auto, is as pointless as pointing out that the criminal also wore socks". It is this kind of logic that in the end in my opinion beats out the other argument. The games industry has regulated itself all that is required it tells you right on the box what might be "bad" about the game and its contents, and while getting that information at a young age may be detrimental following the system laid out by the industry will get rid of some of these problems. In the pervious post the CBS video showed a study that said ages 12- 18 played at least 1 M rated game. By the guidelines laid out by the industry many of them should not be playing those games. The creators of games understand the maturity level of the content they create its up to consumers to do their part in making sure the children who play game play the ones that have content aimed at their age range to insure proper mental development. 

About Me

The Author of these articles is Michael Gregory a currently enrolled student at Point Park University in Pittsburgh PA, The contents of this blog were created for a web publishing class he is currently enrolled in. He can be contacted via email at michaelgregory.f@gmail.com