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Micah Stewart

Professor Douglas

English 112-01

04 May 2017

Be Cautious Of The Video Game!

Today video games have become very popular. Ninety-one percent of kids play video

games. Eighty percent of those video games are violent. This means that a lot of kids today are

playing violent video games. This is a problem and here are three reasons why. One is that

violent video game cause aggression. Meta-analysis shows that violent video games increase

aggressive social behavior, aggressive emotions, and aggressive thinking.(Scott E. Smith

2010)Second is that violent video games diminish prosocial behaviors. Takes away the ability to

care and feel empathy. The last is the fact that violent video games expose kids to real world

problems too soon. Shows them negative things like drugs, killing, and robbing.

Parents should be cautious about the games that they buy for their kids. Like I recently

stated eighty percent of the video games sold today has some sort of violence in them. If all kids

see when they play video games is violence, then they will eventually adapt this behavior and

then themselves will become violent or aggressive. Ninety-one percent of kids ages two through

seventeen play video games. These are the ages that kids learn and take in what is around them.

A study by Anderson and Ford Measured the hostility of undergraduates after playing a very

aggressive and mildly aggressive video games. They used the Multiple Affect Adjective

Checklist The results were students that played the aggressive game showed more hostility and

anxiety.(Quoted in Oene Wiegman 1998). This study shows that children begin to adapt and

develop behaviors that they are around and active in. Children should not be killing and robbing
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people in any way shape or form. One sad connection between violent video games is the

tragedy of Newtown, Connecticut where Adam Lanza killed twenty students with a gun. Lanza

played violent video games. Also sixteen year old Kimberly Proctor who was by two teens who

were avid violent video game players(Lehal 2012). Eventually if you play these video games

enough they will rub off on you and will even desensitize the children and diminish their

prosocial behavior. They will watch someone die or get killed in a game and it would not have

any affect on them at all.

These video game make kids pro-social behaviors like empathy, caring, and

understanding go away. When these behaviors go away aggression comes. Children stop caring

and do what they want. They start to bully, lie, cheat, and steal. Not only are the prosocial

behaviors of children are being affected , but the childs intelligence as well. Studies show that

children who play violent video games are not as intelligent as those that play educational games

and non-violent video games. Educational video games actually teach kids and influence them to

learn. Violent video games do teach children, but they teach children the wrong things.

These violent video games expose children to real world problems that adults should only

know and understand. There is a video game titled Grand theft auto and in this game you have

to rob people, take down gangs, and find other illegal ways to make money. This game alone

teaches children about poverty, drugs, and other illegal crimes that children should not know

about. There is also nother game titled Call of Duty and in this game the player is in war and

has to complete missions where you kill, search, and destroy the enemy. The scene in this game

are so graphic that the game is rated M for Mature. According to the Entertainment Software

Rating Board, or ESRB, Games that are rated M Contain Content that is generally suitable

for ages 17 and up. May contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong
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language. Since the game is made for persons seventeen years of age and up most of the time

parents have to purchase these games for their child. So parents be aware of the games that your

child is playing. You do not want them to become aggressive and lose their ways.

Some researchers believe that since all children are not alike then the idea if violent video

games as a whole causing kids to be aggressive is unreliable. This is true, but that does not mean

that violent video games has no part in the aggression that the kids who play them have. Violent

video games are here to stay. They may cause violence and aggression, diminish prosocial

behavior, and expose children to real world problems to early, but there are very popular and the

business is only growing. So parents be careful of the games you buy your kids. Monitor them as

they are buying these games that they play. Watch their behavior to make sure that they are not

becoming aggressive and that they are not losing their prosocial behaviors. What needs to

happens is ways to have violence in games for kids to enjoy still, If that is what the companies

are going to only sell, but instead of only having violence in the games actually teach kids the

right way about the world and the problems that may be out there. Make more educational games

that will show kids how to learn and that will influence kids to do better in schools and in life.

Technology and game media has changed to what it is today, Let's make another change fro

positivity.

Camp, Jeffrey Van. "91 Percent of Kids Play Video Games, Says Study." Digital Trends. N.p., 11

Oct. 2011. Web. 04 May 2017

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"ESRB Ratings Guide." Rating Categories, Content Descriptors, and Interactive Elements from

ESRB. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2017

Friedman, Dan. "BLOOD GAMES Video Companies Get in Pols' Heads Resist Study of Effects

on Violence." New York Daily News, Mar 24, 2013, pp. 8, ProQuest Central,

http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1319084363?

accountid=10008.

Hollingdale, Jack, and Tobias Greitemeyer. "The Effect of Online Violent Video Games on

Levels of Aggression." PLoS One, vol. 9, no. 11, 2014, pp. e111790, ProQuest Central;

ProQuest Environmental Science Collection, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?

url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1623314258?accountid=10008,

doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111790.

Lehal, Japreet. "COLUMN: Violent Video Games Need Warning Labels." The Leader, Dec 20,

2012, pp. 1, ProQuest Central, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?

url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1242090518?accountid=10008.

Sohn, Emily. "Video Game Violence ; Playing Violent Video Games may have Harmful Effects

on the Brain." Science News for Kids, Jan 24, 2007, pp. n/a, ProQuest Central; ProQuest

Environmental Science Collection, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?

url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/198770019?accountid=10008.

Vessey, Judith A., and Joanne E. Lee. "Violent Video Games Affecting our Children." Pediatric

nursing, vol. 26, no. 6, 2000, pp. 607-9, 632, ProQuest Central,

http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/199518156?

accountid=10008.
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"Violent Video Games make Kids More Aggressive." Capital, Oct 07, 2010, ProQuest Central,

http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/756892133?

accountid=10008.

Wiegman, Oene, and Schie Emil G M van. "Video Game Playing and its Relations with

Aggressive and Prosocial Behaviour." The British Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 37,

1998, pp. 367-78, ProQuest Central, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?

url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/219186411?accountid=10008.