Relationship between Video Games among Children and Violent Behavior - Research Paper Example

Relationship between Video Games among Children and Violent Behavior Introduction The era of generation Y has been characterized by massive advancement in technology that has resulted in the younger people being exposed to numerous things; some that are good while others are bad for their moral development. In this twenty-first century, kids as young as six years own cellular phones and other electronic gadgets such as iPads, iPods; play station game consoles among others. In essence, they have unlimited access to information through the numerous channels of media that they can interact with in the course of the lives (Saleem, Anderson and Gentile 281-287). A few years ago, movies and television shows were monitored keenly to ensure they do not pollute the minds of young people by disseminating inappropriate ideas or information to this generation of people. In of that light, all forms of programs or movies that were aired in televisions or cinemas were viewer discredited with parental guidance information being provided to the appropriate audience the shows fits (Anderson and Dill 772-790). However, children were able to access inappropriate information such as pornographic scenes and violent murder situations in video animations; a genre of movies that is very popular among the young generation. The emergence of video games revolutionized the digital media since children were now more involved in these form of media through active participation in the games. Psychologists believe that what children are exposed to in their tender age shapes the kind of character and behavior they develop later in life. Thus, it is prudent to state that violent video games can be linked to the violent behavior of children because most of the acts in the games are exhibited in real life situations (Sherry 410-415). Video games account for the violent behavior exhibited by children in their later years in life because of the psychological influence they have on the development of a child. Impact of Video Games on Behavior of Children There are various genres of video games in the market. Some are strategy in nature and thus tend to test and enhance the ability of the player to coordinate his/her hands and mind while at the same time improving a user’s problem-solving skills to enable him/her overcome the numerous occasions of dilemmas they face in life, which require him/her to make prompt decisions. In addition, there is another genre of video games that replicate movies, especially the ones based on science fiction (Sherry 423). The characters are involved in bizarre acts of murder situations that are horrific and violent in nature. Video games are mainly dependent on repetition in which the individual involved has to replay the game repetitively in order to gain the skills to advance to the next level and earn points for the particular stage. The active participation that one is involved in makes him/her part of the game, and this can be realized by watching a person play one of such games (Eden and Eshet-Alkalai 457). It will be evident that he/she will be reacting towards the events in the game as if they are happening in real life. Moreover, some pundits argue that most of the violent scenes that are depicted in video games are similar to the ones that are screened in movies, thus if the movies do not have a relationship to the violent behaviors demonstrated by children, likewise video games have no such relationship (Gentile et al. 6-20). However, it is not prudent to make a direct comparison between movies and video games since the two media genres appeal to their audiences in different manners. For instance, children are likely to imitate the actions of favorite characters that they begin to identify themselves with. In most games, an individual will choose which characters he/she plays with as well as the weapons or paraphernalia that will be utilized to accomplish the set mission. In the case of movies, this is not the case since the audience only observes the scenes passively without any active participation. Gentile et al. (6-15) analyzed the effects of violent games on adolescents by conducting research on Midwestern schools and came up with the conclusion that indeed violent games are directly related to the aggressive behavior of the young people. That notwithstanding, the findings also indicated that students who tend to be actively involved in playing video games tend to have low test scores in schools compared to those that do not play the games. Apparently, young people, especially the adolescents tend to practice what they do in games in real life settings by involving themselves in physical fights with their colleagues or even engaging in arguments with their teachers (Gentile et al., 6-15). Notably, most of these games portray some crude form of behavior in which the characters use foul language while communicating that depicts ‘don’t care’ personas. Today, very young children use the F-word in their communication, which is mainly attributed to the sort of media they got exposed to in their tender age (Saleem, Anderson and Gentile 281-287). School shootings are a common phenomenon in America with the recent case involving a six-year-old that took his mother’s gun and went with it to school, and opened fire on fellow students. Such an incident is so unfortunate and can only be blamed on the kind of media and video games that the child was exposed to or plays (Funk et al. 420). In reality, a six-year-old child is too young to make a decision of revenging on his mates by use of gunfire. The best analogy to explain the scenario would be that the child was imitating a violent character in video games that often opens fire with any light provocation, and the more the character kills, the more he/she is respected in the setting of the game. Therefore, the child was trying to command such respect from his colleagues but ended up shooting them dead. Conversely, it is not right to generalize that video games are related to violent behaviors in children since there a number of categories of the games; for instance, violent, prosocial and neutral games. Each of these types of games has its objectives and morals that users gain from them. Take an example of FIFA 14; this is a football game that can be categorized as being neutral since it is purely based on playing soccer without any incidents of violence being involved. In the process of playing the game, any slight offense that is violent in nature is often penalized with a foul being awarded to the opponent. It implies that the game does not condone violence and thus can help players gain good morals by not engaging in violence acts and being proactive. Conversely, a video game like GTA Vice city can be categorized as violent since it entirely involves incidents of shooting and reckless driving. The game also incorporates some aspects of prostitution, which is not good for the moral development of young people playing the game. There are many more in the market, but the two examples elaborates the fact that video games have both a negative and positive impact on the children (Collier, Liddell Jr, and Liddell 108). However, it is prudent to note that young people are curious in nature, and always want to explore new things. With the current tough economic times, parents have busy work schedules and, therefore, children spend a better part of their day alone at home. During this period, children play inappropriate games, especially those with violent themes and only disguise with the prosocial ones when the parents are around. That is why most parents will always oppose the relationship between video games and violent action in their children; arguing that they only buy appropriate material for their children. Furthermore, with the internet age, people can share games and other multimedia online via various forums, thus accessing user discredited games is natural (Gentile et al. 10-20) A considerable number of the violent video games are strategic in nature in the sense that they induce the mind of the player to think in a particular way that is often aggressive in order for them to earn maximum points. Video games are addictive in nature, and once an individual has indulged in them, it becomes difficult to stop playing (Saleem, Anderson and Gentile 281-287). The continuous interaction with the games provides a perfect environment for that aggressive behavior to develop in children and with time the children that used to be naïve, proactive and conservative tend to become violent and even bullies at school. What will be essentially happening is that the children will be obsessed with what they are used to in the video and, thus replicate the actions of the game in reality whenever they are not playing such as in schools. Psychologists argue that aggressive behavior can be learnt very quickly, thus once a violent thought preoccupies a child’s mind it gets replicated in terms of how he/she relates with other children and people the surrounding (Eden and Eshet-Alkalai 457). The moral level of children that play violent video games tends to decrease since they perceive violence as the solution to all problems. Whenever they are slightly provoked by their colleagues, these children always resort to physical altercations or even verbal diarrhea because of the kind of speech that is often used in the video games. Thus, this implies that children exposed to video games will often develop intolerant behaviors that make them difficult to contain. Their violent nature may even escalate to being involved in violent incidents when they become adults since they would have developed a mentality of using violence in achieving or satisfying their needs, wants and problems. However, it is not the case with all children since there some who are addicted to violent video games and tend to depict normal behaviors without any aspect of aggression in their behavior. It is prudent to note that as much as violent video games can be associated with aggressive behavior in children there are other accompanying factors that when combined with these games results to that kind of behavior. In essence, in the past before these kinds of games came into being aggression was still observed in some children. Thus, as much as violent video games can be associated to aggressive behavior they are not entirely the cause of traits but a mix of various factors that leads to perpetual developments of aggression. (Gentile et al. 7) Apart from shootings there have been incidents in which young children stab their siblings or even do some crazy stuff all that cannot be explained in any other psychological manner but just because of the exposure they get to violent video games (Saleem, Anderson and Gentile 281-287). It is vivid that indeed violent video games are related to the aggressive behaviors that young people demonstrate after considerable exposure to this kind of media. The effects of the violent actions that are shown in children and teens are adverse and in some situations can be fatal (Funk et al. 414-417). It is, therefore, important that the right regulations are implemented to curb the effects of these kinds of media by both parents and the relevant government agencies to ensure that generation Y is not submerged in violent mentality. The mechanisms that are in place have not yielded much as children and young teens continue being polluted with violent video games content that is even threatening their security and that of other people in their environment. Conclusion Based on the above arguments it is evident that violent video games are related to the aggressive behaviors that are depicted by children. The interaction of children with these kinds of media makes them develop an explicit aggression in their brains and with time the actions mature and gets replicated in the real life environment. The aggressive actions are often associated with violence and crime vices, which are not desirable in the society. Therefore, parents and the relevant authorities have an obligation to come up with regulations that will ensure children do not consume media content that is counterproductive and breeds violence in children later in life. Ultimately, it is evident video games impacts on the psychological minds of children and thus influences their behavior a great deal. From my individual perspective I used to play GTA a game that can be categorized as a violent video game but all through adolescent years I never heard any complaint from my parents or teachers of any change of behavior. The only problem I had was being late with my assignments since I would spend all my free time on the game. Thus, it’s not prudent to overly conclude that video games are directly responsible for aggression in children’s behavior. Works Cited Anderson, Craig A., and Karen E. Dill. "Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78.4 (2000): 772. Internet source. Collier, Joel E., Pearson Liddell Jr, and Gloria J. Liddell. "Exposure of Violent Video Games to Children and Public Policy Implications." Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 27.1 (2008): 107-112. Print. Eden, Sigal, and Yoram Eshet-Alkalai. "The Effect of Digital Games and Game Strategies on Young Adolescents' Aggression." Journal of Educational Computing Research 50.4 (2014): 449-466. Print. Funk, Jeanne B., et al. "Playing Violent Video Games, Desensitization, and Moral Evaluation in Children." Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 24.4 (2003): 413-436. Print. Gentile, Douglas A., et al. "The Effects of Violent Video Game Habits on Adolescent Hostility, Aggressive Behaviors, and School Performance." Journal of Adolescence 27.1 (2004): 5-22. Print. Saleem, Muniba, Craig A. Anderson, and Douglas A. Gentile. "Effects of Prosocial, Neutral, and Violent Video Games on Children's Helpful and Hurtful Behaviors." Aggressive Behavior 38.4 (2012): 281-287. Print. Sherry, John L. "The Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression." Human Communication Research 27.3 (2001): 409-431. Print. Read More