Are video games making kids violent, as so many parents have been worrying about?
Well, research has shown that that is just simply not the case.
For one thing,
even when video game sales have skyrocketed, the kids violence plummeted
to its lowest levels in the last 40 years, according to the government statistics.
Second, it has been increasingly recognized that early
research on violent video games linking to increased aggression were, in fact, problematic:
most studies used outcome measures that had nothing to do with real life
aggression and failed to control carefully for other important
variables; for example, family violence and mental health issues.
This
was something the U.S. Supreme Court recognized when, after considering
California’s attempt to ban the sale of violent videos games to minors, stated on June 27, 2011,
“These studies have been rejected by every court to consider them, and with good reason.”
More recent research has not found that children who play violent video games are more violent than other kids who do not play them.
Our modern fears over violent video games appear to be in line with prior moral panics over media to be as diverse as books and movies.
A very small number of kids, maybe 3%, exhibit
signs of pathological gaming.
But regarding concerns about aggression,
it appears to be that children learn to distinguish
between fantasy and reality, and their brains don’t treat these two as the same.
Santa Claus is a good example. Despite not only
their parents but all of society conspiring to lie to children about the
reality of Santa, children can reason out the improbability of his
existence by the time they are in Elementary school.
With this reasoning, kids can handle a video game that involves modern or full on violence, without becoming aggressive and violent themselves
links on the same (or similar) subject:
- http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.health.harvard.edu%2Fnewsletter%2Fimages%2FM1010a-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.health.harvard.edu%2Fnewsletters%2FHarvard_Mental_Health_Letter%2F2010%2FOctober%2Fviolent-video-games-and-young-people&h=249&w=410&tbnid=toTze32S07zq0M%3A&zoom=1&q=statistics%20do%20video%20games%20make%20kids%20violent&docid=GIchoE32mJPtQM&ei=zKCIU_akI4TyoASQmICoCA&tbm=isch&ved=0CFgQMygEMAQ&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=227&page=1&start=0&ndsp=23&surl=1&safe=active
- http://www.webpronews.com/video-games-dont-make-teens-violent-shows-study-2013-08
I agree with you, my little cousin will sit and play rated Teen games and he has become very mean when he is told to turn off the game. These games can be a good babysitter if given to the right age group.
ReplyDeleteI agree that video games influence kids to be violent. Watching violent things lead to aggressive behaviors which can become permanent
ReplyDeleteI find it asinine that after all of the studies that have been done over the years that the media continues to hype of the violence of video games affecting children's minds, being a gamer myself, I find video games to be quite the opposite. Everyone has aggression and I feel that if you have a healthy way to exhibit that aggression without harming anyone you should. I have no desire to act out anything I see in video games in real life, if anything video games calm me down, I feel like I am a very down to earth, and passive person, and video games have something to do with that.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you included the ruling of the Supreme Court on the subject. Good job!
ReplyDeleteThis was very informative. I agree with you, but from my experience parents are worried that video games will make children numb to violence, as is the concern with more and more movies that are explicit and are viewed by children. The more you watch those movies, the less you are affected or surprised by the explicit content. It's the same with violent video games. Anyways, I really liked how you used a multitude of facts but maybe you could put a bit more of your personality in it to make it more interesting? Like, what is your favorite video game to play, if you do?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your blog, and like your point of view.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a controversial topic but I really liked your opinion and is some way agree with you
ReplyDelete