Essay on video games violence Essay

The gaming industry greatly impacts how people, from young children to adults, spend their time. match to Health Magazine (2009), 90 percent of kids aged 8 to 16 play boob tube games, and they spend about 13 hours per week doing so (to a greater extent if youre a boy). Whether its educational, or practiced plain fun and entertainment ikon games withstand evolved greatly in the last 40 grades. Todays innovative games are in a class of its own with its realism and impressive graphics. With this ever advancing technology, comes better games with realistic situations.Theres no harm in acting video games for recreation. However, the problem lies within the violent video games and the aggression that these video games cause in children. For years researchers and experts have smotherd studies linking video games to aggressive behavior. Its a controversial subject, nonetheless, it shows just how powerful the affect the games have on children. To illustrate, CBSnews. com reports a s tory of a 17 year who bought the popular game, Grand Theft Auto.In this game, the player is encouraged to do as much illegal activity and engage in as much violent behavior as they can to be rewarded with accolades and higher points. The more heinous the act, the higher you move up in the game. After playing this game for nine months, the 17 year old gunned down three men, two police officers and a dispatcher in a county jail, in the resembling style he was trained from the video game. In the kids statement to police, he said Life is like a video game. Everybodys got to die sometime. This is just one example of aggressive behavior as a result of violent video games, but there are many more cases. Childrens approximations are very impressionable, and violent video games are harmful to their minds because of how interactive and realistic these games can be. According to research by child psychologist David Walsh, as that reported in the article, violent video games can be linked t o physical aggressive behavior in children because of the brainpower. His study revealed that the adolescent brain is non fully developed. Violent video games have a deeper impact on a teenage brain versus an adult brain.Walsh further states, its largely because the teenage brain is different from the adult brain. The impulse control center of the brain, the part of the brain that enables us to think ahead, consider consequences, manage urges thats the part of the brain right behind our forehead called the prefrontal cortex. Thats under construction during the teenage years. In fact, the wiring of that is not completed until the early 20s. Therefore, since childrens mind are still underdeveloped, violent video games have a negative effect and cause children to believe aggression is appropriate.From the National plant on Media and Family, half dozen medical groups issue warnings as to the effects that violence has on children (1) Children will increase anti-social and aggressiv e behavior. (2)Children may become less sensitive to violence and those who have got from violence. (3) Children may view the world as violent and mean, becoming more fearful of being a victim of violence. (4) Children will desire to see more violence in entertainment and real life. (5) Children will view violence as an acceptable way to settle conflicts. From studies to real life examples of violent behavior, video games has shown to have an influence on childrens behavior. Violent video games will not be going away anytime soon. The only solution to combat the issue of violent video games is for parents to be actively involved in their childrens free time and take an interest in what their children play. Once parents are certified on their decisions to allow their children to play violent video games, they will know that if choosing violence, it will have an effect on the impressionable child mind.Parents beware.References Harding, A. (2008). Violent video games linked to child aggression. Health Magazine. Retrieved from http//www. cnn. com/2008/HEALTH/family/11/03/healthmag. violent. video. kids/ Bradley, E. (2005). Can a video game train someone to kill? Retrieved from http//www. cbsnews. com/stories/2005/03/04/60minutes/main678261. shtml 2010. Fact Sheet. National Institute on Media and the Family. Retrieved from http//www. mediafamily. org/facts/facts_vlent. shtml.