By: Zaizlin DusanchZ
Playing violent games shapes the views of children whose minds are not conditioned to make proper decisions, “Parents are usually not aware of the nature of the video games their children are playing. In a 1999 study, most parents could not name their child’s favorite game or name an incorrect one. In 70% of these incorrect matches, the child described their favorite game as violent.” (qtd. Hae) This is why parents should be monitoring what their kids are doing and what they are playing, so they don’t get surprised after all.
Studies have shown violence in video games separates the mind of the child from distinguishing the virtual world from reality; for a lot of people, video games don’t introduce the aggressive world to the kids, but for others, it does. A group called” APA” searched how video games affect kids. “APA Task Force on Violent Media made studies on how video games affect kids. The report's conclusion was that violent video games present a “risk factor” of aggression in children.” (qtd.Tibi Puiu.) Of course, it does; when kids get awards for killing other players or for killing animals in video games, they will confuse the virtual world with the actual world.
Video games also increase bullying in a kid's life. After they play all those aggressive video games, they have the need to deposit all the hate and aggressiveness into others as is to bully other kids. “Dr. Olson points out that violent video games may be related to bullying, which researchers have found to be a risk factor for more serious violent behavior. Therefore, video game playing may indirectly affect violent behavior by increasing risk factors for it.” (qtd. Cooper). Moreover, it has been proven that children who play video games have higher stress levels and more anxiety.
Although that is already 2017 and technology has changed a lot, the first appearance of video games was in the 70s, though that it is hard to believe in the 70s existed violent video games as in 2017, Mr.Kooijmans shared with us a little of the video games history. “Video games made their first appearance in the early 1970s. The first generation of games used simple shapes and had minimal interaction. The first game, Pong, attempted to simulate ping pong using two rectangles as paddles and a small square as the ball. A human player could control the paddles. This game displayed no violent acts or situations though. The first of popular game to be considered violent was Pac-Man. This game consisted of a small circle with a mouth that tried to eat pills and destroy ghosts. Although this hardly seems violent by today’s standards, it was one of the first games to involve destruction of any kind.” (qtd. Kooijmans) Just as they had violent video games like the one they named “Pac Man” we also have violent video games such as “Call of Duty, Far Cry Primal, Doom, and Hitman” among others. They represent a high risk in kids nowadays because those games introduce children into the aggressive world.
Even though there is a big controversy about if video games are good or bad for kids, there are those who approve of them; of course, there are not only aggressive video games, there are also constructive and educational video games such as Minecraft and LittleBigPlanet, With those games kids can use their imaginations and can educate their brains. Last but not less, even if those are educated games, parents should be able to keep an eye on their kids.
Playing video games creates aggressive behavior in children therefore, it is best not to allow youth such access; parents should be more aware, dedicated, and educated about the topic because, at the end of the day, kids will stay with an immature mind and would do whatever they think is ok for them for the simple fact that no adult is monitoring them as it should be.
In conclusion, video games have become relatively violent over the past decades. This leads us to ask whether there is a correlation between individual aggression and violent games. Children can easily be influenced by their environments which leads to the assumption that video games influence violent and aggressive behaviors in them; based on articles, histories, and others, parents should always be monitoring their kids and the video games that they are playing, and not only that but the hours that kids are able to play, any kid should be able to play more than 2 hours a day so they can be able to keep their innocence and to still being a kid.
