Violent Video Games

At just fourteen years old, Michael Carneal, from West Paducah, Kentucky, shot and killed three students and wounded five others. Before taking their own lives at Columbine High School, in 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were the two boys that were responsible for the killings of fifteen people and wounding twenty-three. The common factor in both cases is that these boys were said to be addicts of the violent video game Doom. Many adults have responded with concern about the fact that a violent video game can cause young children to behave in a violent and aggressive manner. There is an undeniable correlation between violent video games and youth behavior, but do violent video games cause young children to commit crimes? When violent video games send out violent messages to impressionable young children they are bound to be affected to some degree by these images. Violent video games can also become addicting, and appear to affect aggression by triggering aggressive thoughts. And yet people still believe that violent video games do not affect young children in negative ways at all. I personally believe that violent and aggressive video games have an affect on young children, and in turn can cause them to commit crimes. While yet, I also believe that parent’s involvement plays a key role in how much children can be affected by violent video games.

Today parents are becoming very concerned about the messages that their children are receiving while playing today’s video games. The messages in video games today have changed compared to what they were in the 1980’s. In the 1980’s arcade games like Pac-Man became dominate. In the 1990’s the face of video games began to change dramatically. Today kids are playing games like Doom, Grand Theft Auto, and Wolfenstein 3D. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is one of the hottest video games around, mainly because of its deadly gun battles and wild car chases. Vice City has a mature rating meaning that it might contain violent content, strong language or even nudity. Researchers say that when young children play violent video games they often exhibit violent behavior (American Psychological Association). When young children spend hours and hours playing violent video games the messages sent out by these games can influence them to act out what they have just seen. For example the movie “Jackass came out not too long ago. Right after this movie came out I heard several incidents on the news about children who had acted out the different stunts performed by the men in this movie. In the article “Brain Cells Victim of Video Games,” by Peggy Peck, researchers say violent video games can affect the way the brain performs on different cellular levels, slowing down brain activity. She also goes on to say that “according to Dr. Vincent P. Mathews of the University of Indiana Medical School in Indianapolis,” kids who play violent video games “are the ones most likely to act out by harming animals or property or fighting with other kids” (Peck). I agree that when young children play these violent video games they are becoming more and more vulnerable to these violent messages.

Violent video games send out violent messages telling children that problems can be solved fast by eliminating the source of the problem, whether by killing, stabbing, kicking, hitting, or shooting. Furthermore, playing violent games may be associated with the tendency to behave more aggressively. According to an article found in the American Psychological Association, by the name of “Violent Video Games Can Increase Aggression,” researchers performed a survey on young children, which proved that when young children play violent video games, they become aggressive (3). To add to that in a study by Irwin and Gross, children who played a violent video game displayed a higher level of aggression than children who played a nonviolent game (3). And in the article “The Secret Lives of Teens,” written by John Leland, he mentions that Brad Bushman, an Iowa State University psychologist, argues that “violent video games are more harmful than movies, because the person becomes the aggressor. They’re the one that does the killing” (527). From these references it is obvious that when children are exposed to violent video games they are affected, and are likely to react in a violent way. Video games have become so realistic that they are useful tools in training to prepare soldiers for combat. In fact pilots and army tank corps learn to master their tasks by using computer simulators (Leland 528). If military men and women use these violent video games for practice, children are becoming more skilled in the art of war. Furthermore, John Dvorak author of “The Doom Factor,” quoted in his article an observer on TV calling Doom and other games “murder simulators” (528). He explains that his eldest son learned to drive a car by using the computer, and that Dvorak himself had been using a simulator to practice skeet shooting (528). He says that not only did his son learn how to drive using the computer, but that he had become the best driver in the family (528). Dvorak goes on to say that when he grabbed a shotgun for the first time he hit the first four birds out of the chute (528). When teenagers are playing violent video games consistently it is possible that they are perfecting their ability to commit violent acts successfully in real life.

Still some parents believe that aggressive play is natural for boys and it helps them practice dealing with issues they may face in real life. Some people even go as far as saying that violent video games can be good for young children, claiming that they can help their vision and puzzle skills. A person can say that violent video games do not have an affect on youth behavior but when young children play violent video games they, often confuse reality with virtual reality. John Dvorak, author of “The Doom Factor,” says, “Martial arts classes can teach you how to kill someone, but everyone who learns martial arts doesn’t go out and kill” (528). Although this may be true, I think that when young children are repeatedly exposed to violent video games they can become very aggressive and they can even become addicted to these games.

All addictions can be dangerous and harmful; however, I feel that video game addictions can be particularly detrimental to children. Violent video games are becoming increasing popular with children of young ages, which can raise the likelihood that these children will develop addictions to violent video games. Kathleen Bander, author of “Violent Video Games and Stimulus Addictions,” describes, “When you play lots of action-packed video games, you increasingly need more powerful images in order to respond emotionally to the game. This is called stimulus addiction. The term “stimulus addiction” describes the habit that is formed as kids seek out more and more violent games to hold their interest.” I believe that when young children play violent video games, he or she is learning and practicing new aggression-related scripts that can become more attainable for use when real life conflict situations arise.

Although I agree with Dvorak, who says that violent video games are murder simulators, I feel that children may or may not be affected by violent video games depending on how involved the parents are in their children’s lives. Computer games and video games, whether violent or not, have become the primary role models in the home today. “New technologies and the entertainment industry, combined with the changes in family structure, have more deeply isolated grown-ups from teenagers” (Leland 525). When I heard about the Columbine incident, I really could not understand how two young boys could literally plan out a school massacre without their parents having any idea about it. It is hard to believe that their parents had no clue what these two boys were plotting. I feel that the parents in some way were responsible and could be blamed for what these two boys did. I believe the problem is that we as a society have forgotten the concept of family togetherness and family relationships. Today’s families are children coming home from school only to go and entertain themselves by playing video games, and parents coming home from work too tired to monitor their children’s daily activities. This cycle is being passed down from generation to generation. Whatever happened to home cook meals with family members gathered around the kitchen table, eating, and talking about what their day was like? Obviously, this is not the norm anymore. It is sad to say that the change in today’s family has had massive affects on our young children. In general I feel that when you do not have parents watching and monitoring what their kids are playing, in the future it is possible that we are going to see more and more kids headed down a road of violence and destruction. Parents need to take responsibility and become aware of what type of video games their children are playing, and how much their children are playing these games. One’s opinion may simply be that young children are merely playing these particular violent and aggressive video games because they feel out of control, and these games give them a sense of control. I believe that playing violent and aggressive video games when you are stressed does not get it out of your system, but instead fuels the fire.