Video Games: Are They As Violent As We Thought?

[1] The video games of today are more advanced than ever. Hitting shelves with state of the art graphics, highly fascinating story lines, and more complex levels than ever before, these video games are becoming more and more sought after by the youth of today. Video games that are marked “M” for mature are easier than ever to access and purchase by underage children so there is nothing in the way of kids getting a hold of them. Some people would argue that the video games of today are corrupting children’s minds, and that it could be leading them in the direction to cause horrible crimes. Incidents such as school shootings, decrease in school work, and child aggression are said to be reactions of these games. Of course it is not all video games that are said to have this kind of effect. Highly mentioned games are Doom, Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and Residence Evil.

[2] In Rachel Ray’s Position Paper “Violent Video Games”,available here. she makes it clear that she strongly supports the idea that violent video games do hold some effect on the children that participate in playing them. She states that “There is an undeniable correlation between violent video games and youth behavior”.(Ray) Her point of view is validated in the sense that numerous amounts of researches have shown that children who play these games as oppose to children that do not play them, hold much more aggression and have a much higher rate of being violent. Several crimes that have been committed by these young offenders are easily tied back to violence in video games. Time and time again, it seems as though these kids are getting ideas of what to do, and how to do it, from these games that they bury their minds, and lives in. She agrees that constantly playing these games is a form of addiction, and feels that addictions are usually harmful. She opens her paper by using the case of the Columbine shooting, and how the killers were both addicted to the game “Doom”. Doom is a very violent game, in which the player becomes the shooter, so it is very understandable how one could feel that the game makes a person extremely aggressive. These are very good points that are brought forth by Ray, and I am sure that they are shared by many others as well.

[3] Although it is a very popular thought that video games have an effect on these children, I believe that the problem started somewhere before the video game. In “Video Game Violence”, written by Michael Zaroninski, he states “Blame must lie squarely where it belongs, on the people who commit the acts of violence, not a long stream of ones and zeroes”. I agree with this statement because who is to say that a video game made a nonviolent child violent? Is it possible that an already violent child bought the video game to satisfy his aggressive tendencies, as oppose to a calm child who played one of these games and then went out and committed a crime? Who is to say what makes a child violent? Studies show that some forms of aggression are hereditary, or can be brought on by a child’s home or school environment. Fights at school between class mates or fights at home with siblings, and even in-home fights between parents can affect a child’s aggression level. Would it be fair to say that a child should not attend school or be taken out of a home where these situations could occur? If this were the case then many children would grow up uneducated and without a family, simply because we were trying to protect them from any form of violence. So how would taking away a child’s violent video games be any different?

[4] Although it seems like I am in strong opposition to what Ray is trying to say, I agree with her strongly on the idea that parents should monitor their kids and play a large role in what their kids are into. If parents can learn to become more involved in their children’s lives in a positive way, then I feel that they may be able to monitor, and perhaps even put a stop to aggressive or violent behavior. How much time are the parents of America really spending with their children if all these kids are doing is playing these video games in the first place? In place of potential quality time like going to the zoo, the movies, or out to eat at their child’s favorite restaurant, these kids are becoming more and more wrapped up in these consuming games. Although I do not agree with the thought that video games should be blamed for the actions of children, I do strongly agree that if a parent is involved in his or her child’s life, then the children will not be so affected by the realness of the video game and realize that life has more to offer than what is on their television screen. That is why I believe that the problems that the children had that committed crimes like Columbine, and the Wedgewood shootings, were problems that already existed before they got a hold of these video games. I do not feel that these problems were put there by the video games. Parents should become more responsible and take responsibility for their failure as mentors instead of blaming the problems of their children on video games. Violence will always be in society no matter where you look, and it would be an endless and frustrating struggle to try and rid the world of all of it. The only protection that these kids have from it are parents that help them establish right from wrong instead of letting them do it on their own with fake video game simulations of life. That is where the true problem lies and that is where youth crimes should be focused on.

[5] It is obvious that mine and Ray’s position clash when it comes to the idea that video games are to be blamed for the troubled youths of today, but perhaps common ground can be established among us in the sense that we both feel that more time spent with the children by the parents is of crucial importance. Violence will always exist and there is nothing that will ever change that, but spending time with ones child is an ongoing option that many parents deny and then blame something, or someone else for later. It is clear that the problems of these youth are derived from the lack of something real, not the over abundance of something electronic.