To understand and answer this question in a better way, I conducted a small experiment on three of my nephews with the permission of their parents. During the summer vacations, when my nephews had come to visit me, I encouraged them to play video games on my gaming console. Two of them were made to play violent action based games whereas the third would play simulation or strategy-based games. After almost a week, I began to notice minor changes in their behavior. The boys playing violent games tend to act more aggressively whereas the boys playing the strategy-based game tend to have better logical skills.
At the end of the month, the boys playing violent video games where behaving destructively in real life too. From this experiment, I concluded that constant exposure to violent video games might affect the psychological growth and wellbeing of the child.
Children easily adapt to the things or events in their surroundings. Not only this, but they also learn from such games. Research says that violent video games have a more significant impact in comparison to violent television shows or movies. In violence-based video games, the player has to adapt to violence to win the competition or the game. The player slowly begins to enjoy such violent acts like shooting or hitting someone.
He attains pleasure and fun through such actions. Gaming is no longer just for fun. It is a way to escape reality for many. The virtual world is created with perfect and high-quality graphics with many levels of difficulty.
Video games are incredibly addictive. Constant exposure and addiction, especially to video games consisting of violence, can impact the mental as well as the emotional well-being of the child playing it.
Violent video games make the children believe that violence is an excellent and fun thing that can be easily adapted to get what you want. Children who tend to play such video games on a continuous basis tend to show aggressive and hostile behavior in times of frustration.
Many experts and political leaders have speculated the connection between video games and gun violence, especially in schools. It was as if all that exposure to computerized violence gave them the idea to go on a rampage — or at least fueled their urges.
Many social scientists and psychological researchers have been debating for ages on the impact of violent video games on young minds. American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics state that violent video games should be banned especially for young minds or should have strict age restrictions.
They believe that violent games increase aggression and decrease empathy among children. The World Health Organization has also been considering adding the addiction to violent video games under the list of mental health conditions or mental disorders in the International Classification of Diseases ICD.
However, there are various contradicting facts and opinions regarding the connection between violent video games and children. Few researchers also show that the adverse effects of violent video games are quite minimal.
Some sect of researchers feel video games, whether violent or not, are just a source of fun and entertainment. They create a temporary reality for the victims wherein the victims can face their fears and problems as per their comfort. There can be various other external factors that can also affect the mental health of an individual like family, stress, workload, health, etc. Too much or extreme use of any video games can be a bit harmful to the performance of any individual.
Banning video games just because they promote a bit of violence seems unnecessary. It is ok to ban video games that include extreme gory graphics and vulgar concepts. For the rest, disclaimers can be put up to make the users aware of what they are getting into.
At the end of the day, video games should be taken as a source of entertainment only. How do you feel about playing video games?
Share your comments below and enlighten everyone. Subscribe to us for more exciting articles. Get our monthly newsletter with the best of our content and more delivered straight to your inbox. At AlignThoughts, we advocate for work and life integration, foster an open mindset to think beyond boundaries and create better synergies between all areas of life.
We help lifelong learners to cultivate a growth mindset to lead a better quality of life. Contact us: [email protected]. All Rights Reserved. Tuesday, December 21, What a child endures inside the household is what will primarily raise them to be who they are.
Now not all video games are for all people. A parent should place limits on the types of games a child should play and how long they should play it. My parents would not let me play certain video games until I was mature enough to understand the difference between what is meant to be fun and what is real life. What I think more people need to understand is the reason video games have become so popular is the community aspect of it.
After school, students can easily get a snack and turn on their Playstation or Xbox and play with their friends. I tell my parents all the time that when I play video games, its like a giant phone call with all of my friends. Its a way to catch up, laugh and have a good time. Unfortunately, I think as tragedies continue to happen, more and more people were turn to video games as the scape goat. More and more kind of video games coming out in the 21st Century, gradually the video game becoming a controversial topic for society.
The most representative one must be the violence video game which including shooting, killing, and bloody elements; therefore, people start to connect violence video game with the crime. Parents are brainwashed by those biased speeches talking about negative influence what will those violent video games create. The best instance will be Japan who having much more games, but the number of gun homicide is 96 times fewer than the U.
I believed the violent crime is more related to the parents tutoring, parents need to clarify the restrictions for their children, and then trying to comprehend what they interested. Great post, but a very controversial topic. It is evident that violent video games are being targeted as a source of violence within the United States. Walmart, for example, removed violent video game displays from its store, which proved to be a very heated conversation due to the fact that they kept guns in store.
Touching on the point I made about desperation for attention, I think social media can amplify and give more attention to violence than it deserves.
However, that is a completely different discussion. It is difficult and almost impossible to empathize with school shooters.
However, according to npr. Their lifestyles often lead to mental health problems, which then lead to acts of violence. It is a process.
For that reason, I think that video games can be problematic. If it feels good to release your anger on a video game, what should stop them from doing it in reality? At this point in time, it is still impossible to tell what impact video games have on the rapidly growing use of violence. If that logic is valid, then Farming Simulator should make a farmer.
Patrick Markey of Villanova University and Dr. Charlotte Markey of Rutgers University, have presented evidence that some children may become more aggressive as a result of watching and playing violent video games, but that most are not affected. After reviewing the research, they concluded that the combination of three personality traits might be most likely to make an individual act and think aggressively after playing a violent video game.
The three traits they identified were high neuroticism prone to anger and depression, highly emotional, and easily upset , disagreeableness cold, indifferent to other people , and low levels of conscientiousness prone to acting without thinking, failing to deliver on promises, breaking rules.
Cheryl Olson, cofounder of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Mental Health and Media, led a study of 1, students in public schools most were ages 12 to 14 in South Carolina and Pennsylvania. The researchers found that certain situations increased exposure to violent video games — such as locating game consoles and computers in children's bedrooms, and allowing older siblings to share games with younger ones.
In this study, children who played video games often with older siblings were twice as likely as other children to play mature-rated games considered suitable for ages 17 and older. In a three-year study, a team led by Dr. Mizuko Ito, a cultural anthropologist at the University of California, Irvine, both interviewed and observed the online behavior of youths.
The researchers concluded that video game play and other online activities have become so ubiquitous among young people that they have altered how young people socialize and learn. Although adults tend to view video games as isolating and antisocial, other studies found that most young respondents described the games as fun, exciting, something to counter boredom, and something to do with friends. For many youths, violent content is not the main draw.
Boys in particular are motivated to play video games in order to compete and win. Seen in this context, use of violent video games may be similar to the type of rough-housing play that boys engage in as part of normal development. Video games offer one more outlet for the competition for status or to establish a pecking order. Parents can protect their children from potential harm from video games by following a few commonsense strategies — particularly if they are concerned that their children might be vulnerable to the effects of violent content.
These simple precautions may help:. Place video consoles and computers in common areas of the home, rather than in children's bedrooms.
Set limits on the amount of time youths can play these games. The AAP recommends two hours or less of total screen time per day, including television, computers, and video games. Encourage participation in sports or school activities in which youths can interact with peers in person rather than online.
Video games share much in common with other pursuits that are enjoyable and rewarding, but may become hazardous in certain contexts.
Parents can best protect their children by remaining engaged with them and providing limits and guidance as necessary. American Academy of Pediatrics. Anderson CA, et al. Ferguson CJ. Ito M, et al. MacArthur Foundation, Lenhart A, et al. Markey PM, et al. Olson CK. Olson CK, et al. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content.
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