Internet research task

“Playing violent video games makes children more likely to be violent in everyday life”

Violent video games can increase aggressive behaviour in children and adolescents, both in the short and long-term, according to an empirical review of the last 20 years of research. These findings are presented at the 113th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in Washington, DC, (www.apa.org - below).

In violent video games, aggression is often the main goal and defeating the opponent means winning the game and being awarded with the benefits. While in real life, murder is a crime. In a violent video game, murder is the most reinforced behaviour. The violent video game player is an active aggressor and the player’s behaviour is expanded to include new and varied aggressive alternatives.

If violent videogame play indeed depicts victims as deserving attacks and if these video games tend to portray other humans as ‘targets,’ then reduced understanding is likely to be a consequence of violent videogame-play, consequently putting the player at risk from becoming a more violent individual. I believe that insufficient attention has been paid to choosing games that are less violent and virtually no attention has been paid to eliminating, or at least minimizing this. The companies aim is to make sufficient money by attracting and attacking young children by providing them with such aggressive games that may result to violence. Moreover, parents today are buying younger children 18+ certified games.

However just the games does not always make a person become aggressive. Some people may commit crime with the use of substances such as drugs or alcohol. Or people with special needs or mental issue can be part of violence, if any. This can have a substantial influence on a person’s doings. But anyone with good metal strength can avoid this even when playing such games but the use of these materials can persuade or control ones actions. But other things can be considered for violence video games. Aggressive people inn general may like hostile ways of entertainment and playing violent video games could be an issue to ONE of the problems of violence.

There is slight evidence that immediately after playing violent video games, there is an increase in aggressiveness. However, the evidence for this is minimal and is greatly weakened by limitations in the research.

References/research

http://www.apa.org/science/psa/sb-anderson.html - “Violent Video Games”

http://www.ggl.com/news.php?NewsId=3535 – “There is no such thing as violent video games”

http://www.mda.gov.sg/wms.file/mobj/mobj.579.parents_vid-effects.pdf - “Video Games and their Effects on Children”