Entering a Conversation on Violent Video Games

Entering a Conversation on violent video games

Social and civil concerns regarding the violent youth behavior including but not limited to school shootings have gained traction since the 1999 shootings at the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado (Anderson 353). In the years before the Columbine shooting, violent video games like Doom, Mortal Kombat and Grand Theft Auto gained popularity because of its violent and gore content. Video games with violent content have raised some eyebrows especially from the researchers and health professionals about their potentially detrimental impact on the development and behavior of young children (Bond 6). The aggressive behavior of the youth and adolescents who play these violent games like Mortal Kombat has increased more than ever before.

As per my understanding, video games with violence is unsafe for our younger generation since they have the negative influence on our youth. As per Roberts’ study (Rideout, Foehr, Roberts, & Brodie, 1999), youths between 8 and 18 spend 40 hours or more on some type of media. Nearly 10% of the youth from 2 to 18 years report playing console video for more than one hour a day, and among the children between 8 to 18 years the average increases to 7.5 hours per week (Anderson 354). I felt that researching on this kind of social topic can help us understand the problems to avoid. My theory is that young people who play violent video games are prone to aggressive behavior than those who do not. Also there are counter-arguments by leading psychologists like Christopher J. Ferguson and studies that suggest that violent video games do not have any negative impact on the person playing these kind of games. They counter-argue that none of these studies have established well endorsed measures and procedures of youth violence caused by the violent games.

The purpose of this writing is to review the evidences from various research studies in regards to public-health perspective on media violence and educate the parents on the social effects of violent video games and ways to counteract them. The review of research studies by UNESCO established that young people’s exposure to media violence caused them to be more impulsive and desensitized to interpersonal issues, resulting in long term personality and cognitive behavioral changes (Browne 4). In addition to this, violent video games can sometimes depict racial and gender stereotypes. This can result in aggressive behavior towards the stereotyped groups presented in the game (Brenick 395). Also, violent video games may lead to the lessening of the pro-social behavior in the young children, which increases the likely hood of behavioral issues in the adulthood (Anderson 355). Analyzing this impact will add to the efforts towards decreasing anti-social behavior and aggression in the modern society and improve overall well-being of our children. It is high time that we