Video Games vs. Children
English 1120
10 March 2006
Video Games vs. Children The promotion of violence by today’s media, especially video games, has caused violence and aggression in reality to become a major concern. As gaming graphics and special effects are becoming more realistic, this portrayal of violence is one of the many important concerns in society. These days, a person can pick up a controller, move a joystick around, press a few buttons, and totally devastate an entire city. The recent uproar about this kind of entertainment is based on the debate of whether or not violence is affecting children who spend countless hours playing violent video games. Some people claim that the violence in the media has influenced horrible acts, such as many recent school shootings. Some people argue that these types of games are no harm to children at all. In my opinion, this type of fantasy violence acted out in today’s video games is doing a great deal of damage to children’s developing minds. I believe parents, with cooperation of the government, should find ways to increase the acceptance and availability of games that are more educational and less violent, so children today can stop filling their minds with such violence and aggressive behavior. Back in the 1970s, when video games made their first appearance, these games were not near as popular as they are today. Then in the middle 1980s, there was an up rise of video gaming obsession with the release of the Nintendo gaming system (Casarone). Since then, the graphics of video games have become more realistic, and also more violent. They have become more violent in the sense of the portrayal of violence against humans. Almost every video game made exhibits some sort of violence from one source to another. The new games today show more realistic violence against humans than ever before. From my experience, I can tell a major difference in the scale of violence in games, such as the late Mario’s World 3 compared with the
10 March 2006
Video Games vs. Children The promotion of violence by today’s media, especially video games, has caused violence and aggression in reality to become a major concern. As gaming graphics and special effects are becoming more realistic, this portrayal of violence is one of the many important concerns in society. These days, a person can pick up a controller, move a joystick around, press a few buttons, and totally devastate an entire city. The recent uproar about this kind of entertainment is based on the debate of whether or not violence is affecting children who spend countless hours playing violent video games. Some people claim that the violence in the media has influenced horrible acts, such as many recent school shootings. Some people argue that these types of games are no harm to children at all. In my opinion, this type of fantasy violence acted out in today’s video games is doing a great deal of damage to children’s developing minds. I believe parents, with cooperation of the government, should find ways to increase the acceptance and availability of games that are more educational and less violent, so children today can stop filling their minds with such violence and aggressive behavior. Back in the 1970s, when video games made their first appearance, these games were not near as popular as they are today. Then in the middle 1980s, there was an up rise of video gaming obsession with the release of the Nintendo gaming system (Casarone). Since then, the graphics of video games have become more realistic, and also more violent. They have become more violent in the sense of the portrayal of violence against humans. Almost every video game made exhibits some sort of violence from one source to another. The new games today show more realistic violence against humans than ever before. From my experience, I can tell a major difference in the scale of violence in games, such as the late Mario’s World 3 compared with the
Cited: Cesarone, Benard. "Video Games and Children." Kid Source Online. 28 Feb. 2006 <http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content2/video.games.html>. Funk, J.B. “Reevaluating the Impact of Video Games”. Clinical Pediatrics 32. 2 February 1993. 86-90 Radford, Benjamin. “Reality Check on Video Game Violence”. Skeptical Inquirer. 4 December 2005.<http://www.livescience.com/technology/051204_vi deo_violence.html> "Violent Video Games - Psychologists Help Protect Children from Harmful Effects." Psychology Matters. 2006. American Psychological Association. 28 Feb. 2006 <http://www.psychologymatters.org/videogames.html>.