A Violent Influence: How Video Games affect Children

Jared Heino
Professor Aretha Matt
College Writing
29 November 2012
A Violent Influence: How Video Games affect Children
Video games have become a large part of the culture in America as well as around the world. There are a large variety of video games to choose from such sports, non-violent, and violent. The most popular genre of video games that out sells the others is the violent video game. It is hard to say why violent video games seem to dominate all the others, but one reason for this is may be because they could allow users to turn their aggression into something not so harmful and simple. Ever since Pong swept the nation, scholars have been researching the effects video games have on children. Research has found out that over exposure to video games lead to aggressive behavior in children and adolescents. Also social skills may diminish due to over exposure to video games. Limiting the amount of time spent on violent video games can be beneficial yet most kids over abuse it. These violent video games are becoming a problem in today’s youth and must be controlled.
There has been countless of studies and research done to determine whether or not violence in video games cause aggressive and or violent behavior in adolescents. It is widely disputed whether or not violent in video games does in fact lead to aggressive behavior. Most studies have yielded mixed results. (Source) Studies have shown that males are more likely to play video games, specifically games that are violent. The cultural status or personality of the person playing the violent video game will make their reaction to the content different from one person to another. Adolescent males prefer violent video games over non-violent ones (Source). There is a negative effect on the use of violent video games and the level of education of a male. The lower the educated a male is, the more likely he is to spend more hours sitting in front of the television playing video games. The more time...