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| Yes | 44% | 1805 votes | Total: 4093 votes | |
| No | 56% | 2288 votes |
Yes
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Add to Favorites"When it's my turn, I'm going to rip out his guts."
"No! Break open his skull and pull out his brains."
"That's dumb. He'll die too fast."
I've actually heard conversations like this from my own children. This is in spite of the fact that I've never allowed any kind of video games in my home. I've never tried to control whether my children played video games at their friends' houses because I can recognize a hopeless battle when I see one.
There is ever increasing evidence that suggests repeated exposure to violent video games and television shows can contribute to increased incidents of aggressive behavior in children and adults.
However, there are critics of this research. For example, the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation says, "(R)esearch which exposes children to short clips of violence and observes their behavior immediately afterwards does not have the potential fully to contribute to our understanding of such a complex cultural product."
Earlier this year, a new book, "Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents," was published. Co-authored by Craig A. Anderson, PhD; Douglas A. Gentile, PhD; and doctoral student, Katherine E. Buckley, the book describes the results of three different research studies. At the same time, they address some of the concerns of the Guggenheim Foundation. According to a press release from the Iowa State University, "it is the first book to unite empirical research and public policy related to violent video games."
The first study focused on the types of games children played. The researchers found that less graphically violent video games intended for younger children, like "Captain Bumper," had the same "short-term effects on increasing aggressive behavior as the more graphic teen (T-rated) violent games."
The second study in the book analyzed the effect of violent video games. "Respondents who had more exposure to violent video games held more pro-violent attitudes, had more hostile personalities, were less forgiving, believed violence to be more typical, and behaved more aggressively in their everyday lives." The researchers were more or less expecting those results. However, they were surprised to find that "exposure to violent video games was a better predictor of the students' own violent behavior than their gender or their beliefs about violence."
The third study examined the relationship between violent video games and school. The researchers found that children who played violent video games more than their peers became more "verbally and physically aggressive later in the school year. These children's' aggression in school did increase and this effect was big enough to be noticed by their teachers and peers within five months."
The Guggenheim Foundation's criticism of the conclusions reached by research that has been completed so far is steadily being washed away by the sheer amount of research in this field.
Gloria DeGaetano, of the Parent Coaching Institute says, "the human brain is shaped by its environment." More research and advocacy needs to be done before the skeptics are convinced, though. Nevertheless, this new book is another big step.
It is ironic that, when my boys were younger, and would have been interested in playing a video game full of Sesame Street characters, my family and friends approved of my rules regarding video games. Now that the boys are older and are interested in video games like "Mortal Kombat" or "Grand Theft Auto," I'm told by my family and friends that I am too worried about this and am being over-protective.
My family and friends may need to hear more evidence about the link between violent video games and behavior to be convinced. I don't, however, so video games will remain banned from my home.
The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation supports "research on violence, aggression, and dominance The foundation places a priority on the study of urgent problems of violence and aggression in the modern world "
www.hfg.org
The Parent Coaching Institute http://www.parentcoa chinginstitute.com/a rticles/degaetano_sc reenviolence.htm
Learn more about this author, Piper Wilson.
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No
I have no reason to believe violence in video games contributes to real life violence. The idea that video games contribute to violence in the real world is simply a media based fabrication used to scare people into watching their broadcasts to get ratings. It has become evident that the media no longer gets ratings from feel-good stories about people doing the right thing so they resort to scare tactics in order to grab the attention of the masses. Here are the reasons I feel this story is one of those scare tactics.
1. There is a fundamental difference between the two realms of causation and co-relation. When causation is used, there is definitive evidence that proves one event causes the other. With co-relation no such evidence that either event has an impact on the other. Any two situations can be co-related but that doesn't mean they affect each other.
Example: Let's pretend that a study found that when church attendance was low in a particular city, that the rate of murder became much higher than normal and that this phenomenon held true for neighboring cities as well. While the two events are now co-related there has been no evidence to support a theory of one event causing the other. Most likely, people would look at this finding and think not going to church can get you killed. But who is to say whether it is the low attendance that causes the murders, or is it that the murders that cause low attendance? Perhaps it could be an outside factor that is impacting this relationship, such as people going to church are caught in traffic going to church and road rage sets in and takes over, or perhaps it is truly just a coincidence with no direct link whatsoever. When people rush to make conclusions (especially in the media) we often look at things in the worst possible perspective and lose out on rationality.
The same goes for video games. Who is to say that the video games cause the violence? Isn't it just as rational to say that perhaps after somebody commits a violent crime they decide to go cool off by playing a video game where they can feel in control of their own destiny? After a long day of work or classes at college I know I like to relax by firing up Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Why isn't the media producing stories on the relaxing effects of video games? How about the study that shows how the military uses video game technology to make simulated exercises for the troops to practice, why don't we hear stories about that? This leads me to my next point.
2. Media Consistency. Why is it that video games can only cause violence? Surely if video games were able to have such profound effects on the human psyche, then why would the media just stop at violence? They could rattle off hundreds of stories ranging from drug and alcohol abuse to teaching values of honor and justice to promoting heightened thinking and problem solving. So why stop at just one story? First, the threat of violence is something negative enough to get a viewer's attention, and second, violence is more likely to be a concern in young children more than alcohol and drugs would be. Still, you would think the prospect of video games leading children to use drug and alcohol would be enough to get people riled up. Why not write a story on that? Here's my problem with the media trying to expand on the influence of video games.
I'll begin with the harmless video game icon called "Pac-Man." How can Pac-Man possibly affect your children you ask? Over the last two decades Pac-Man has popped more pills than the top three leading pharmaceutical companies have produced in the same time span. And how many times do you think people have attributed instances of their children getting into the medicine cabinet because of Pac-Man's lack of a trip to rehab? My guess would be none. Another famous video game character with a bad habit, Mario. How many times do you think people caught their children with a bag of 'shrooms because a pixelated plumber did it? Again my guess would be none. How about Kirby? Do we have any reports of children resorting to cannibalism to dispose of their enemies because of a guy who looked like this -> (>")>? Again, I say thee, nay.
3. The positive side. Based off of the same logic of the second point, if video games have such a great impact how come we tend to shun the positive side of gaming? It's a fun way to relax, socialize with friends, it heightens reaction time and hand-eye coordination, promotes a deeper form of thinking/problem solving. On a personal note, fighting games why can't I say fighting games lead me to take an interest in learning martial arts? The evolution of the "Mortal Kombat" series helped open my mind to a wide variety of martial arts styles including aikido, hapkido, tai chi, shokotan, jeet kune do, and many other martial arts forms that I might never have learned about on my own. I've actually now trained in three different forms because of it? Heaven forbid! Video games led me to pursue a positive learning experience about honor and self-control, and even partake in physical activity! Who would have guessed? Certainly not the media. So why not report on those benefits? If it's positive, the media just doesn't care. The reaction that list of positives would get would sound something like this, "Yeah that's great and all, but it's not going to turn heads." The media is looking for a quick hit to get people to watch them and in doing so they compromise their credibility.
Clearly this notion is just an unfounded media based theory. To think otherwise is downright foolish.
Learn more about this author, -Rakuyou Mitsukai-.
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