Do video games make children violent?

[Balagor]

I don´t think so. When I was a child we had no such thing as video games, but the games we played were no less violent.

To adress the incident with the 17 year old kid that shoots 3 cops in Alabama. I agree with @WizardOfAtlantis, that these cops most have been in a poor shape, and the kid had his lucky!? day. This kid must, however by mentally disturbed, and one thing do talk against violent video games. That is it might be the tricker that makes an allready sick person go nuts. This particular kid, I think, he had it comming sooner or later, video games or no video games.

 

EDIT I don´t like too violent games myself. I don´t buy them. What other should do, is none of my buisness

[BlackBaron2]

Hmmmm...understandable.

 

Well, playing video games all my life, most of them violent, I haven't become a manifestation of those games myself, infact, quite the opposite. I think I see now it's just a factor of control and maybe just luck. IDK

 

But to an extent, it has to at least have some negative effect.

 

Well, if you can't tell the difference between what is essentially a cartoon and real life, you've not got your marbles any more, that's for sure. Blaming a game company or yourself as a gamer for you becoming disturbed doesn't make sense.

 

On the whole, I think you'll find that gamers are no more violent than anyone else. I've heard of relatively few gamers getting into trouble for violent crime--when it does happen, it tends to make the news and the, ah, old-fashioned people tend to freak out, blame the game companies and hate on gamers as a group, without even bothering to talk to any of us, read actual research, or generally use the brains they were born with.

 

Here are some articles that may be of interest:

http://www.techeye.net/software/video-games-do-not-make-kids-violent

http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/05/15/researcher-violent-video-games-do-not-lead-criminal-behavior

http://www.gamerevolution.com/features/violence_and_videogames

 

Then again, of course I'd go and pay attention to the facts rather than emotional appeals.... :whistling:

[Salamander8]

No. Games in and of themselves do not cause violent behavior. Certain people with a previous trend towards violent behavior may be highly attracted to the more violent games simply by their nature, but they do not actually cause the violent behavior. Note a very similar argument can be and has been made for death metal, and other forms of entertainment violent movies, etc.). I myself tend to play more middle-of-the-road video games, but have played some of the more violent ones as well. Now if you tack that onto my love of Death Metal I should be a raving lunatic by some 'experts' logic, but the worst thing I've ever been involved with is a couple of speeding tickets, and I have no plans to change that.

[brokenergy]

Do video games make children violent? No.

 

You need to do more research in order to conclude that they make kids more violent. If "video games" makes the majority kids violent, then bad parenting, the media and simple games like "Cowboys and Indians" are non existent and we should just ignore it. The whole point that video games makes kids violent makes much sense to me as turning lead into gold. There is no evidence to help justify your claims Keanu (nor half of the people in the world who say yes willingly, without context) from any reputable scientific journal that it makes kids violent or do more crime. Don't blame your tools if your man can't do the job.

[MizerD]

Don't blame your tools if your man can't do the job.

 

 

well said :happy:

[marharth]

If the world were a video game ERSB would need to make up a new rating after AO in order to rate it.

 

If your a small kid and you play GTA SA a lot of course its going to effect you, but other things in the world effect you a lot more then a video game.

 

Video games DO make people violent if exposed to it for a long time, but you also can also get cancer from being exposed to the sun for too long.

 

It partly depends on the parenting, and partly on the child. If the child is intelligent it shouldn't effect them that much. If you mix something like GTA SA and a bad living environment together though it can f*** you up.

 

There is no way that GTA SA alone would mess up a kid, there would need to be a lot more factors then just a game.

 

By the age of 6 you should of seen the news, and the news as worse stuff on it then all the GTA games combined.

[DarkZerker]

ABSOLUTELY NOT! Alright sometimes. But it's not the video game itself, it's the child's psychological status and parental care. For example, a child growing up in a semi-normal life with normal or caring parents will have a much less likely chance to get violent from a video game than a child who went through psychological trauma and/or have uncaring parents.

 

Another thing is how the parents introduce violent games. The thing is, banning violent video games entirely is just covering your eyes with a veil. It'll help but it just delays the inevitable. How parents introduce these violent video games is a major factor.

 

If the parent just throws the game at the child and say "have fun", the child will have a greater chance of developing some problem than a parent who watches the child play the game and say comments like, "I know you came back to life after the grenade but that doesn't happen in real life."

 

There's a quote that some of you may recognize. "If you tell a lie long enough and loud enough, people will believe you." Now that doesn't only apply to lies so keep hammering in the ideals of "there's a difference between games and reality" and the kid will start to believe you. Just remember, it's not something that friends will pressure you to believe otherwise so hammer it in from childhood until they're like 14 or 15 and then keep hammering it in every once in a while.

 

Blaming video games for violence in adolescents is like blaming hippies for increased drug usage. It's just not in the right context.

Edited December 22, 2010 by DarkZerker

[Vindekarr]

I'm disapointed you even have to ask this Keanu.

 

A zealot is a zealot and by extention a deluded, violet, rabid fool who through paranoia and stupidity, sees a group or demographic as a threat and seeks to slience them once and for all. Jack thomson is just such a mad dog.

 

A barbarian, likewise, is always going to be a barbarian. Bloodcrazed sociopaths, murdering criminals, and general thugs, will always be thugs. Their ability, desire, and capability to commit violence is not increased or decreased by playing video games, it may show them new ways how, may inspire them to try a diferent technique, but it is not responsible for their violent ways, they are.

 

Thompson is a fool, as is anyone who think that a tool, an outlet, can be blamed for the actions of a mad dog. When a mad dog commits murder, the responsibility falls solely on their shoulders. The weapon isnt responsible, the person who showed them how to use it is not responisble, the one who provided it, is not responsible. The one who is responsible is the subhuman monster who pulls the trigger. Nothing else is guilty but the scum themself.

 

Finaly, one group who can however be blamed are parents. Huge brightly coloured warning labels are printed all over video game cases. yet why do parents still insist on buying their four year olds Gears Of War for the love of all that's unholy?!?!?! I fired my first shot aged 11, I shot my first organic aged 15. At that age I was able to easily distinguish the line between reality and entertainment, but also the basic and fundamental law of the universe, cause and effect.

 

But a young child cannot do that, to them, war can easily become a game. One guilty party are the parents so neglectful, so foolish, and so blind, that they allowed their children to play R rated video games in the first place.

 

I will not deny that video games have not had a profound effect on my life. They've caused me to gain a number of new interests and hobbies, caused me to go to great lengths to research history, technology, and science, and taught me a great many things, including a language, and how to work on engines. it does not make me a killer.

 

From Battlefield to Call Of Duty, Halo to Oblivion, World Of Warcraft to Torchlight, Doom to Unreal Tournament, I have shot, shopped, stabbed, sliced, vaporised, bitten, clawed, scratched, burned, electrocuted, thorwn, punched, kicked, and mauled atleast a million foes.

 

I can count the times I've lashed out in the real world on the fingers of my left hand.

 

Video games have simply made my native personality traits all the more visible-my love of history, science, and technology, my abilities with working on machines, and my fascination with ways of life diferent to my own.

[Keanumoreira]

 

it may show them new ways how, may inspire them to try a diferent technique, but it is not responsible for their violent ways, they are.

 

 

But that's still a serious downside is it not?

[marharth]

 

it may show them new ways how, may inspire them to try a different technique, but it is not responsible for their violent ways, they are.

 

 

But that's still a serious downside is it not?

I wouldn't say so.

 

Let's say the kid is a crazy chicken murderer.

 

He currently knows how cut off the head to kill it. Lets say a game teaches him that you can apply pressure to certain points in order to cut off air circulation.

 

It still leads to the chickens death either way, so I wouldn't view that as a issue.