Do video games make children violent?

[Vindekarr]

Children are also like Tarantulas: There are millions of them and all of them have the potential to become a horrifying monster, but if you look after them, feed them, treat them with care, then they will turn into something all together better.

 

With tarantulas the trick is simply to avoid annoying them, they're plenty smart and if you're helpful, they'll like you and e tolerant, but if you insist on poking and prodding them, they'll simply want to to go away. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Male_goliath_birdeater_111508_013.jpg

 

Likewise with kids they're smart enough to make their own decision if you let them. The trick to really good parenting is to give them a framework of morality within which they are able to self govern. Now, this requires constant attention-you've got to make sure they have the information required to make good decisions, but the benefits are long lasting.

 

Nowadays though most parents just let technology raise their kids. They assume that school will teach, technology will entertain, and that they arent responsible for anything other than meals. You are to a child what you want to be: if you're a vague provider figure, they'll grow up essentialy without parents, if you teach them to make their own decisions, and are there for them when they need you however, the positive effects will last a lifetime;

Edited January 7, 2011 by Vindekarr

[risinxereon]

the reason for all of this stuff happening is because people dont watch the ratings of what their kids are into... if they stay to the ratings that the creators set them as then their kids would be okay... but when ur watching cartoons they just throw stuff in their... thats why shows are so far more out there than games...

[DarkNinja13]

the reason for all of this stuff happening is because people dont watch the ratings of what their kids are into... if they stay to the ratings that the creators set them as then their kids would be okay... but when ur watching cartoons they just throw stuff in their... thats why shows are so far more out there than games...

 

That's a seperate issue in and of itself, but it is in keeping with the original topic since the two tend to go hand in hand.

 

The kids see this game and start jumping up and down begging mom and dad to buy it for them. After a few days of nagging mom and/or dad finnaly break down and buy it just to shut the kids up and get them out of their hair (basically, using it as a babysitter just like Vindekarr said earlier). Then one day, after the purchase, the parents go into the basement (or whereever the gaming takes place in their house) while junior is playing the game they just bought and while they are down there they see him/her evisceraing enemies in the game as blood goes squirting everywhere. Or they might see a scantily clad girl running around doing the "wet work". These idiots are the ones that take the game back in outrage saying they had no idea this was in the game. I have been in game stores when they do it. The clerk very calmly turns the game over and reads the content pannel on the back of the game package to them, something they failed to do.

 

I have seen irate parents try to bring games back for all sorts of reasons, but here are the most memorable:

God of War - Violence, Gore, Nudity, Sexual Content

Grand Theft Auto - Violence, Seuxual Content

Saint's Row - Violence, Sexual Content, Drug Use

Bully - Violence

Resident Evil - Violence, Gore

Leisure Suit Larry: M C L - Nudity, Sexual Content

BMX - XXX: Nudity, Language

The Guy Game: Nudity

 

On some of these insatnces the parents have looked right at me and asked, "Can you believe games today have this kind of stuff in it?" My usual response to that question is, "Well, since I actually bother to stop and read the cotent box on the back of the game....yes I can." This gets them every time. If the parent seems particularly stuck up I'll add, "But if you were doing you job as a parent, you would have known that when you bought the game and never would have bought *insert game title here* for your 7 year old in the first place."

 

Now, on a more positive note.

Many retailers here in the US decided a few years ago to step things up. When you take an M rated game up to the counter you will get briefed on what the game's rating is as well as why it got that rating. I remember when one kid tried to browbeat Grandma into getting him Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The girl behind the counter turns the game over and tells her, "Okay, this game is rated M. It contains Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, and Drug Use. Do you still want to buy it?". Grandma's eyes nearly bugged right out of here head and said, "Oh, no. Of course not." and then she turned to the brat and scolded him saying, "So that's why your mom won't let you get this game!". The kid was pissed, and they walked out empty handed as the kid was throwing a temper tantrum.

 

The point to that story is that retailers understand that many people are essentially morons and many of them have children who love video games. Retailers also understand that half the population suffers from a condition known as Rectal Cranial Inversion (or RCI) and are somehow incapable of turning a game case over to read the damned thing before they buy it. Sadly RCI has no effect on people when they go to hire a lawyer, organise a rally to protest a violent game, or make that retailer's life a nightmare. Because RCI has no cure, the only way to combat it is to inform every one of their customers right there of what is in a game when they buy it. Unlike most disorders, it is impossible to determine who actually has RCI until after they themselves experience something that they themselves could have avoided altogether had they just been paying attention (and it doesn't matter if the RCI is chronic or acute :tongue: )

 

Bottom line is, we're getting there. Slowly and at agonizing pace, but we will get there eventually.

[baduk]

I dont really care about the issue. I didnt vote.

 

I loked at some of the stuffs people are writing about it. seems like everyone agrees on most important premise.

 

Its bad to make children more violent and its good to make children less violent.

 

I think its kind of interesting tho. How we normal and regular thinking people can be so enthusiastic about preventing our kids from becoming violent.

IT is actually our system of perpetuating hypocrisy. Our everyday actions condone violence and the societies of the world are steeped through and through with violent cultural stuff.

We are concerned with bringing our children up to be peaceful and kind, as they try to comprehend the world they are living in.

Of course they become as confused as we are and face a similar confusion when it comes to bringing up their children.

[Vindekarr]

I dont really care about the issue. I didnt vote.

 

I loked at some of the stuffs people are writing about it. seems like everyone agrees on most important premise.

 

Its bad to make children more violent and its good to make children less violent.

 

I think its kind of interesting tho. How we normal and regular thinking people can be so enthusiastic about preventing our kids from becoming violent.

IT is actually our system of perpetuating hypocrisy. Our everyday actions condone violence and the societies of the world are steeped through and through with violent cultural stuff.

We are concerned with bringing our children up to be peaceful and kind, as they try to comprehend the world they are living in.

Of course they become as confused as we are and face a similar confusion when it comes to bringing up their children.

 

There is a very wise point here that you have made, buried under loads of other... stuff.

 

Frankly I dont think the majority of "violent" video games are really all that violent.

 

StarWars: Empire At War is not a violent game: there is no blood and gore whatsoever, the reasons for conflict are explained, childsafe, and send a strong message about standing up for the defenceless, and torturing goofy Gungan aliens by shooting lightning out your fingers or slaugtering Ewoks with a laser carbine arent really experiences of violence that many children could replicate. God, I hope not, lightning wielding tots? eek.

 

Torchlight is not violent; at face value it is incredibly gory: enemies, when slain by a powerful enough blow literaly explode... ...like a waterballoon of red ink. There is no true gore here; the jewel colours, classic fantasy setting, fact that you never fight another human, gorgeous art and incredibly low system requirements(like, NetBook low) make it an ideal game for all ages; worksafe to say the least.

 

WarHammer 40,000 Dawn Of War II is a true example of a violent game however; it's at thye extreme low end of the gore spectrum, below even TorchLight and WoW, however it's reasons for conflict are not the sort of thing you'd want to expose kids to. You play as a SuperSoldier in the employ of a brutal, authoritarian regime, one of your common tasks is "exterminating alien vermin"-slaughtering aliens because they're aliens.

 

The combination of hatred themes, theological conflicts, and the fact that kids wouldnt get many of the refferences and allusions mean that it fully deserves it's 16+ rating, it was designed for adults and only adults.

 

But this is all moot.

 

In truth, our society is violent. Violence is condoned, and some if not all children experience daily violence at shool. Schools in the werstern world are violent places in my experience, with more than 3000 cases of children coming to school with a loaded deadly weapon this year in Australia alone, and three times that many hospitalisations due to beatings, physical abuse, and in some cases shankings, schools are starting to resemble prisons in that those that go in usualy have to fight in order to make sure they get out again.

 

With news services gleefully reporting violence stories daily in fetishist detail, often speaking in glowing terms of violent arrests and battles waged overnight, children simply need open their eyes to be exposed to violence more immediate and horrific than any video game.

 

The argument, the tired old argument of "but you're controlling it" is invalid. Violence out of your control is a thousand times worse than violence in your control; would a child be scarred more by pressing X to punch a penguin? or watching in live video protestors in iran being mowed down by militia gunfire? A millino horrific crimes happen every day and the world just ****ing watches.

[marharth]

I am going to say this once again, if the world were a video game there would need to be a entirely new rating past even AO in order to sell it.

 

The world is a violent place, and it sucks. By the time your 8 you should of seen the news and other bad stuff.

 

Video games are only one small thing in the world that is violent, many other things are violent in this world...

[BlackBaron2]

I think worrying about computer games being violent or full of naked people or whatever is as ridiculous as worrying about your hair looking bad when your behind is on fire, given the things many children and adults have to deal with in real life that are hundreds and thousands of times worse than any game.

[VesemirTheWitcher]

I believe they make people more aggressive.

i have felt myself change.

 

and i like the aggression. i'm just too quiet by nature, i need to learn how to step up and be more brave in my social encounters, and the aggression gaming has inflicted on me is quite helpful.

[OBLIV_2008]

I would say yes and no. Some of the responsibility lies with how the parents raise them. They need to understand that Video Games are fictional and are not real, and that if you shoot someone in the real world you cannot reset and their will be consequences. It is not so much that it drives them to violence as it numbs their senses to what is right or wrong. This is where I think some of the fault lies with the some of the parents in that they are not teaching their children the difference{notice I say some, not all}.

 

This is my opinion.

[Sterki]

Honestly... metally healthy and well raised kids (I suppose we talk about kids because they're more "vulnerable", but still, a 10 years old kid can sort of tell what's right and what's wrong, that's what education works for) are NOT going to start a killing rampage because "insert random supposedly violent game in here" inspired them to. I can tell that me (and probably most of us) are good examples of that. When I was a little kid I played a good bunch of games, eventually I grown up and I focused on generes related to action and adventure (with lots of violence) and today I'm a very peaceful, friendly and (I suppose) mentally healthy young adult. If videogames ever influenced me that much I'd probably be a psychopatic mass murderer, cannibal and a megalomaniac (in fact, video games help me to relax, releasing my stress and anger over lifeless pixels in the most violent ways, it totally works and it's far better than hurting living and real people) . Just to know, I've never heard of any oficcial and reliable psychological study proving that games makes people in general (children, teens, adults, whatever) more violent and honestly, I can tell that ain't coincidence (wich is to say, that "fact" is vaguely a senseless defamation). But do video games can make SOME children violent? I suppose poorly raised or non mentally healthy children might be even more vulnerable and might get a wrong idea of the point of a video game, but that's merely my opinion.