Do video games make children violent?

[RyukaRukario996]

When I was still in kindergarten, I played Wolfenstein 3-D and DOOM.

 

Was I scared by any of the visuals? No. The only thing that got to me in both games is how the developers seemed to LOVE to make you get lost, and how well hidden everything has to be, from secrets to items that should be plainly obvious. But hey I was young, I didn't have a big mental capacity that I think I have today.

 

Honestly I only had acted violent as a child because of being taunted and pushed around by other people thinking they're "better" than me, and I didn't have much restraint then because the stress was too much for me to contain. I've since then learned to ignore whatever insults are thrown at me, and only get violent when the other person actually makes a move.

 

Video games did one amazing thing for me, they made me creative, and willing to care enough about fictional stories to actually read them, fan fiction or not, even make them up myself.

 

My mother used to scream at me when I was young and I was playing games like Heretic, and so forth, all because of the bloody violence. My father was the one who got me all these games (some of the most rare by today's standards, since I was born in '92) and he was fine with me playing them, they're games after all. I never degenerated or anything to that degree as a result of playing these games, bloody violent or not.

 

My mother just believes everything said on TV that violent video games will train children to become ravenous murderers (yes, Jack Thompson, Faux Newz, etc)... If that were true I would have killed more than thousands of real innocent people, have I now? No, and never will... Hell I never ever physically hurt anyone in my life, short of shoving them away.

 

Video games are fiction, not real life, if you're about as deranged to think they're real life, then is that REALLY the fault of the developers? No it's not. It means you need professional help, not sue everyone.

 

I'm not sure what to place my vote on, I'd say "Depends on the child" but then it also depends on the parent as well, in my opinion.

[Nadimos]

If someone goes out and, then we fail at communicating with one another.

I think that about summs it up. But in and of itself video games dont make you violant. That is a myth.

Edited February 11, 2011 by Nadimos

[Pushkatu]

Children these days have acces to all sorts of stuff, good and bad. You simply cannot have full control over their schedule, but parrents can still have an important influence over them. I think video games can and will make some children violent, but only if they have way to much freedom. My cousin likes video games a lot and he is only 6 years old. When we play he likes to throw punches at me and kicks to, but I always tell him to behave and explain him why he should not act like that. He knows only if I look at him, that he has done something wrong and most of the time he stops. My strategy is to keep reminding him and I noticed that when we play he actualy tries to behave and not do something wrong. I can leave him alone for a couple of hours in my room knowing that he won't smash anything. He learned that if he behaves, his rewards will be a lot nicer and that he will have more acces to my stuff, wich he likes to look at. He always puts things back and I don't have to clean much after him. To be honest, I am a lot more messy than he is and he keeps reminding me that I should clean my room. His mother has a big influence on him regarding this aspect.:smile:

 

I realy don't like children that visit us with their parrents and once they arrive they start to pick things up from everywhere, start to throw them, even brake some and I realy hate parrents that have such children and act like they don't know what's going on, even when their children smash something right in front of them. I usualy lock my room or else they'll end up in there somehow, everytime I don't do that. :dry:

 

My mom and my sister love little children and they always like to spoil them, even the "little devils", making them act even worse. My joy starts when they both get bored and ask me to look after them. Don't get me wrong I like children, but every time they ask me that I say: "Nooooooooooooo waaaaaaay!". :devil:

 

Yup, I'm done now.

 

 

Cheers,

Pushkatu!

[Marthos]

I think that the genius's that come up with these pearls of wisdom have access to far too many excuses these days.

 

Throughout history some children have been misbehaved, nasty, violent etc and on occasion have grown up to be misbehaved, nasty, violent and sometimes murderous adults. Some kids were little angels till the day they grabbed a gun and tried to wipe out half a town. It happened long before video games were even thought of.

 

Its been blamed on horror movies, records played backwards, the wrong sort of books, gang culture, knife culture, hoodie culture, gun culture, peer pressure, satanic worship, drink, drugs, the wrong crowd, boredom, the internet, bad parents, the wrong influences, in short you name it, its been blamed.

 

 

Do you want to know what it is, the thing we can actually blame ?

 

Its us, its a human condition, without warning something goes click inside the head of an individual and sanity leaves the room.

 

And I don't think there will ever be a sure way to stop that thing going click.

[Sarogath]

I think that the genius's that come up with these pearls of wisdom have access to far too many excuses these days.

 

Throughout history some children have been misbehaved, nasty, violent etc and on occasion have grown up to be misbehaved, nasty, violent and sometimes murderous adults. Some kids were little angels till the day they grabbed a gun and tried to wipe out half a town. It happened long before video games were even thought of.

 

Its been blamed on horror movies, records played backwards, the wrong sort of books, gang culture, knife culture, hoodie culture, gun culture, peer pressure, satanic worship, drink, drugs, the wrong crowd, boredom, the internet, bad parents, the wrong influences, in short you name it, its been blamed.

 

 

Do you want to know what it is, the thing we can actually blame ?

 

Its us, its a human condition, without warning something goes click inside the head of an individual and sanity leaves the room.

 

And I don't think there will ever be a sure way to stop that thing going click.

 

yea that's right, excuses have been found...

if mankind didnt have a violent or ruthless side "we" wouldn't be dominating this planet as a species now...

idk whether video games made me much more violent or angry but if you'd ask me i found videogames to be a really great stress-reliever (and those games that in my area are called plain "killergames" were even more relieving) especially when i was playing online against other human players. i did get angry sometimes but only at myself for my obvious lack of skill. and i realized how much more cruelty i could watch as i was getting older. tho i don't know whether this can be purely accredited to me playing videogames.

 

however i have to agree on some studies that say, if an individual lacks social background and immerses into a game too much the game itself might well have a "triggerfunction" (no pun intended, i am making a serious point) releasing a huge amount of aggressive emotion which wasn't put there by videogames in the first place...

 

(i'm hoping i did not repeat after others too much but its 06:00 a.m. in my place and i was just too lazy to read seven pages of read-worthy discussion)

[Marthos]

 

 

however i have to agree on some studies that say, if an individual lacks social background and immerses into a game too much the game itself might well have a "triggerfunction" (no pun intended, i am making a serious point) releasing a huge amount of aggressive emotion which wasn't put there by videogames in the first place...

 

 

A fair point, but you could say that in those circumstance that if all that was required to induce a violent event was a triggerpoint, then that individual already had a condition and/or was disposed to violent reaction that could be triggered by anything.

 

If someone goes on a violent or murderous spree then the mental instability is already there, triggered by whatever set that event in motion, the core problem that needs to be addressed is finding these individuals that are predisposed to this type of behaviour beforehand and giving them the help they need, which is nigh on impossible as society tends to have an "I'm alright jack" attitude untill the you know what hits the fan and everybody needs something to blame.

[Sarogath]

 

 

however i have to agree on some studies that say, if an individual lacks social background and immerses into a game too much the game itself might well have a "triggerfunction" (no pun intended, i am making a serious point) releasing a huge amount of aggressive emotion which wasn't put there by videogames in the first place...

 

 

A fair point, but you could say that in those circumstance that if all that was required to induce a violent event was a triggerpoint, then that individual already had a condition and/or was disposed to violent reaction that could be triggered by anything.

 

If someone goes on a violent or murderous spree then the mental instability is already there, triggered by whatever set that event in motion, the core problem that needs to be addressed is finding these individuals that are predisposed to this type of behaviour beforehand and giving them the help they need, which is nigh on impossible as society tends to have an "I'm alright jack" attitude untill the you know what hits the fan and everybody needs something to blame.

 

very true. i didnt mean to say that this so called triggerpoint is only inherent to videogames. it could also be your girlfriend breaking up with you or you losing your home basicly everything that puts a lot of stress onto a person.

 

edit: i only recognized there was a poll too. well of 73 people who voted only 2 found that videogames encourage violent behaviour, so i think the communities' mind is pretty made up^^

Edited February 18, 2011 by Sarogath

[soulknightX]

personally from my POV i think it not games that kids go on killing sprees and hijack cars

 

right now i can be considered an adult and all the games i play are M rated

 

Fallout 3: M

 

Oblivion:M

 

Wolf Team( a MMOFPS look it up) though the ESRB dont have control on rating games online it is also rated M

 

these games dont make me want pull a knife or a gun and kill my mother all because she looked at me the wrong way

 

video games simmulate what we can't do in real life like in Oblivion If i want to be a Character that rape and pillage towns i can do that do that in real life im gonna be in jail for a long time or dead in a moment

 

and not to somewhat go off topic i remeber a good couple of years ago a teen i think robbed a cop car and also shot a cop and when he was arrested he blamed Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for what he done. that P.O.ed me. I played GTA:SA and i never saw anything that said "Go Outside, rob a Police car and if the cops put up a fight shoot at them"

 

in the end i say this

 

Whatever you do in video games happens in the game because the game told you to do it.

Whatever you do in the real world happens because YOU did it, nobody told you to do it.

 

sorry if i rambled a bit

Edited March 9, 2011 by soulknightX

[RedVexHK]

Video games make VIOLENT kids violent. Parents who are not more dimensional then a 2D cartoon THEY make kids violent... When parents slap their kids around for losing a fight they started while trying to bully someone.. or worse not only losing but getting caught for bullying... (yes I've seen parents mad at their kids not for bullying...but for not being good enough at bullying)

Video games influence kids to violence far less than bad parents.

[hightest]

When I read this thread I think of one example of a violet child, it goes something like this. Parents have a child and when the terrible twos and the trying threes come along, the parents give in if the child acts up. So what happens is when the child wants something or wants the parents to change there minds, the child acts up by throwing a temper tantrum. (most of these kids only act this way when their parents are around) Now the parents realize that they have a problem on their hands, so they decide to get tough. But when they do the child throws an even bigger tantrum. So this arms race continues into the childs teens, and by now the arms race gets very heated, until one day the child throws something at the wall or smashes something on the floor. Then the parent can't understand why there child is so violet and decides that it must be some other cause and not there parenting, and most of the time they quote something they heard on the T.V. What they point there finger at depends on what decade it happened in cause every decade has a different culprit.

Children are not stupid, they can reason and they know how to hurt others with words or physical actions, don't believe me then sit and listen to them talk when they don't know your there. There conversation can be just as piety as adult conversations but at the same time just as understanding. They show all emotions of an adult the same way a adult does. the biggest difference is children are very nigh eave, and because of that adults assume they can't judge right from wrong, or that actions viewed on a monitor or a TV will somehow make them think it's ok to kill mutilate and butcher people. If video games caused violence then call of duty would be responsible for thousands of deaths by now, or at the very least one death out of every ten thousand that play the game. World wide that game has sold millions.