Do video games make children violent?

[albertkuan]

According to CNN: About 90 percent of U.S. kids ages 8 to 16 play video games, and they spend about 13 hours a week doing so (more if you're a boy). Now a new study suggests virtual violence in these games may make kids more aggressive in real life.

 

Kids in both the U.S. and Japan who reported playing lots of violent video games had more aggressive behavior months later than their peers who did not, according to the study, which appears in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics.

 

In every group, children who were exposed to more video game violence did become more aggressive over time than their peers who had less exposure. This was true even after the researchers took into account how aggressive the children were at the beginning of the study -- a strong predictor of future bad behavior.

Edited May 29, 2011 by albertkuan

[marharth]

The world is a violent place, that is why video games are violent.

 

Not the other way around.

 

 

 

Games are based off aspects of real life, and the human mind enjoys certain kinds of violence.

 

 

 

The study may just have to do with long term exposure to challenges and repetitive action, which would cause anger and or stress.

 

Video games that include violence are generally fun to people, so it gives them a reason to be exposed to stress and repetitive actions.

 

In short, if you do anything fun that involves a lot of challenges and repetitive actions you would likely become angry, violent, and stressed out. The violence in video games is fun, so people will continue to play them due to it.

Edited May 13, 2011 by marharth

[Lehcar]

No, that's silly. I've been playing video games since I was five years old and I turned out just fine (and it was actually my mum who got me into them cause she thought it would be good for my hand-eye coordination, which I believe it was, and still is). To me, video games have always been a sort of escape from real life, but I've always understood that the two are very distant from each other and stuff I see in video games does not in any way reflect or relate to reality. Edited May 19, 2011 by Lehcar

[Flintlockecole]

This might seem a little off-topic but I was raised by a veteran of both World War's, I learned the lesson and reprocussion's of killing someone or doing something horrible at a young age and some of the stuff he went into detail scared the living crap out of me: Basically I was told of what was right and wrong morally. Even to this day it still messes me up even when playing video games and such. But the point I'm trying to get to is parent's these day's have absolutly no will against their children's every whine and whim, it sicken's me to see stuff parent's take from their kid's, In otherword's no is no and whatnot. Kid's these day's even adult's are using anything (I.E. Scapegoat's like video games and such) for their screw up's and irresponciblities.

[Mortrix927]

There's certainly a lot of interesting comments on this thread. Most of those that commented seem to agree that video games do not *make* kids violent. One person said they make violent kids violent, and while *sort of* true-it's more likely the kid picked the game because it re-inforces the already violent disposition.

 

That said, I think it's just fine for reasonably aged children to play games. I'm not all that ecstatic about games with explicit sex, but implicit is fine. (Well, up to a point anyway). The most important consideration, IMO, is for the parent to be sure the child in question understands the difference between fiction and reality. If you think about it, a lot of the traditional "go out and play" games involve implied or actual violence. (Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Dodgeball, football [american], GI Joe, etc.) I don't see anyone protesting those things, well, maybe football among high school moms.

 

None of that is to say the games don't have an influence; it's just not a disporportionate influence-anything and anyone the child (or adult for that matter) is exposed to is going to have an influence. The consideration is: how much? In what way? Sometimes games provide a way to be exposed to certain scenarios without being exposed to certain scenarios; such as killing certain characters in Oblivion or Morrowind.

 

Finally, about the CNN poll mentioned earlier:

 

If more research was done, I bet a dollar to a donut that if some background checking was done; it would be found that the children who were apparently less violent because of not playing video games come from societal subsets that avoid other things in modern society, too.

[DeadMansFist849]

Well, children learn by example. The first example is parents. If you have a parent who has a tendency to scream and shout or otherwise show aggression, you have a kid who might well copy that behaviour. There's a fair bit of data out there that suggests parental aggression makes kids violent.

 

Of course, I wouldn't want somebody who really couldn't understand the difference between fantasy and reality to play any computer game, for that matter. Most children (not talking about babies and toddlers) ought to know the difference between a computer game, which would be stupid to act out and those relatively harmless chasing games that most kids play.

[Zena84]

I think it depends on the parents. I'm sure that if parents would interact more with their kids they could seek creative ways to increase the acceptance, popularity, and availability of games that are relatively prosocial, educational, and fun. The kids would be more happy and aware of dangers and understand what violence effectively is if someone explains it to them. I've read something online about some projects, such as "Games for Health Project", aimed to to support parent and child interaction. Here is a very nice example of it: http://revision3.com/tbhs/gameshare

[marharth]

To me, video games have always been a sort of escape from real life, but I've always understood that the two are very distant from each other and stuff I see in video games does not in any way reflect or relate to reality.

Video games do reflect on reality, without question.

 

Video games are meant to be fun. Most video games use elements that are in real life to be fun.

 

Such as guns and sword fighting.

[Keanumoreira]

No, that's silly. I've been playing video games since I was five years old and I turned out just fine (and it was actually my mum who got me into them cause she thought it would be good for my hand-eye coordination, which I believe it was, and still is). To me, video games have always been a sort of escape from real life, but I've always understood that the two are very distant from each other and stuff I see in video games does not in any way reflect or relate to reality.

 

I agree 100%. :happy:

[Keanumoreira]

Well, children learn by example. The first example is parents. If you have a parent who has a tendency to scream and shout or otherwise show aggression, you have a kid who might well copy that behaviour. There's a fair bit of data out there that suggests parental aggression makes kids violent.

 

Of course, I wouldn't want somebody who really couldn't understand the difference between fantasy and reality to play any computer game, for that matter. Most children (not talking about babies and toddlers) ought to know the difference between a computer game, which would be stupid to act out and those relatively harmless chasing games that most kids play.

 

Well....I'm more of the "go with the flow player". I admit, playing video games (I usually play M rated games) will almost always make me think back to reality. For example, I feel sorry for having to blow this guy's brains out, after all, he has a family, a place to go, people to see, meet, and laugh with. In other cases, when a triumph occurs, I feel proud, ready, able, standing ontop of the world and proclaiming "Who's my next opponent"?

 

I do, however, know that it is a fictional universe although I don't awknowledge it while playing as it ruins my enjoyability. The point is, you can connect the two to reality. But it takes a person, such as myself, to know that in the long run there is one reality and what you do shouldn't neccessarily reflect on the controller being held in your hands.

Edited May 19, 2011 by Keanumoreira