Essay Sample: Are Violent Video Games Necessarily Bad for Children

Due to technological advancement over the past years, the content of video game has improved coupled with the appealing game interface as well as improved graphics. For this reason, many children have had the pleasure of playing some of this games and it is not surprising that some of the children stay indoors in the day and night. Many parents have raised an alarm of their children abandoning school work to play computer games frequently. As the graphics of these games improve, and their story line also is more transformed by the developers, parents have developed a sense of fear over the violent scenes their children see during a gaming session. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the bad and good sides of violent video games on children using relevant research works as well as give a well-structured informed thought of my opinion on the same.

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Video games do offer children a good pass time indulgence. Today, there are so many violent video games, and some are even still being developed at the moment. Children usually have enough time to play; it is true that play is good for children. If not controlled, so many of them get addicted to the violent video games. It is believed that some of these games develop a childs intellectual capacity and when they grow up they tend to be of high intellect as compared to the others that did not play these games at a tender age.

According to Granic, Lobel, and Engels, (2014) Video games be it violent ones are known to enhance childrens cognitive abilities (Granic, Lobel, & Engels, 2014). He posits that these games possess the capability to improve the childs educational skills as well as career development. He also argues that these games improve spatial skillset which in the long run facilitate the attainment of science knowledge, technological advancement and also mathematics. It implies that when the child is in the process of learning a new game, he or she has to try severally and by doing this, they repeatedly solve the problem to learn it entirely. Moreover, it adds to problem-solving skills by the use of scientific means. Take for instance, when playing Grand Theft Auto (GTA), a popular crime game that is probably full of violence, one has to learn and master various cheat codes coupled with different missions that the game offers (Bingham, 2015). Through mastering, such, children tend to get exposed to scientific t aspects of games and solving computer problems.

On the other hand, violent video games can be harmful to the childrens development. When the child is exposed to violent scenes in these games, they usually try to learn and get aggressive as it is reflected in the games. Some of these children become vengeful as well as truant behavior. According to Hasan, Begue, and Bushman, (2001), most children enjoy the violent games and associate the violence in it with pleasure. In the game, Sleeping Dogs, which is also based on missions like GTA, a child would see the gamer get rewarded some amount of funds for accomplishing the task of murdering an individual (Hasan, Begue, & Bushman, 2012). The repeated form of participation in the violence as the controller, the child gets the reward, and this is a perfect mechanism for behavior learning.

Violent video games may also have an impact on the moral sensitivity of children as they grow up. According to Grizzard, bad behavior, as well as violence posited in the violent video games, may contribute to proper behavior in the actual world (Grizzard, 2016). He implies that, when the children engage in the violent games, they may develop an aspect of guilt, whereby they would feel they did something wrong like killing a person, stealing property, breaking the law and so on, and would, therefore, develop the guilt in real life when on the wrong side thus boosting their moral sensitivity. Grizzard based his findings on emotional experiences which are caused and inflicted but the violent behaviors to bring forth the basis of moral judgments. Additionally, violent video games can also be a chance for a child to release his aggression and lifes frustrations which translate to less violence in real life. A child who has been engaged in a fight in class may get home and play a violent video game like Mortal Combat, and ensures that he wins to vent his revenge (Grizzard, 2016). In some cases, they may play against an opponent who they hate in real life to give them room to vent off their hatred on each other. Many of such games when played severally bring children who have been in bad terms together.

On the contrary, Narvaez argues that when a child associates violence and pleasure, it undermines moral sensitivity and not that it boosts it as portrayed by Grizzard (Narvaez, 2010). He argues that under normal situations, a persons emotional sense is usually developed to abhor violence and feel at ease when rewarded for assisting others. Those children that engage their minds in playing violent video games create intuitions that are opposite to this notion. Narvaez is in more of line with my opinion. Children are still in the process of developing in various dimensions. They tend to learn through various aspects and some of these things they learn they use emphasis method to reinforce them into behavior. Like the actions available in the games, they practice these over and over. Whatever the children practices, translates into a normal response. The violent video games equip the children with skills on how to become a criminal and many at times on how to use such skills to gain favors and probably hurt others. Take, for instance, the People Burnt in game Postal2.

Some studies, on the contrary, link violent video games with aggression and violent behavior in children. It is established that there are situations where children and teenagers have committed acts of violence as portrayed in the video games. Goldstein, (2005) believes that many children who play violent video games for a prolonged period develop intensified attitude towards aggression (Goldstein, 2005). This can also be coupled with vulgar language from the crime and violent scenes, and they may accidentally or knowingly use this language while playing in real life with other children or even on their siblings as well as parents.

In my view, the violent video games should be rendered to be bad and a health risk factor as such especially for the children. They have more adverse effects as compared to the positive impacts on children. The following are some of the reasons why I take this stand:

Firstly, violent video games instill bad morals in the child, take, for instance, the decision-making the process of a child could be altered and many children may resolve to violence as a means of problem-solving.

Secondly, the violent games teach children to be disrespectful especially to women. The majority of these games associate men as more violent and abusive to women. The children take control of the man and enjoy being the perpetrator. In many situations, these games are played by male children.

Also, violent gaming does stir both short-term and long-term aggression in children depending on the level of exposure to such games. Children with aggression grow up with a behavior that is not mostly acceptable in the society as they would engage in fights and cause harm to others.

The violent video games are so addictive as they take time for a child to understand how to play them, they have to do it over and over to learn the elements of the game. This way, the children end up being addicted to the games. Game addictions imply that these children find very little time to engage in extracurricular activities and they miss out on the social life. Gaming addiction lowers social competence in children, and they do not develop proper interactional skills that are necessary for holistic development.

In conclusion, my view is that violent video games do contribute a lot towards childs behavior as what they do, repeat and practice in life affects their way of living and resonates as an element of learning. Violent gaming should be authorized to children under supervision, and parental advisory should be encouraged. However, the violent video games can be productive, but in many situations, they have harmful effects as compared to the positive influences on childs development.

References

Narvaez, D. (2010). Playing violent video games: Good or bad?. Psychology Today. Retrieved 12 December 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/moral-landscapes/201011/playing-violent-video-games-good-or-badGoldstein. Jeffrey. 2005. Toys, Games, and Media. Published by Routledge. 147-152.

Bingham, J. (2015). Study finds no evidence violent video games make children aggressive. The Telegraph. Retrieved 12 December 2016, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/12/study-finds-no-evidence-violent-video-games-make-children-aggres/

Hasan, Y., Begue, L., & Bushman, B. (2012). Violent Video Games Stress People Out and Make Them More Aggressive. Aggressive Behavior, 39(1), 64-70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ab.21454

Granic, I., Lobel, A., & Engels, R. (2014). The benefits of playing video games. American Psychologist, 69(1), 66-78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0034857

Grizzard, M. (2016). Repeated Play Reduces Video Games Ability to Elicit Guilt: Evidence from a Longitudinal Experiment. Media Psychology, 1-24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2016.1142382