Modern world brings much convenience into our daily life, but at the same time it is full of various temptations. Many years ago the childhood was completely different, and kids had to play in the yard, ride their bicycles and play dolls. Nowadays most of these things became replaced by interactive entertainments, such as tones of computer games, easy access of the World Wide Web, and availability of any information. End of XX and beginning of XXI century kids prefer to play a video game or to watch a movie or a short video online to pleasant plays in the garden or simply playing with cars. According to the Entertainment Software Rating Board, parents say that they observe their children playing video games 97% of their free time (Esrb.org). Though some video games are often a very developmental tool, they also send a lot of violence and coercion in the context. Many video games encourage violence and, for example, for killing a character, the player gets a reward. Many parents are concerned about the transfer of the interactive violence into the real life of a child, and are trying to avoid that. However, there is no one certain answer that violent games are the main cause of further aggressive behavior shown by the kid. Still, this is the issue of very high interest and it is still being studied. The problem has its own pros and cons, and various controversial points can be drawn out from it.
There is a tool called General Aggression Model, which was designed by two researchers Anderson and Bushman in the year 2002. The main aim of this model was to explain the correlations between the observed online violence and aggressive behavior. The results clearly showed that those who are constantly influenced by the violence in video games or in internet tend to respond more aggressively to the emerging issues in real life, though some kids have never been thought to be somehow hostile (Video Game Addiction). Therefore, it can be said that negative influence of the violence and coercion in internet sources and video games does have an effect on the children’ behavior.
At the same time, there is a statistics that shows a positive influence of the increased sales of violent video games on the percentage of arrest of young people. The statistics for the United States represents that the number of violent crimes committed by the youth has decreased by 49.3%. Moreover, the rate of arrest for the youth murders has declined by 71.9% in the year 2008 in comparison to the 90s (ProCon.org). Those numbers represent a big chunk of the criminal law data and can sound even unbelievable to some extent. However, this fact implies that introduction of the violent video games has helped to significantly decrease the number of real life crimes.
The organization Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence (MAVAV) is the organization that is struggling against the usage of various violent kind of interactive entertainments in lives of their children. On the official website of MAVAV we can see lots of negative attitude towards violence in modern video games. Video games are said to be a dangerous addiction that can even be compared to the drug or alcohol addictions. Those who are involved into this organization see the hidden danger in the violent video games and believe that it can cause serious mental problems and hostile behavior in their kids, because observing violence and in most times being rewarded for it would never lead to the positive outcomes (Mavav.org). Moreover, there is an organization called Parents Against Violence, and just like MAVAV they are fighting for imposing restrictions on the sale of violent video games in order to protect their children from future mental abuse and aggressive actions (Parents Against Violence).
However, there is the opposite point of some researchers to this issue. It is said that there is no concrete proof that represents close relationships between violent games and aggressive behavior. One of the arguments claims that no study had been monitoring children for a long enough period of time in order to draw conclusions from the findings. Another argument argues that the principle works vice versa: not violence in interactive sources leads to the hostile reactions, but rather those youth who are aggressive by themselves are always trying to find the opportunity to play violent games simply for own satisfaction (ProCon.org). Moreover, as it was mentioned in the beginning, there is also a positive side of the video games, movies and WWW. Not all of the materials and not all games contain direct violence that is being rewarded and practiced. There are numerous learning games, and also games that may contain violence, but present it in such a way that it is not a good thing, but rather something that should be avoided.
Still, there is another controversy among researchers, because many of the psychological researches had observed the influence of the violence in TV, movies, internet and video games on children’ behavior. What is even more significant, the American Psychological Association argues that video games may bring even more harm than movies or TV series, because the nature of the video games involves a direct participation of the player and involves the decision making process, which makes a kid interact with that violent and aggressive environment. One of the researchers of this association claims that the violent video games create a learning environment on how to use violence and how to be actually a good user of it, which even more endangers kids to future experience of hostility towards unpleasant events and accidents (Apa.org).
As it can be seen, there are various arguments for and against influence of violence on children and youth. In addition, parents are trying in various ways to protect their children from this moral, so to say, abuse. One of the arguments that would help parents not to let the violent video games, movies, and internet materials have an impact on their children would be creating a warm family environment at home and showing good examples.
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) claims that this is the responsibility of parents and public restrictions to protect youth from the violent that is shown all through media and in video games. NAEYC claims that the society should support the idea of bringing more of valuable and positive information to social platforms and to interactive entertainments. The main argument is that violent content in various sources of data should be decreased, and more of content that helps to increase understanding of social values and virtues should be added. Moreover, this association reminds the society that children tend to copy the observed behavior (Naeyc.org). If to combine this fact with the statistics provided by Entertainment Software Rating Board that was mentioned before and that is stating that the greatest chunk of their free time children are observing media information and playing video games, the conclusion that children will copy more of what they have observed throughout the day can be made. Thus, it can be argued that parents should find other ways to entertain their kids, like going for a walk and playing around with friends, in order for them to be less exposed to the violence observation in various sources.
Another important aspect of this issue was enlightened by the American Academy of Pediatrics. The members of the academy have created a list of recommendations that would help to prevent children from being influenced by violence shown in various media contexts. This list includes various regulations, like setting the limits for the TV and video games per day for their kids, recommendations for schools and even parents to teach their kids the conflict resolution techniques that exclude violence. What is even more, another organization, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry became a very strong advisor for the ratings of television programs and for having special block at home that would not let kids to watch certain channels. Those organizations state that, on the contrary, media should be used in order to promote other things but violence, such as medical health, public education, and peaceful ways to resolve emerging conflicts (Aacap.org).
Though there is an observed controversy, there are still big concerns about the volume of violence in media and video games. Despite the fact that the correlation between observed on TV or in other sources violence and actual aggressive behavior has not been proved, there are still things that can slightly show the impact of those violent things on children. Anyways it is important to notice that even the fact of looking at such violence and playing a role in it in video games is not healthy for children and youth.
In conclusion it would be important to mention that parents and related organization are working hard on the issue of violence and media, and taking care of the child is parents’ responsibility. Giving an appropriate care and creating warm environment would be a part of problem solution. Together, parents and institutions who want to fight this issue would be able to make a significant difference and protect kids from observing that much violence and implementing it in real life situations.
Works Cited
"Do Violent Video Games Contribute to Youth Violence?" ProCon.org. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://videogames.procon.org/#Background>.
"How Much Do You Know About Video Games?" Entertainment Software Rating Board. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.esrb.org/about/video-game-industry-statistics.jsp>.
"Literature." Literature. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <Parents Against Violence>.
"Media Violence in Children’s Lives." National Association for the Education of Young Children. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSMEVI98.PDF>.
"The Impact of Media Violence on Children and Adolescents: Opportunities for Clinical Interventions." American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.aacap.org/aacap/Medical_Students_and_Residents/Mentorship_Matters/DevelopMentor/The_Impact_of_Media_Violence_on_Children_and_Adolescents_Opportunities_for_Clinical_Interventions.aspx>.
"Video Game Addiction." Violence and Video Games. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.video-game-addiction.org/violence.html>.
"Video Game Addiction and Violence in Underground Video Game Cultures." MAVAV | Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.mavav.org/>.
"Violent Video Games Can Increase Aggression." American Psychological Association. 23 Apr. 2000. Web. 2 Dec. 2014. <http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2000/04/video-games.aspx>.
