There are many studies and research groups who claim that violent video games, such as World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto, have some kind of direct link to the aggressive behavior in children. Somehow, I simply cannot grasp how video games can be more harmful than the issues that revolve around families and the influence that other peers have on children. I have played numerous video games, and I certainly do not consider myself an aggressive or angry person. My two brothers also played plenty of violent video games throughout their childhoods, and even though they are a bit more aggressive than I am, taking into consideration the fact that they are both grown males, I don’t consider them aggressive guys either. In fact, I agree with Jason Della Rocca, program director for the International Game Developers Association in 2006, when he stated that, “It's easy for people to point to games and say that they brainwash people or make them act in certain ways, but in reality, there are social pressures and family issues, and a huge range of factors that go into how people behave. Games are just an easy scapegoat” (“Real-World Violence”).
The research that has been conducted shows that when subjects were shown images of both violent and non-violent images, the subjects who had more experience with violent video games displayed a lower response rate to the violent images than the subjects who had not played many video games (“Real-World Violence”). In other words, the researchers place the blame for a child’s violent behavior on video games, claiming that the children are not as disturbed by violence because of the exposure they have had to it. However, just as Della Rocca said, I believe that the games are just a kind of scapegoat for most people. Society is full of violence, hostility, and criminal activity, yet people continue to blame video games for their children’s aggressive behavior. I work at a daycare in Van Buren, where I have seen, and heard, countless encounters with our director and a select few of the parents discussing the violent outbursts that their children have had. Nearly all of them are concerned as to what the source of their child’s behavior is, but not one of them will admit to any kind of problems at home, even if the director is simply inquiring about how often the child rough-houses with his or her siblings. The kids themselves will confess to fighting with brothers and sisters, and many of them idolize their older siblings, who argue with, curse, and yell at their parents. I’ve had several conversations with parents about how much trouble they are having with an older child, but when they are confronted with the fact that a younger child is behaving the same way, they deflect and blame it on something else. Some parents are clueless as to why their child is screaming profanities on the school bus, and I often have to hold my tongue so that I don’t say, “Well, ma’am, it’s because when you get angry with your child, you scream profanities at him. Therefore, when he’s ticked off because some fidgety kid kicked the back of his seat, your child is going to turn around and scream profanities at him.”
Even though they refuse to say anything about the child’s behavior at home, almost all of the parents have had something to say about the violent video games that the child has been playing, and how the games must have something to do with their vehement behavior. If this were the case, you would think these parents would cease to buy the games, or at least check the rating. Parents could check the rating and content of any video game before they even leave their house. The Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB, is dedicated to assigning ratings for computer and video games so that consumers, especially parents, can make an informed purchase decision. You can find the ESRB labels, which include content descriptors and rating symbols, on the back of any video or computer game case. Many people are familiar with these symbols, but the ESRB have the rating symbols, along with the descriptions of each symbol and a recommended viewing age, in the Rating Guide portion of their website (ESRB). With the ESRB, parents could easily prevent their children from possessing such hostile games, but if they did, what would they have to blame for their children’s behavior? When parents blame the video games for the actions of their children, I can’t help but wonder about what the parents were doing while the kids were playing them. Parenting is a full-time job, and if a mother or father can walk away while their nine year old son is completing a mission on Grand Theft Auto that involves picking up several prostitutes on the side of the street, then I would have to say that these adults are severely lacking parenting skills. As a witness to many of the outbursts, I don’t see how these video games are affecting the behavior of these kids. However, I do see how the lack of discipline and moral values in the families are affecting them.
Some researchers, such as Michael Hoffman, believe that violent video games only affect the unstable youth. In his blog post, “Survey: Violent Video Games Only Affect Unstable Youth”, he reports that most teenagers maintain the same anger level after playing a violent video game as they did before. The ones who did have a change their anger level had a very significant change, some nearly doubling the original readings. He believes that only the gamers whose emotional states can be susceptible to game play are the ones we need to worry about, while the stable personalities are capable of handling the violence (“Unstable Youth”).
Personally, I like how Andrew Sullivan puts it in his blog, “The Daily Dish”. He simply states, “New evidence suggests we should chill about violent video games” (“World of Peacecraft”). Indeed, I do believe that we should re-focus our attention to the society around us and the families of our children rather than the games they play. The researchers may not realize it, but these kids take in more from the people and the environment around them than they do the fictional scenes they see on the television screen.
--Tarrah Fears
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