Violent Video Games Might Be to Blame for Violent Behavior

Violent Video Games Might Be to Blame for Violent air Is Media Violence a Problem? ,2010 - Top of smorgasbord Bottom of Form Mark and Keisha Hoerrner, VideoGameViolence,Childrens Voice, vol. 15, January/February 2006. Copyright 2006 Child Welfare League of America. All Rights Reserved. Reproduced by permission. Mark Hoerrner is a writer and the author of several articles on the medias effect on children. Keisha Hoerrner is department chair of Kennesaw State Universitys First-Year Programs and a researcher who specializes in children and media issues.While many parents scoff at letting their children watch hot movies, they often consent to buying violent videogames for their teenagers without checking the industry ratings. Researchers contend that a link exists between violentvideogames and real-lifeviolencein teenagers and tender adults. Violent images dont necessarily create violent children, but gamers learn thatviolenceis an accepted means to solve problems, and they perfect shooting skills as though they were use real weapons.Even though games can teach children valuable coordination skills, parents and caregivers need to make sure that their children only view age-appropriate content and are made aware of the deflexion between on-screen actions and socially acceptable behavior in the real world. Thomas has a 21-inch flat-screen monitor and an optimized computer with a 4 GHZ processing stronghold. His straining drive is fast and large hes packed in close to three gigabytes of RAM and has avideocard with dual 512K processors. Its all about speed and graphical processing. Hes jacked in to a high-speed Internet connection, and hes off and running.Thomas isnt a programmer or a network engineer, though hes considering that as a theory for the future. He doesnt occupy to worry about that now, thoughhes only 13 years old and has a long time to make up his judgement about a career. For now, hes content with the fact that in the next three hours, hell co mmit 147 felonies including aggravated assault, murder, attempted murder, robbery, ar male child, burglary, conspiracy, assault with a dementedly weapon, drug trafficking, and car theft while violating just about every section of the RICO Act, the nations nti-organized crime law. Hell even be so brazen as to gun deck bystanders and police officers and will personally beat some bingle to death with a golf club. All without ever leaving his room. - A Link to Violent Behavior Retired Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, a former U. S. Army Ranger and tactical trainer, asserts thatvideogames are progressively training children to kill. Learning, he says, happens all the time, especially during active play.The subject of that active play, however, can be negative or positive. Grossman has authored two books on the connection between violent media and actualviolence. He argues that children learn to use weapons and become sharpshooters done simulated games the same way soldiers use simulations t o improve their shooting precision. Just as children can improve their phonics withLearn to Read with Winnie the Pooh, they can learn to shoot with deadly accuracy playingDoom,Splinter Cell,Hitman, and other(a) first-person shooter games.Grossman has been a consultant to a number of school systems following deadly shooting incidents, assisting with grief counsellor and understanding what brings children from what should be a carefree time in their lives to the point of committing multiple murders. In his book,Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill A Call to Action Against TV, icon &VideoGameViolence, Grossman says that in 1997s high school shooting in Paducah, Kentucky, the 14-year-old who opened fire on a before-school prayer group get eight out of eight shots on eight different targets.Five of those were head shots gunshot wounds to the head. According to the FBI, in shootouts less than three meters from their targets, trained law enforcement officers land, on average, one out of f ive shotsthese are trained officers who are familiar with their weapons. The teenage shooter had never held a real gun before his shooting rampage, Grossman says. He had, however, spent long hours playing first-person shooter games that simulated killing with the same weapon he used that morning.Grossman, who now travels the country talking to police departments and educators, asserts that the combine of playing these games and watching violent movies taught the youth how to load, actively target, and shoot as if he had been watching an instructionalvideo. - Making Right or Wrong Choices distant watching avideoor television show, a child is actively making choices and weighing options when playingvideogames. He or she is rewarded for true behaviors, which, depending on thegame, may range from solving a puzzle to opening fire on a group of bystanders. In a violentvideogame, you rehearse the entire aggression sequence from beginning to end, says mediaviolenceresearcher Craig A. An derson, chair of Iowa State Universitys Department of Psychology. You bear to be vigilant, looking for enemies, looking for potential threats you have to decide how to dole out with the threat, what weapon to use, and how to use it and then you take physical action to behave aggressively within thegame. Its society, not science, that must decide how to deal with the negative effects of violentvideogames.We have considerable evidence these games cause violent behavior, Anderson says, pointing to hundreds of scientific studies onvideogames, and to a greater extent than 3,000 on the effects of other violent media, that he says all suggest a causal link between violent behavior and the consumption of violent content. This isnt an overt link, he cautionsa child isnt likely to go out and commit a major felony after playing a violentgamefor an hourbut children will act to a greater extent aggressively and show more negative social action, such as the intent to doviolenceto another person , over time. Positive Aspects of Video Games Anderson is fond to note, however, that games have positive aspects. He bought his son a copy of the flight simulatorgameFlight Unlimitedand a realistic joystick and foot pedal. His son spent considerable time learning to fly, which paid off when the child went to a NASA summer camp and was assigned the role of pilot on a space shuttle mission simulator. Andersons son was able to land the craft on the first try, something camp organizers said had never been done.Anderson credits the flight simulator as the catalyst for helping his son develop the necessary skills. In a study at the University of California, Santa Barbara, diabetic children who received avideogameshowing them how to better bear off their illness had improved blood sugar control and fewer emergency room visits. Videogames are great teachers and great motivators, Anderson says, but they can be misused. Its society, not science, that must decide how to deal with the negativ e effects of violentvideogames. To this end, thevideogameindustry helped create the Entertainment Software Rating be on (ESRB) to develop a system of ratings forvideogames to define content for parents and allow them to make informed purchasing decisions. ESRB ratings include six age-based rating symbols, ranging from EC-Early Childhood to AO-Adults Only, and more than 30 content descriptors (such as MildViolence, IntenseViolence, SexualViolence, Partial Nudity, Drug Reference, and Simulated Gambling) that indicate elements in agamethat may have triggered a particular rating or may be of interest or concern to the buyer.Full TextCOPYRIGHT 2010 Greenhaven Press, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. Source source Violent Video Games Might Be to Blame for Violent Behavior. Is Media Violence a Problem? Stefan Kiesbye. Detroit Greenhaven Press, 2010. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. 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