Do video games cause violence
The question whether or not playing video games elicits violence has been a highly debated topic. Psychologist, educationist and children experts have attempted to justify their stands through various arguments and research. With about 97 percent of youths playing video games in the United States, the games are blamed for school shootings, bullying and sexual violence among other vices. However, it is my belief; video games are not the source of violence.
Video game sales have swelled while cases of juvenile delinquency reduced. It is estimated that the demand for video games has risen over the last thirty years putting the sales at 13.1 billion by 2014. However, the instances of violent activities among the youths have dwindled significantly, making the argument realistic. The Federal Bureau of Investigations documented that by 2014, murder cases perpetrated by children reduced by 76 percent while violent cases by 37 percent. Moreover, victimization cases at school also decreased.
There is no link between the two factors. The numerous studies conducted by psychologists concluding that video games result in violence have failed to establish precision. For an individual to develop violence tendencies, various factors predispose them to this behavior. These include mental health, family history of violence, neglect, and abuse. In contrast, individuals play video games for minutes or hours; these games do not portray reality as compared to factors such as violence at home. Hence, they are less likely to cause violent tendencies.
Video games facilitate the release of anger and stress among the players. Research by the Journal of Adolescent Health observed that youths that played video games efficiently managed their emotions. According to the findings, more players responded that video games enabled them to concentrate their anger and frustrations on the game making them relax. Thus, videogames are an alternative measure to deal with rough and violent tendencies as opposed to causing real-life violence.
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Researches conducted are not conclusive. Psychologists utilize various methods of understanding violence. Among the commonly used is determining the amount of pain one individual can inflict on another and be considered violent such as forcing one to listen to loud music. However, in studying the effects of video games towards violence, researchers collected data from a negligible number of students, whom they exposed to playing video games and then observed their behavior and adoption of aggression tendencies. The research is inconclusive as it provides non-standard results. Moreover, such conclusions necessitate a comprehensive study carried out over the years, thus unreliable.
The courts have affirmed that video games do not result in violence. Various courts in the United States have failed to uphold the findings of the various researches on videogames and violence. According to them, the available results of the research have been unable to validate their notion of a causation relationship between videogames and violence. For instance, the judgment in the case, Brown versus Entertainment Merchant Association, the U.S Supreme Court upheld the notion that no conclusive evidence was present to warrant the banning of the sale of video games as the research findings were undependable. Therefore, he ruled for the video games company.
Individuals that play video games can differentiate between games and reality. The stages of development by Erick Erickson ascertain that children playing video games have attained intellectual knowledge to distinguish reality from the virtual world. According to him, children begin playing video games in the industry vs. inferiority stage, where they master competence in their actions. Consequently, this makes them capable of understanding that video games present fantasy scenarios that are absent in the real world thus, prevent them from conducting violent actions.
In conclusion, the need to link violent behavior to video games has resulted in the utilization of warning tails that seeks to demonize any activity that causes misunderstanding by people not experiencing it. Nevertheless, factors such as lack of conclusive research and causation evidence, increase in sales of video games while violence cases reduce and the ability to differentiate real life and fantasy shows video games do not elicit aggression.
