Alex Tabongphet is author of next 2015-2016 MLHS senior student editorial
Do Video Games Really Make People Violent?
Do video games really make people violent?
I don’t believe that video games make people more violent. According to “The Telegraph,” research with British primary school children found that the time young people spend playing games could possibly affect behavior or school performance. People who mostly play card games usually did better academically and were not as likely to show hostility. The study showed that any influences were small, and that a majority of multimedia were mostly a “statistically significant, yet minor, factor” on changing children’s behavior.
Researchers spoke to more than 150 children ages 10 and 11 about their video gaming and the amount of time they played every day and the genres of the games they liked most. In the meantime, their teachers were told to record the kids’ schooling, behavior and skills to react to stressful situations.
Most of the kids said that they played video games every day. Males were twice as likely to play over females.
In the results, they never found any hard evidence that there was a link between violent games and real-life aggression.
According to “Time” magazine, ever since the shooting in Columbine, Colorado, when a pair of school kids went on a fatal killing spree at their high school, multimedia, including video games, have been favorite prey as the reason for the senseless killings.
About 15 years later, however, it has not stopped teens from playing video games, including the violent ones. About three-fourths of those games include mature contest that usually involves violence.
Worries about the brutality in video games and how it might contribute to reality have gotten legislators to suggest taxing on mature video games, and having to be a certain age to purchase them.
Because research so far has been inconclusive, in 2013 President Obama called for more research into the influence video games has on children.
I don’t believe that video games affect a child’s behavior or reactions in violent situations, but I do believe they may change a child’s imagination when they go out and play. However, I think a child can understand that something can hurt or kill because they see what happens to the person inside the video game.
In conclusion, studies have never found any hard evidence that there is a link between violent games and real-life aggression.