Tv Violence And Games Essay Research Paper

Tv Violence And Games Essay, Research Paper

Violent Video Games

Over the past several years, video games have evolved from the simple pong and pac man to highly detailed, fully interactive fantasy adventures. Unfortunately, along with this development came the ability to depict violence with gory detail and high-speed action. Studies substantiate that this brutal violence found in modern video games has a direct correlation with violence among today.s youth. This relationship can be seen through several areas. Several experiments confirm that children are adversely affected by playing violent games. Furthermore, evidence shows that violent first-person shooter games can teach children effective shooting and killing techniques. Finally, evidence verifies that children need to be protected from the gaming industry and retailers.

To begin with, research suggests that playing violent games changes one.s behavior and thought (.Video Games. 2). In one experiment, children of ages five to seven played either a violent or non-violent game. It was then observed that the children who played the violent game were more aggressive that the other group (Derek n.g.). Another study involved students playing a violent first-person shooter game or a nonviolent video game against a computer. The students, however, were told that they were competing against another player. Upon winning, the student was instructed to punish the opponent with a sound blast. The students involved in the violent game sustained the sound for a longer duration that the students who played the non-violent game (.Video Games. 2). This shows a raise in aggression level from violent entertainment. Lee discusses a study in which college students who had played a video game

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were lightly provoked. Students who played a violent game were much more aggressive in reaction to the provocation than those who played a non-violent game (1).

Some defenders of video games argue that children come in contact with violence from several sources such as television or music. However, the problem may be more serious when the violence comes from video games. Berner notes that researchers feel that video games have a worse effect on children than violent television programs. This is due to the fact that the player often takes on and interactive role as a killer in the game. For example, in the gory first-person shooter games, the player.s view is that of the killer.s. The only part of the character seen on screen is the barrel of the gun. This gives the illusion that the player is shooting the enemies on the screen (58).

According to Grossman, killing is not a natural instinct that is found in children (24). Children have to learn how to kill and they learn from playing violent video games. There is a natural strong resistance to killing people in the human brain. Van Horn asserts that the army uses various techniques to break this resistance to killing in soldiers and the exact same techniques are found in modern video games (173). Grossman discusses the operant conditioning used by the army to train soldiers to kill (25). Targets shaped like people appear and disappear very quickly leaving the soldier very little time to react and shoot. Eventually, the soldier can shoot without even thinking about it. This same stimulus-response training is engraved into the minds of children who play point and shoot video games at the arcades. They are being taught to kill quickly and efficiently without any thought or guilt (25). Van Horn mentions the popular first-person shooter games teach the player how to kill everyone in a room

by moving from one person to the next and using one shot for each target (173). They teach the player not to take the time to shoot multiple rounds into one enemy.

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One cannot ignore the several examples of schoolyard murderers who were found to be fanatics of violent, gory games. Some people may not know that the two boys involved in the

massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado enjoyed playing the gruesome first-person shooter, Doom (.Video Playground. 100). Grossman speaks about the two boys in Jonesboro, Arkansas who landed fifteen out of twenty-seven shots from over one hundred yards away (25). One of them had never fired a real gun before but had learned how to shoot accurately from spending plenty of time playing violent games. Smith mentions the boy in Paducah, Kentucky who shot six of his schoolmates with a handgun (14). It was found that the boy had never shot a real gun but had learned from playing a video game that rewards the player for shooting people in the head.

The biggest problem comes down to keeping violent video games out of the hands of impressionable children. Most government officials seem to agree. Fritze and Morrell discuss a bill proposed in January of 2000 that would prohibit minors from playing arcade games that use a light gun to simulate the player shooting people on the screen (2). However, legislation similar to this is usually unsuccessful because it violates First Amendment rights.

While the video game industry disagrees with any correlation between violent games and violent children, it has nonetheless made a rating system for video games similar to movie ratings (.Video Playground. 100). The system is designed to inform parents and players of the violent con