Michael Appel

ENG 1201

Professor Freeland

25 October 2020

How does violence in video games affect children?

Video games affecting children has been a highly debated topic ever since video games

became popular, and even more so when video games that displayed violence such as Grand

Theft Auto became available for people to play. People want to know how this violence is

affecting children or if it is affecting them at all. Since the 1990s, hundreds of studies have been

conducted about the ways violent video games affect the brain (King).

There have been countless studies that prove violent video games negatively affect

children. The studies show that kids who play violent video games are more aggressive than

kids that don’t play violent games. These studies argue that violence in video games is not

going to cause all children to become mass killers, but constantly being exposed to violence can

cause other problems such as depression, reduced empathy for other people, and prolonged

fear (Howell). Studies have also shown that the long term effects violent video games have on

people's aggression towards others is greater than the effects of poverty and childhood abuse

(King).

Even with all the information and studies that show video game violence has a negative

impact on children, there is still a large group of people that don’t think video games affect

children. Christopher J. Ferguson is in that group of people and in his article , “Video Games

Have Become a Scapegoat for Violent Behavior.” He explains how nearly all kids play video

games and at some point they have played a violent game so it is not hard to link a violent crime

to playing video games. There have also been other studies done that show video game

violence Doesn’t harm children or have a negative effect on them, but what parents really need
to look out for is prolonged exposure to games as that can cause kids to be less social (Lobel)

(“Video Games and Violence”).

With all this being said, there are ways to ensure that children are playing video games

in a safe and healthy way. Some Countries, such as Germany have policies in place that limit

the amount of video game violence available and limit children's accessibility to this violence. As

a parent, setting time limits on playing games, not allowing kids to play M rated games, playing

games with the children, and being there to let them know what is happening in these games

are good ways to give children a reality check while playing video games so they know what is

right and wrong (King)(Howell).

Whether violence in video games affects children or not is still a very controversial topic.

There is research that points in both ways and it really just determines how you interpret the

data (“Video Games and Violence”). Some people believe that the evidence is clear as could be

that violent video games affect children, but then there are others that argue everyone plays

video games so it is hard to make a strong connection with video games and increased violence

(Ferguson). Overall, there needs to be more research done to find a clear answer to the

question of how does violence in video games affect children?

 Works Cited

Ferguson, Christopher J. "Video Games Have Become a Scapegoat for Violent Behavior."

Media Violence, edited by David M. Haugen and Susan Musser, Greenhaven Press,

2009. Opposing Viewpoints. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010153261/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=cc1dc208. Originally published as "Video Games: The

Latest Scapegoat for Violence," Chronicle of Higher Education, 22 June 2007, p. B20.

HOWELL, ZARIA. “Video Games and the Effects on Our Children.” New York Amsterdam

News, vol. 107, no. 36, Sept. 2016, p. 44. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=118031242&site=ehost-live.

King, Marianna. "Violent Media Hinders Students' Emotional and Intellectual Development."

Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2020. Gale In Context: Opposing

Viewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/EITKQJ250642368/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=d947acd4. Originally published as "Educating Students to

be Critical of Violent Media," Association for Middle Level Education, Apr. 2018.

Lobel, Adam, et al. “Video Gaming and Children’s Psychosocial Wellbeing: A Longitudinal

Study.” Journal of Youth & Adolescence, vol. 46, no. 4, Apr. 2017, pp. 884–897.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s10964-017-0646-z.

“Video Games and Violence.” Association for Psychological Science - APS, Association for

Psychological Science, www.psychologicalscience.org/topics/video-games-and-violence.