Introduction

The United States Supreme court heard the case that Brown presented. Brown filed a

claim against the Entertainment Merchant Association, in which Mr. Brown argued that the

association had video games that were violent to the minors making the company infringe the

children against their right to protection against cyber bullying (Hudson, 2018). However, a

group of software and video game companies challenged Mr. Brown in the court of law, arguing

that the laws of the country pertaining the sale and rental of video games violates the First

Amendment. In relation to this case, the Supreme Court ruled out that the law the California law

that prohibits the rental and sale of violent video games to the under-aged population violated the

First Amendment. California acknowledges that all video games software must enjoy the

protection from First Amendment (Hudson, 2018). The government claimed that it does not have

powers to restrict expression of any company due to messages or ideas they convey, or their

content or the subject matter. On the other hand, California is also aware that there are no

specific laws that govern the accessibility of children to depictions of violence.

Different studies have been conducted in the past to find out the relationship between

violent video games and their influence to aggression character trait of the adolescents. For

instance, Shao and Wang (2019) in their study to assess moderate effects of video game and

aggression discovered that there is a positive correlation between the two variables. Normative

beliefs regarding aggression is directly linked to violent videos in adolescents. However, the

effects have distinction in relation to the rate of income of different families. For example, those

children whose families have high income rates, experienced aggression only as a result of

playing violent games online. Unlike those adolescents whose families have low income rates,
they experience both direct and indirect effects which are caused by normative beliefs

concerning aggression.

Violent video games among the adolescent result into psychological problems. As a

result, they become aggressive since they try to do what they see online when playing their

videos (Shao & Wang, 2019). The part of the brain that is affected by the violent video games

result into genetic predisposition which as a result to aggressiveness within the children. Such

children tend to become temperamental which in turn result to violent behaviors amongst the

youth.

Normative beliefs concerning aggressive personality of the human being is a significant

element of cognition, and they influence adolescent aggression. These beliefs predicts the

physical, direct, indirect and verbal aggression among the youth. Normative beliefs are rampant

especially due to online influence. Adolescents who experience elevated normative beliefs

concerning aggression have high likelihood to be bullies in schools (Shao & Wang, 2019).

Furthermore, they are affected by traditional bullying as well as cyber bullying. In conclusion,

these beliefs have the capacity to anticipate the support and reinforcement of bystanders in

offline and online cyber bullying.

Albert Bandura is one of the famous man known due to his vast studies concerning the

behaviors of the children as they grow. According to him, violent video games influence the

children to observe the happenings within the game. As a result, the cognition of such a child is

ignited negatively because they imitate aggressive behaviors which are harmful to their growth

and development (Shao & Wang, 2019). Most studies reveals that the major role of normative

beliefs is not influenced by elements such as prior aggression, gender or parental monitoring.
 Family violence can also be significant in explaining the aggressiveness among the

adolescents. Studies indicates that, if a family is violent, the child is affected and as a result, such

a child becomes violent. For instance, if a child who experiences adverse effects of a violent

family is as well subjected to violent video games, such a child has high temper compared to the

child that is affected by one of the two factors (Shao & Wang, 2019). Therefore, aggression of

the child is not necessarily influenced by the violent video games that they engage in online,

their aggression is also influenced by other factors such as the environment of their families,

among other factors. Furthermore, family environment also influences the tendency in which

children gain access to violent video games online. For example, one family can have a close

relationship with their children such that any access to online media is supervised by the family.

Another family do not have time for their children such that a child can access any social media

without strict supervision. As a result, children from the first family will tend to have self-

discipline since they are always guided, and they may not experience issues concerning violent

video games and aggression. Unlike the children in the second family, who do not get proper

supervision while accessing online contents; in case of violent video games, such children will

be psychologically affected and they will tend to be more aggressive.

Conclusion

In as much as children are affected by the violent video games they encounter online, the

Entertainment Merchant Association has to be analyzed. There has been an increase in the rate of

social media usage among the adolescents, the youth and all other categories of people.

However, most of the social media content have been found to have a negative impact to the

adolescents and the youth. Some content in the social media or online media are immoral, laying

bad foundation to the younger generation. Violent video games are part of content that online
media provides. The Entertainment Merchant Association is in business. Their core objective is

making profits at the end of the day. However, they should at least sort video games that require

parental advice so that the children who engage in them are not affected by the content rather

they should be entertained only. If the parents strictly supervises their children regarding access

to online media, the adverse effects of violent video games will not be experience.

In my opinion, I think the government should enact laws that guides sorting of online video

games such that all violent content published would require the parental guidance. Companies

that will fail to adhere to such policies should be closed down. However, parents and caregivers

should have sole responsibility to protect their children from harmful content they encounter in

online media. If the parents can closely supervise their children when they are playing any video

games, they will offer enough guidance to their children that would not affect them mentally and

psychologically. Furthermore, the government should as well revisit the ruling of the Supreme

Court that encourages the video developers to continue developing violent video games. This

ruling has affected many children in the United States of America. The games are instilling

negative character traits among the adolescents such as aggression. From the discussion above, it

is evident that violent online games influence the aggression of children and they have to be

stopped to enable the learners negate bad behaviors such as bullying in schools. This measure

will as well reduce the impact of cyberbullying among the adolescents.

References

Hudson, D. L. (2018). Brown v. Entertainment merchants association. Middle Tennessee State

University | Middle Tennessee State University. Retrieved November 2, 2022,

from https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1382/brown-v-entertainment-

merchants-association
Shao, R., & Wang, Y. (2019, February 21). The relation of violent video games to adolescent

aggression: An examination of moderated mediation effect.

Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00384/full