Timothy Barile formal exploratory essay
Timothy Barile
ERH-102
Mrs. Smith
14 March 2016
Violent Video Games and their effect on Children’s Health Exploratory Essay
Are violent video games really hazardous to children and their health? Nobody knows for sure if violent video games are the triggers to certain child behaviors and attitudes, primarily negative ones. Experts try to analyze the connection between children who play and those who do not and try to relate the negative incidents to those who do play. Certain violent video games are way too explicit for children’s eyes which I can agree with but there are some miniscule violent video games that I believe do not affect children’s decision making. I express interest in this topic because I believe “certain” violent video games do not impact a child’s mental health establishing my own argument.
Video games have been a common leisure activity starting in the early 90s and now in the 21st century. Children have been the main audience that are attracted to video games due to the hands-on experience, captivating plots, and the thrill of all different types of genres such as sports games, militaristic/shooting simulation games, and adventurous open world video games. Specifically children are attracted to this because they have more free time to consistently play and seek fun related activities naturally as a child. However, by playing video games, children are subject to both violent and passive video games. The true question, as stated previously, is if these violent video games have a negative impact on children’s and influence them to make rash, immoral, and violent actions in the future or even possess negative behaviors/attitudes.
My first source is “Effects of Trait Hostility, Mapping Interface, and Character Identification on Aggressive Thoughts and Overall Game Experience after Playing A violent Video Game” by Jung, Younbo, Park, and Kwan Min Lee. I started with this source because this peer review article includes behavioral and social terms associated with psychology for why people act the way they do after playing a violent video game. Essentially, this article states through mapping interface if a person has high-level trait hostility then they are more prone to aggressive and violent gaming experience.(1) Vice-versa, if a person has low-trait hostility then they are more prone to positive gaming experience. Character identification also plays a role in affecting behavior during gaming. I agree with this article and believe high-level hostile people become hostile while playing video games and the same with low-trait hostile gamers but also I believe that’s not always the case. A person’s environment and upbringing has a major impact on how they act and their attitudes. A person can be angry from a video games maybe because of they had a bad day or they can be patient with the game because they had a good day. However, in my argument, I believe a child’s environment and upbringing affect their decision making rather than the sole impact of somewhat violent video games and their trait hostility. I learned the psychological results from trait-level hostility but what the article is missing is precise factual evidence/numbers on how many children showed aggressive behaviors after playing and the disconnect between passive video games.
My second source is “Violent Video Games Don’t Increase Hostility in Teens, But They Do Stress Girls Out” by Christopher Ferguson. This article overall completely differs from the first stating effects of violent video games and correlation of children’s behavior are unknown. The article states that hostility levels neither decreased nor increased after a proven study of it was tested on children and the aftermath of playing a VVG (12-18). This article later states the difference between how a boy feels comfortable playing a violent video games (naturally) and how a girl can feel stressed out and uncomfortable seeing/ or even playing a violent video game. I can agree with the author and build upon on how hostility is not relative after playing, providing a counterargument from the first source.
My third source is “Effects of Prosocial, Neutral, and Violent Video Games On Children’s Helpful and Hurtful Behaviors.” by Saleem, Muniba, Anderson, and Gentile. This source provides the reader with the experience of playing prosocial video games and violent video games as well. The author shows, with factual research from 2009, that by playing prosocial video games positive demeanor and social behavior is heightened while violent video games the contrast. However, the author does not know the specific effects of either nor knows if they could be long-term or short-term. The author assumed effects surfaced from children had to be from previous behaviors. I can see where the author stands and how his viewpoint provides reason. However, just like all sources, the effects are all unknown and I will provide a counterpoint that by playing a somewhat violent popular militaristic shooting brand-chain of video games known as “Call of Duty” a child can relieve stress, have fun, and be beneficial to a child’s learning, reflexes, and behavior.
My fourth source is “Violent Video Games Affecting Our Children” by Vessey, Judith A., and Lee. This article gives a large overview and background of video games, their adaptation to our current time era, and finally the pros and cons of gaming in both male and female children. The authors state how violent video games have grown and expanded with blood, gore, and vivid imagery since the first violent video game came out which was Pac-Man, which does not include those things. The authors label video games as a desire in society and how children are craving more and more different types of video games, boys primarily attracted to sports/violent and girls attracted to fantasy. This article also states later that environment and intrapersonal matters (1st page -6th paragraph) have an effect on children, and how video games are not the sole reason for bad behavior. I believe with the author in various parts of this article and will delve on parts such as environment and intrapersonal factors providing more examples of evidence on how that can affect a child’s behavior and I will give a ultimatum to a parent stating if they do not wanting their child to play a violent video game that is rated M for a reason then don’t buy it for them just to satisfy them or be a bad role model. A child mirrors behavior and actions from their parents which is intrapersonal and ultimately are doppelgangers when it comes to that. Here, I provide a solution to a problem if a game is too violent or explicit for a child to experience.
My fifth source is “Violent Video Games and Young People” by Harvard Mental Health Letter. His article takes a neutral unbiased approach to violent video games saying could influence and harm children’s behavior but also most youths are unaffected by violent video games. This article more so focuses on the parents’ role and what they can do. I can establish my point again with building on this article just like the last with parent intervention and being good moral examples to their children to act as. The article says for parents to play the video games with their children to experience it firsthand and to monitor the playing time they give the child. Put video game consoles in more common areas and check the video game rating to prevent a child from experience a very explicit and violent video game.(3) I do still believe that a certain level of violence in video games does not have an impact and can be beneficial.(where I branch off.)
In my intellectual journey from analyzing these articles, my horizon has been broadened and I have been exposed to more information but ultimately my perspective still remains the same. My understanding of the question has not entirely changed, still standing firm with my on argument. My current answer is that a number of factors including a child’s situation, environment, mental health, genetics, etc. all play a role in child’ behavior but do violent video games that as well? Depending on the severity and violence of the violent video game, children can adopt positive and negative behaviors. No one still truly knows if the violent video games have an influence which leads to my own answer and opinion. My answer is still the same in my argument and I believe “certain” violent video games do not affect a child’s health.
