Parents Allow Their Children Under

parents allow their children under the age of 12 to play violent video games?

Persuasive Speech: Parents should not allow their underage children to play violent video games

But my child has great hand to eye coordination skills! So what if he can't read!" Parents, is this what you want to be able to say about your children in ten years? Video games are not an appropriate pastime for young children, especially children under the age of twelve. Also, although many parents, raised in the era of Ms. Pac Man and Donkey Kong, might not be aware of the fact, video games also often contain sophisticated, violent content. Parents who would never allow their children to watch a movie or even surf the Internet in an unsupervised manner might still think that video games are harmless fun, kid's stuff.

Nothing could be farther from the case. According to research by psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann, Leonard Eron, children who watched many hours of violence on television when they were in elementary school tended to also show a higher level of aggressive behavior when they became teenagers. Worse yet, supporting research by Craig A. Anderson has shown that playing violent video games can increase a person's aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior both in laboratory settings and in actual life. A 2000 study by Dr. Anderson suggested that violent video games have a more harmful impact on the developing minds and morality of young children than violent television and movies because video games are interactive and require the player to identify with aggressive, violent characters. ("Violence in the Media - Psychologists Help Protect Children from Harmful Effects," cited on the American Psychological Association website, 2006)

Of course, some people argue that video games aren't so bad and even make kids smarter. During a recent study by the University of Rochester, children were asked to count the number of squares that flashed on a screen for a 20th of a second. Gamers picked the right number thirteen percent more often than non-gamers. (Cited by Berman, 2005) But being better able to play guessing games about abstract shapes on a screen hardly seems to be worth the sacrifice of time that could be spent reading, or simply engaging in healthy, active, and imaginative play. In an era of packed schedules, and increasingly sedentary lives, giving children yet another pastime which requires them to spend time staring at a screen hardly seems like responsible parenting.

Sure, parents protest, I only buy games that are rated child-friendly, so I know the games my children play aren't violent. Not so fast. According to Iowa State Assistant Professor of Psychology Doug Gentile, author of the book Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents, the federal rating is not always an accurate indicator of a game's content. Some games rated by the video game industry as appropriate for everyone still contain potentially harmful content like violence or sexually explicit material. (Anderson & Ferlazzo, 2006) Unlike a movie, a parent cannot entirely screen a video game. A parent cannot watch a video game from beginning to end, merely trust the rating system. At best, the parent can play the game once or twice, which will not give the viewer a complete idea about the full range of the game's content or how it encourages the player to act violently towards imaginary villains. Aware of the negative impact of video games, the Federal Trade Commission has tried to limit the sale of M. For mature rated video games to children. But can you really trust the government to police what's inside the boxes of the approved video games? ("Undercover Shop Finds Decrease in Sales of M-Rated Video Games to Children, FTC website, 2006)