The effects of video games on violence in children

Video Games and Violence in Children

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines a video game as an electronic game that is played on a video screen and often emphasizes fast action ("Video games"). Computer games are also referred to as video games and according to the encyclopedia Britannica, it is any game which is interactive that is operated by computer circuitry. The machines on which electric games are played include general purpose shared and personal computers, arcade consoles, video consoles that are connected to television sets and handheld game machines. Video game as a term represents the totality of these formats or more specifically those games played on devices that have video displays like television or arcade consoles.

Video game culture

Video game culture is a form of media culture that is new and its influence comes from video games. Video game culture came about after the digital revolution of the last decade changed the film branche rapidly. According to the Media Analysis Laboratory of Simon Fraser University, the first video game, "Space Wars," took PDP1 computer that was room sized and was worth millions of dollars and was located at the basement of the MIT and was created by Steve Russell. This invention showed the possibility of computers as a tool for fun and has, since then, had a profound impact on children's culture in the contemporary society. Russell applied the same cybernetic principles of 'interactivity' that was at the time associated with office technology and automation, to children's entertainment and therefore creating, out of the TV screen, a medium that was entirely new. Over three decades after the invention of the video game, video gaming has become the fastest growing of children's cultural industry and also the most profitable (the Media Analysis Laboratory).

According to Browning, the video game phenomenon's cultural effects are greater than its economic effects. Video games have been blamed for causing everything from suicide to school shootings, like in Littleton, Colorado in 2006. This has caused video games to be taken more seriously giving good and bad results. Good results have included higher game quality games that do not rely on shooting and racing alone and there have also been limits on what children of a certain age can access and buy (2).

Video games have changed a lot and evolved overtime with the introduction of the internet. Video and computer games have influenced all aspects of modern life. Video games are played in a variety of ways socially involving domestic gatherings or even publicly. This can be accomplished through the use of Local Area Network that enables family and friends to create a social event for friendly competition amongst them.

The study of brain with games

Scientists have found that computer games stimulate only those parts of the brain that are devoted to vision and movement and do not aid the development of other important areas of the brain (Wearden). There has been concern about children who spend many hours playing games not developing their frontal lobes that are important for the control of behavior and the development of memory, emotion and learning. This is discouraging as the new generations of children play computer games that are different from those in the past. This affects the children in negatively as the society we live in generally grows more violent. Students are doing bad things as they play games and they are refraining from activities that stimulate them intellectually like reading and learning arithmetic. Scientist found that it is important for children to practice basic mathematics, reading and writing so as to boost the frontal lobe development (Wearden). The development of the frontal lobe is important as it enables one to control their behavior. These were results obtained from a study that was carried out on hundreds of students playing a Nintendo game and was compared to other students who were practicing basic arithmetic. According to Wearden, the results showed that there was a lot more brain activity that was needed to solve arithmetic tasks than the one used to play video games and there was a great difference in the activity in the frontal lobe.

How video games influence children

According to Norcia, video games have been available to people for the last 30 years and are a unique form of entertainment as they encourage players to become a part of the game's script. Video games have become more sophisticated with time and require players to pay attention constantly to the game rather than doing so passively while they do something else like watching television. This has brought about positive and negative impacts on those who play the games specifically the children (Anderson and Dill 779). A common positive impact that is used with reference to video games is that it helps the player, in this case the children, may improve their manual dexterity and computer literacy. With technology always improving and changing, players are able to learn the use of better graphics which give a playing experience which is more realistic. This quality of the video games makes the industry a powerful force in many lives of the adolescents who use them (Norcia).

Violence characteristics

There have been numerous studies which show that video games especially those which have violent content and therefore making adolescents and children more aggressive. A reason for the increase in aggression and aggressive behavior in adolescents is linked to the amount of time they spend on playing video games. A study showed that a majority of teens admitted that their parents did not set a limit on how much time they spent playing video games. This study also showed that these parents did not pay attention to the content or the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) rating of the video games which their parents played (Norcia). Another study showed that adolescent girls played games for 5 hours on average and adolescent boys played for a total of 13 hours on average (Carnagey et al. 492). Teens that played violent games for extended periods of time tended to display certain characteristics like they tended to be more aggressive, more prone to confrontation with their teachers, most likely engaged in fights with their peers and showed a decline in their academic achievements.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board usually considers a number of factors when rating games. The content considered is the amount of violence, sex, controversial language and substance abuse that a game might contain. it's developed guideline help the ESRB five an age recommendation and content descriptor to each game that has been submitted to them. These rating symbols include EC meaning early childhood and that the content is suitable for children who are older than 3 years of age and does not contain objectionable material, (Norcia). E means that the content is suitable for everyone who is older than 6 years of age and may contain minimal violence and some comic mischief. T means that the content is suitable for persons aged 13 and older. Its content is more violent than that of the E. rating and has mild or strong language or suggestive themes. M is for mature content, meaning that it is suitable for people who are older than 17 years old and has more mature sexual themes, violence that is intense and stronger language. An adult only game is symbolized as AO and it means that the content is suited for adults and may contain graphic sex and/or violence. Nobody under the age of 18 should be accessing the game. A game that has been submitted to the ESRB and is awaiting a final rating is usually symbolized as RP meaning Rating Pending.

Video games may increase aggressive behavior due to the violent acts being continually repeated throughout the video game. Repetition has long been considered an effective teaching method as it reinforces learning patterns (Walsh 3). Players are encouraged identify with their character and role play them, also referred to as "first-person" video game. In this way, the players are also able to make decisions which affect the actions of their character. After a limited amount of time has gone by, a player can "prime" aggressive thoughts automatically. Norcia further says that researchers found that players with prior experience of playing video games responded with a level of aggression which is more than normal when they encountered confrontation. Norcia further wrote that a joint statement was issued before the Congressional Public Health Summit in 2000, the American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, American Academy of Family Physicians and American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry cautioned parents on the violence in the media and the negative effect it has on children. This report also stated that this exposure can elevate aggressive feelings and thoughts in children especially and that these effects could be long-term.

According to Harding, violent media spurs individuals to violent actions in two ways. First is through imitation whereby children, on watching violent actions internalize the message that the world is a place that is hostile and as a result acting aggressively is allowed as a way of dealing with the violence. The second way is that individuals, specifically children can become desensitized to violence. This is because, daily exposure to violence may make one lose their emotional impact on them. Apparently, when one becomes emotionally numb, it becomes easier for them to engage in violence (Harding).

The General Aggression Model

This is a model that attempts to explain both the development of aggression an individual differences in susceptibility to the influence of video games that are violent, (Kooijmans). This model operates on the theory that both situational and person logical variables interact to affect a person's internal state that comprises of cognition or thoughts, affects or feelings and arousal or physical. These aspects influence each other and they all affect a person's interpretation of an act that is aggressive. Once the brain completes its interpretation, a process for making decisions starts taking place. This model states that violent video games have long-term and short-term effects on the users. Short-term effects have been observed while the long-term effects are just hypothetical (King, Delfabbro and Griffiths 103). The short-term effects include situational variable, causing an increase in aggressive cognitions, affects and arousal. The study on the long-term effects of video games are hypothetical as the research that is being carried out is ultimately new. Hypothesized effects of violent video games include promoting aggressive beliefs and attitudes thus creating an aggressive schema, aggressive behavioral scripts and aggressive expectations.

The formulation of this model shows how complicated an issue the relationship between violence, video games and aggression. Those who are high on factors like hostility are much more at risk to become more aggressive as a result of the influence of violent video games. People who have low hostility have been shown to have no change in their aggression levels when they are influenced by playing video games that are violent (Funk et al. 241). The formulation of the GAM helps greatly in understanding the complex relationship between aggression and violent games. The amounts of biological and physical changes that occur during puberty can affect the processes that occur within the GAM. The processes, which are already in place at adolescence, are usually at this time still influenced by their current environment. Adolescence is usually a stage that is characterized with an increase in aggression and this aggression combined with exposure to violent media reinforces and increases aggressive cognition, affects and arousal. This has a negative effect on the internal environment of the individual which leads to increased aggression, (Kooijmans). This exposure and at the stage of adolescence the individual is in determines the level of aggression they express. This means, the exposure at early adolescence exhibits higher levels of aggression as compared to the exposure during mid and late adolescence.

Intellectual ability and scholastic ability

According to Sakamoto, video games have many features that are attractive to children and can stimulate educational performance that is improved in learners as well as children (Sakamoto 2). Traits that can stimulate improvement in educational performance include attractiveness, motivation, active engagement, challenges, data handling capabilities and enabling learning by doing. If these characteristics were added to ordinary classroom teaching, students would be more enthusiastic to study. By introducing games to classes, learning would be made more effective. Conventional classes do not offer challenging, vivid and complex features as the circumstances and content that is offered in video games. On top of this, video games offer educational attributes like the functions for enhancing self-feedback, personalization and learning that are collaborative (Sakamoto, 2).

Videogames, according to Sakamoto, have various instructional functions that promote educational performance in learners. Some games show models for living and as a result they have a modeling function to the models who may imitate the behavior that is shown in the model. The games have attractive visualizing functions for complex phenomena. Performances in the game can be objectively observed and thus Meta cognition in learners can be observed. They offer intellectual and affective knowledge of results that correspond to the behavior of the learners. This is important in that it offers a kind of reward to reinforcement of appropriate behavioral components. With the rehearsal components of the games, repetition helps in the achievement of educational and training goals (Sakamoto 2). Due to video games having many aspects of educational functions, they should be able to achieve and enhance various kinds of abilities and competences such as skills, planning, creativity, problem solving, strategic thinking, knowledge, communication abilities, negotiation abilities and group decision making abilities (Sakamoto 3).

Friendship with others

With video gamers considered as "loners" for the longest time as is usually the case in any American medium, the Multi-User Dungeons have revolutionized the gaming industry. The MUDs online text based online environments where users can collaborate in groups so as to enable them to complete quests, solve puzzles or even slay villains (Squire 5). An example of such a game is Avatar whose difficulty and variables are manipulated so as to force gamers to collaborate quickly with fellow players and create bonds which will sustain their online gaming community. Characters are each given unique strengths and weaknesses and no character can survive without collaborating with other players. Avatar and games like it design challenges that foster community building which they can do from experience (Squire7).

The Future of Video Games

Kooijmans stated that with the majority of research focusing on the negative impact of video games, there was need for more research to be done so as to prove that video games do have a negative impact on the users especially in relation to violent content. This need to prove the exact impact that video games have on the players and those around them, has brought with it a hypothesis about the positive impact of video games. Therapy is one of the areas that have been seen to come out of using video games. With a majority of video games being violent in nature there have been emerging games that take on the intellectual point. Puzzle games like Tetris are thought to stimulate the mind by presenting challenges and puzzles to the player as opposed to enemies and worlds. Many play these games to keep their minds alert and active. This has in turn brought the idea that these games can be used as a therapy form. This is because, some of these games are relaxing and soothing and they can specifically altered to meet a patient's needs, as an individual, (Kooijmans). Video games can be used, for instance, to help a patient connect certain memory cells in their brains or help in the general stimulation of the brain.

The other area that video games have been believed to be helpful is in eye-hand coordination. When it comes to playing modern video games, one needs to have sufficient skill. A player is expected to do a lot so as to ensure that they win as there are usually a lot of things going on at once. A character that a player is playing may be required to be doing a lot of actions where they are running and shooting at the same time, for instance. One is required to keep track of the character's position, where they are headed, their speed, where their weapon is pointed and where exactly their weapon is supposed to injure or destroy their enemy. These factors need to be taken into account and the player is required to coordinate their brain's interpretation and the reaction with their hand and fingertip movements. A great deal of eye and hand coordination as well as visual-spatial ability is required in order to be successful. An increase in video game playing has been closely associated with improvement in eye hand coordination as well as manual dexterity and reaction time, (Ballard and Weist 729).