Video Game Violence | Teen Ink

Video Game Violence

February 3, 2018
By Magan04 GOLD, Pineville, Louisiana
Magan04 GOLD, Pineville, Louisiana
12 articles 1 photo 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
"God made Horse from the breath of wind, beauty of the Earth, and the soul of an Angel" -Unknown
"If you throw me to wolves, I will come back leading the pack."- Unknown


Youth violence is being affected by video games everyday. Video games are causing more aggressive behavior. They gave an idea to teenagers to kill drivers. Kids and youth are losing brain cells everyday. Video games are exposing kids to mature images and language.

Violent video games cause youth violence by increasing aggressive behavior. A study in 2014 from the journal of the American Medical Association found that the habits of playing video games had a link with increasing behavior(Procon). That link connecting the aggressive behavior to video games is a very important link. If we aren’t careful than youth may think that it is okay to do this in real life. A 2015 study revealed “Compelling Evidence” from Tennessee. Two teenagers in Tennessee shot at passing cars and killed one driver in the process told the police they got the idea from ‘Grand Theft Auto III’ (Procon). Personalities also have an affect. There are certain types of personality traits that affect youth when playing violent games. Two psychologists Dr.Patrik Markey and Dr.Charlotte Markey can conclude that three personality traits can make an individual think and act aggressively are neuroticism, disagreeableness, and low levels of consciousness(Health.Harvard).

What happens when kids start to mimic what they see on video games? Youth have mirror neurons that will be lost. Mirror neurons are brain cells that act for people’s empathy. In video games kids and youth have a chance to kill other people are creatures. If youth play video games more frequently it affects their mirror neurons and people think that killing people is okay(Debate). Content on video games are terrible influences on the youth in our society. The content includes killing people and animals, use of drugs and alcohol, criminal behavior, stereotypes and foul language (aacap). Many kids will continuously hear profanity and watch them kill others and they will start to think it is okay. Studies have shown that children exposed to violent media have shown that they have become numb to violence, imitate violence, and show aggressive behavior(aacap).

On the contrary, what if kids aren't affected as much as we think they are. Many researchers have done studies to test whether or not kids and youth were affected by video games. Researchers interviewed two-hundred ten and eleven year olds. They also asked teachers about classroom behavioral problems. Two- thirds of the children reported they played video games every day; boys were twice more likely than girls. Ten percent of children reported playing video games for more than three hours a day. Children were less aggressive when playing video games for less than an hour. 

In our society aggressive behavior is rising more and more everyday, video games are pushing it further. We need a society without aggressive behavior and desensitized kids. It may affect only certain personalities but videogames  are affecting youth violence in our society.



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