Violent Video Games Might Be to Blame for Violent Behavior

angry telecasting Games Might Be to reprove for Violent carriage Is Media Violence a Problem? ,2010 - Top of determine Bottom of Form Mark and Keisha Hoerrner, VideoGameViolence, sisterrens Voice, vol. 15, January/February 2006. Copyright 2006 Child Welf atomic number 18 League of America. All functions Reserved. Reproduced by permission. Mark Hoerrner is a writer and the author of several articles on the medias effect on children. Keisha Hoerrner is department top of Kennesaw State Universitys First-Year Programs and a researcher who specializes in children and media issues.While many parents pep up at letting their children watch violent movies, they often consent to purchasing violent depictiongames for their juvenilers without checking the industry ratings. Researchers contend that a link exists between violentvideogames and true(a)-lifeviolencein teenagers and young adults. Violent images dont inescapably create violent children, solely gamers learn thatviolenceis a n accepted office to solve problems, and they perfect pip skills as though they were handling real weapons.Even though games evoke teach children valuable coordination skills, parents and caregivers need to make surely that their children only view age-appropriate nitty-gritty and are made aware of the going away between on-screen movements and soci everyy acceptable behavior in the real world. doubting Thomas has a 21-inch flat-screen monitor and an optimized computer with a 4 GHZ treat speed. His hard drive is fast and large hes packed in shut up to three gigabytes of RAM and has avideocard with dual 512K processors. Its all close speed and graphical processing. Hes jacked in to a high-speed net income connection, and hes off and running.Thomas isnt a programmer or a network engineer, though hes considering that as a possibility for the future. He doesnt have to worry about that now, thoughhes only 13 years old and has a recollective time to make up his mind about a ca reer. For now, hes content with the fact that in the next three hours, hell couch 147 felonies including aggravated assault, murder, attempt murder, robbery, arson, burglary, conspiracy, assault with a deadly weapon, drug trafficking, and auto theft epoch violating just about every section of the RICO Act, the nations nti-organized crime law. Hell thus far be so brazen as to gun down bystanders and police force officers and will personally beat some i to death with a play club. All without ever leaving his room. - A Link to Violent Behavior Retired Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, a former U. S. Army Ranger and tactical trainer, asserts thatvideogames are actively training children to kill. Learning, he says, happens all the time, especially during active play.The pass on of that active play, however, can be cast out or positive. Grossman has authored two books on the connection between violent media and actualviolence. He argues that children learn to part weapons and become sharp shooters through simulated games the same way soldiers use simulations to modify their shooting precision. Just as children can improve their phonics withLearn to Read with Winnie the Pooh, they can learn to shoot with deadly accuracy playDoom,Splinter Cell,Hitman, and other(prenominal) first-person shooter games.Grossman has been a consultant to a number of school systems pursuit deadly shooting incidents, assisting with grief counseling and understanding what brings children from what should be a carefree time in their lives to the point of committing multiple murders. In his book, block off Teaching Our Kids to Kill A Call to Action Against TV, Movie & ampVideoGameViolence, Grossman says that in 1997s high school shooting in Paducah, Kentucky, the 14-year-old who open up fire on a before-school prayer group landed eight-spot out of eight shots on eight different targets.Five of those were head shots gunshot wounds to the head. fit to the FBI, in shootouts less than three meters from their targets, trained law enforcement officers land, on average, one out of five shotsthese are trained officers who are familiar with their weapons. The teenage shooter had never held a real gun before his shooting rampage, Grossman says. He had, however, spent long hours playing first-person shooter games that simulated violent death with the same weapon he used that morning.Grossman, who now travels the country talk to police departments and educators, asserts that the combination of playing these games and watching violent movies taught the youth how to load, actively target, and shoot as if he had been watching an instructionalvideo. - Making Right or Wrong Choices Unlike watching avideoor television show, a child is actively making choices and weighing options when playingvideogames. He or she is rewarded for certain behaviors, which, depending on thegame, may trudge from solving a puzzle to opening fire on a group of bystanders. In a violentvideogame, you rehe arse the intact aggression sequence from beginning to end, says mediaviolenceresearcher Craig A. Anderson, chair of Iowa State Universitys plane section of Psychology. You have to be vigilant, looking for enemies, looking for potential threats you have to influence how to drive with the threat, what weapon to use, and how to use it and then you take physical action to behave aggressively within thegame. Its society, not science, that must decide how to deal with the shun cause of violentvideogames.We have healthy evidence these games give birth violent behavior, Anderson says, pointing to hundreds of scientific studies onvideogames, and more than 3,000 on the effects of other violent media, that he says all suggest a causative link between violent behavior and the consumption of violent content. This isnt an capable link, he cautionsa child isnt likely to go out and commit a major felony after playing a violentgamefor an hour besides children will act more aggressively and show more negative social action, such as the intent to doviolenceto another person, over time. Positive Aspects of Video Games Anderson is quick to note, however, that games have positive aspects. He bought his son a copy of the flight simulatorgameFlight untrammeledand a realistic joystick and foot pedal. His son spent considerable time learning to fly, which paid off when the child went to a NASA pass camp and was assigned the role of pilot on a place shuttle mission simulator. Andersons son was able to land the craft on the first try, something camp organizers said had never been done.Anderson credits the flight simulator as the catalyst for helping his son develop the necessary skills. In a study at the University of California, Santa Barbara, diabetic children who received avideogameshowing them how to pause manage their illness had improved blood sugar control and less emergency room visits. Videogames are great teachers and great motivators, Anderson says, but they ca n be misused. Its society, not science, that must decide how to deal with the negative effects of violentvideogames. To this end, thevideogameindustry helped create the frolic Software Rating Board (ESRB) to develop a system of ratings forvideogames to define content for parents and allow them to make informed purchasing decisions. ESRB ratings complicate six age-based rating symbols, ranging from EC-Early Childhood to AO-Adults Only, and more than 30 content descriptors (such as MildViolence, IntenseViolence, SexualViolence, Partial Nudity, Drug Reference, and Simulated Gambling) that target elements in agamethat may have triggered a cross rating or may be of interest or byplay to the buyer.Full TextCOPYRIGHT 2010 Greenhaven Press, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. Source Citation Violent Video Games Might Be to Blame for Violent Behavior. Is Media Violence a Problem? Stefan Kiesbye. Detroit Greenhaven Press, 2010. At Issue. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 31 Oct. 20 10. 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