Violence and Video Games

“29 in 168 violent video game players show some kind of violent or anti-social behavior.”(Anderson,V.16) That information was taken from a study done by Rachel Barr Ph.D in developmental psychology. These startling statistics show that violent video games do have an effect on today’s society and should be stopped or at least control the distribution of these violent promoting video games. Violent video games cause violent behavior in players of all ages.

The statistics of violent video game players and violent or anti-social behavior in them is that 29 in 168 players show some kind of violent behavior. “Recent video games reward players for killing innocent bystanders, police, and prostitutes, using a wide range of weapons including guns, knives, flame throwers, swords, baseball bats, cars, hands, and feet. Some include cut scenes (i.e., brief movie clips supposedly designed to move the story forward) of strippers. In some, the player assumes the role of hero, whereas in others the player is a criminal.”(Anderson,V.16) Not only are these games inappropriate for anybody to play but are easily available for children who are obviously not of the age to experience or even witness these heinous actions. For example, I have a five year old brother who plays these games and shows much frustration when he loses or “dies”. It is unhealthy for that young age to be experiencing that much anger or aggression.

Myths and the facts about violent video games are that some believe that the study of violence being caused by violent video games has yielded very mixed results, but the truth is that “Violent video games are significantly associated with: increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal; and decreased prosocial (helping) behavior. Average effect sizes for experimental studies (which help establish causality) and correlational studies.”(Anderson, V.16) Another misguided myth is that of violent video game studies is that there are no studies that link violent video game play to serious aggression, but again that is false information due to the fact that high levels of violent video game play have been linked to delinquency, fighting