Le 1 Andrew Le English 115 November 23, 2013 Noreen Lace Violent Video Games Among Teenagers Violent videogames

among teenagers is one of the most heavily debated topics in todays society. Violence, video games, and gun control are a few of the most debated topics nowadays and have been argued in political policies. Because people associate these together, then they link that violent video games are the main reason as to why these teenagers have violent habits. Many people link the acts of violence such as shootings preformed by teenagers with their video game tendencies. Because there are many other factors that contribute to this, the observation that violent videogames are the causation of violent behavior cannot by accurately made. People say that due to the fact that video games are so violent nowadays that it is having a negative effect on the youths minds, but there have not been a significant study to prove this theory. Throughout the years, there have been many mass murders in which people link violent video games as the main reason of violence. Another heavily debated topic is gun control, which comes hand and hand with violent video game due to the realistic nature of the video games nowadays. Violent video games does not have a negative affect on the youths because there are many other factors that attribute to violent behavior, people argue that the positives outweigh the negative, and violent people are attracted to violent things.

Le 2 This topic affects me because I enjoy playing video games a lot and I feel as if people jump to conclusions as to link video games with violence. Nowadays the video games are very realistic. There are examples of kids knowing the exact weapon and all the specifications of it just by playing the video game. In my personal experience I play violent video games but I know right from wrong and it does not have an effect on me. I can also see how people blame video games. When I play video games online you can hear kids that seem like 10 years old and they are cussing and have a violent behavior. This is why I can see why people can blame video games because sometimes video games can negatively affect a childs behavior. Even though these video games can cause violent behavior in teenager I believe it is ultimately up to the parents to monitor their kids behavior and what they play and look online. People also need to take into other account as to why these teenagers snap such as their family life and personal life. Because I am such a heavy gamer, it heavily upsets me when people jump to the conclusion that video games are the cause of violent behavior. I believe that only in rare and special cases in which violent video games have a big negative affect on the teenagers health. I dont believe that violent video games are the main reason as to why some people can turn out violent. One huge argument is that there are hundreds of other factors that can attribute to violent behavior. For example, in the Virginia Tech shooting in which a gunman killed thirty-three people and injured many more, many people blame the

Le 3 fact that the reason the gunman committed this act was because of his videogame tendency, but one other reason was because it is stated that the gunmen had a mental disorder. There are many other factors that people have to consider because there are many things that can cause the person to leash out. This also shows that violent video games do not cause violent behavior because violent video games is not a direct causation and people can not pinpoint one factor and blame that factor as to why teenagers have violent tendencies. Violent videogames are not the cause of violent tendencies because there are many other factors to consider as to why teenager commit crimes. Another argument is the violent video games or video games in generally have more of a positive effect on the person rather than a negative effect. For example, in the article "Violent video games enhance teens' vision?", it states that Among the test subjects, researchers measured an improvement of up to 58% in contrast sensitivity. And the effects were greatest for players who were very skilled at playing first-person "shooting" games. Until now, eye specialists believed that it was not possible to improve this kind of visual sensitivity without medical intervention. This shows that video games can have a positive affect because research have actually done studies as to how these video games help improve their test subjects sight. Due to this research, the researches are saying that this can be a cheap and useful alternative to have eye surgery. Another example of video games having a positive affect on teenagers is in the same article, it states Studies have

Le 4 already shown that first person shooters enhance motor skills and reaction time, but Dr. Polat suspected that there might be other virtues to these controversial games as well. "Many researchers had been debating if there is any effect on vision while playing video games," says Dr. Polat. "I suggested that we ask scientifically if there could be any positive effects on basic visual tasks." This explains that there are benefits to playing video games because there are already successful studies that show how violent video games can help motor skills and reaction time. Dr. Polat also goes on to say that these are just some of the things that video games can improve and that there are many more different areas in which violent video games can help benefit the player. Violent video games are argued to have more beneficial affects to the person rather than negative. Lastly, violent people are attracted to violent video games. In the book Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy, it states, Violent video games are successfully marketed to, and easily obtained by, children and adolescents. Generally people who are violent are attracted to these games such as teens and young adults. This shows that violent people are attracted to violent things, which is a correlation between violent videogames and teenagers rather than a direct causation. It also stated that the violent teens that commit violent crimes already have violent behavior and tendencies long before they started playing video games. Studies show that these

Le 5 violent video games bring these violent tendencies put rather than cause the violent behavior. There also many factors to consider as to why these people snap. I can see as to why violent video games are linked to violent acts. It is because videogames are such a big part of the average teenage boys lives, that people relate violent behavior and violent video games. In the past decade the amount of people who play video games has shot through the roof and so has the number of violent crimes. People argue that it is the games like Grand Theft Auto that cause the violence in todays youth. Even though many kids play this game and the violence in this game is ridiculous, it is not the kids fault for being influenced by it. Despite people generally blaming mostly the videogame developers, the real people to blame are the parents. It is up to the parents to monitor what their children see. Every videogame has to have a rating on it which is there to tell the parents what the suitable age groups are for that specific videogame. Many parents ignore this rating and allow their kids to play these video games yet they are shocked when there kids show violent outbursts. In the end it is the parents responsibility to control what their kids see. There are many other factors that attribute to violent behavior, people argue that the positives outweigh the negative, and violent people are attracted to violent things are only a few things as to why violent video games do not make a person violent. Violent video games attract violent people which is a correlation between the two rather than a causation of one another. There are many studies being done

Le 6 to show the many positive effects of video games, which can outweigh the negative. Personal factors are also to be considered when linking violent video games and violent behavior. Violent video games are not the causation of violent behavior.

Le 7 Work Cited "Rated T for Think First." UWIRE Text 4 Oct. 2013: 1. General OneFile. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. Craig A. Anderson, Douglas A. Gentile, and Katherine E. Buckley. Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research, and Public Policy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. "Violent video games enhance teens' vision?" Review of Optometry 15 May 2009: 6. General OneFile. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.