Customer center

We are a boutique essay service, not a mass production custom writing factory. Let us create a perfect paper for you today!

Example research essay topic: Video Games And Violence - 2,219 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

Video Games and Violence During resent years video games play an important role in development of our society, especially younger people. Many young children play video games when they have free time and nothing to do, some engage in this process even to a higher extent. Recently there is an opinion among sociologists and psychologists that video games cause violence among children. In my opinion this is a wrong assumption because violence is created inside the children themselves due to other than video games factors. Video games do not directly cause violence on young children; rather the social surroundings influence kids behavior in the greater way. Society, which includes parents, the media, the government and educators, are just looking to point the finger at someone and they found it.

Video games were first introduced in the 1970 s. By the end of that decade, they had become a preferred childhood leisure activity, and adults responded with concern about the possible ill effects of the games on children (Cesarone, 31). This is still a major concern of parents and the nation. Video games can cause physical problems but it is rare, the companies put warnings on the systems or games about these effects it might have. It is the authority figure that has to watch how long the child plays at a time so he or she does not get affected by these physical distortions. People can blame the video game industry if the child obtains some kind of physical problem from their system because the parent should be aware of what the child does and watches, it is their son or daughter not the video game industries.

An early study on the effects of video games on children found that playing video games had more positive effects on children than watching television. A conference sponsored by Atari at Harvard University in 1983 presented preliminary data which failed to identify ill effects (Cesarone, 32). The more recent research began to find connections between violent games and aggressive behavior among children. A research review done by NCTV (1990) found that nine of twelve research studies on the impact of violent video games on normal children and adolescents reported harmful effects video game playing has not been implicated as a direct cause of severe psychopathology research suggests that there is a short-term relationship between playing violent games and increased aggressive behavior in younger children (Cesarone 32). Some adults believe that some games offer benefits.

Certain children can develop a sense of proficiency that they might not otherwise achieve. The government has finally taken action seeing how a lot of parental figures are upset with how things are ran regarding the video gaming industry. The IDSA (Interactive Digital Software Association) has proposed new marketing guidelines for M-rated video game titles. The guidelines are as follows (so far): Ads for Mature-rated games may not be placed in magazines where 45 percent or more of the readers are under 17 Ads for Mature-rated games may not be placed on programs where 35 percent or more of the viewers are under 17 Paid ads for M-rated games shall not be placed on websites where 45 percent or more of the viewers are under 17 (Laprad, 1). The government issued a rating system for video games that the retail stores must abide by. They have a early childhood rating which is suitable for children three years of age and older, an everyone rating which applies to children six years and older, a teen rating which applies to people thirteen years and older, a mature rating applies to seventeen years or older and an adults only rating applies to eighteen or over.

The ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) issues these ratings to the games before they are released to the general public. The mature and adults only games cannot be sold to anybody under the specified age group or the retailer can get in trouble. If the child wants to buy the game they must have proper ID or a parent must be there to buy it for them to show it is ok with them. This is a big step in society because now parents know what kind of games their child is playing and they get involved in their decision-making process. The largest category of games, however, are first-person shooter games in which the player faces down other players, monsters or characters. Favorite games have names like Street Fighter, Vice City, Doom, Americas Army and Manhunt.

And the killing has become increasingly graphic. In the 80 s or early 90 s, shooting an opponent resulted in the collapse of that figure on the screen. Todays graphics provide gore, flying body parts, realistic writhing and screams of pain. Theres blood everywhere, one student said.

While most games used to come with a blood off default setting, todays games are generally blood on. The new games involve not only more graphic kills, but more kills. The video world is especially hostile toward women games often include rape scenes, prostitution, full nudity and disembodied body parts. In response to this increase in violence, the Entertainment Software Rating Board has come up with a system designed to keep the most violent games out of the hands of young children.

But this system is little understood by parents and often un-enforced by vendors. The most restrictive rating, AO (adults only), is for games that include graphic depictions of sex and / or violence. Most major retailers will not sell AO games, so this rating is almost never used. (Mansbridge) The question is what the simulated violence does to the player. Several recent studies offer evidence that playing violent video games increases aggressive behavior.

A Japanese study of fifth and sixth graders showed a correlation between the amounts of time spent playing video games and later physical aggression. Two other studies found a similar link between violent game playing and aggressive thoughts and behavior, even after controlling for innate temperament and exposure to violence in other sources, such as movies and television. It is the parents fault for allowing the children to purchase such games now with violence in them. If the parents dont want their kids playing such games, dont let them buy them.

As the years go on parents tend to pay less attention to their children now because work gets in the way or they have other duties to tend to. Parents do not want to blame themselves for their lack of communication with their children so they find an excuse. They will never know their children until they sit down with them and see what they read, watch, play or who they hang out with. A few months ago my 7 -year-old daughter read a book called Pajama Party, and immediately announced her plans to invite five friends over for the night. They would eat pizza and popcorn like the little girls in the book, which our daughter had identified with the characters in the story, she became absorbed in another book.

The book was Harriet the Spy (Koretlitz, 10). The book had a character in it that owned a chemistry set and plan to one day blow the world up. Within days this womans daughter announced her intention to blow up a classmates house. If the mother and father pay attention to what the child read or watched or plays then stuff like this will not happen.

Parents think that their children will never ever commit any crime or hurt anyone so they do not pay attention to their children. They leave it up to the schools, televisions and what ever else to watch and teach their children. Because of recent events in America involving school shootings, the importance of the role of parents has been discussed more frequently here and there, especially regarding how much parents can control what their children see or do. But can parents know what their childs whereabouts and actions are every minute? It would be difficult to say that they could, such as when their children are at video arcades or playing games at a friends house. Actually, arcade games are as popular as home versions (Guzman), and many children commonly spend their time at arcades.

Moreover, like a lot of mothers in the world, American mothers nowadays must also work to improve their family incomes, and have very little time to stay at home and watch their children. However, they can at least check and control what kinds of games their children buy and play at home. So if parents say that they are really concerned about protecting their children from violent games, its natural for them to ask the sales people and also look for the rating systems on the games. It is the least they can do, and is also a necessary responsibility as a parent.

This also means that they cant just blame game companies for their products if the parents dont do what they should be doing. However, as mentioned before, parents arent always around to see what their children are getting into. Another aspect of parent responsibility is to make sure whether their children are easily misled about things that are happening in their environment. They are much more impressionable than elder teenagers and adults.

Therefore, they are more likely to emulate and imitate people and things that would capture their attention. However, parents can take advantage of this approach because it means if children have a good role model, they would mimic and act in a positive way. Adequate communication such as family discussion and family activities are also some of the ways to teach them morals. If children learn enough knowledge of difference between fantasy and reality, then they would be better able to distinguish between right and wrong without being told by their parents and other good role models.

This is becoming more and more difficult, however, especially when game companies are trying to make video games seem more real. Because of new technology, many games look like films or TV, and children see the violence almost as though it is in front of them. This constant exposure to realistic violence is the final matter to be discussed. It means that children will become less and less shocked at witnessing or experiencing violence, and are thus more likely to cause it. (Guzman) The video game is going anywhere in the near future but increasing. With the future release of Microsoft's X-Box, Nintendo's Game cube and the new Playstation 2 systems. They are becoming increasingly more popular than ever.

When Nintendo came out with their first system it was geared towards children, no violent games at all. As the years went on, their next system, introduced in 1991, more adults started to play them. Werner aggress that more adults are playing video games. He even declines to put an upper limit on the players age. Youd be surprised at how many grandparents come into the stores and say, I bought this for my grandchild and I had fun playing it (Minkoff, 66) The games today are geared more towards the adults, for example most Sony Playstation games including games like Doom, Duke Nukem, Unreal Tournament which are games you just go around shooting people until someone scores enough points to win. If parents pull their head out of where ever it is and open their eyes to see what kind of stuff their children are playing, listening to, reading, etc then they would not have to worry about them killing others.

Games do not cause the children to go and shoot people but the lack of responsibility the parents show towards their children is the reason. In conclusion, it has become obvious to the public that video games are a big part of childrens lives. It has also been shown in studies that exposure to violence in video games can create aggressive behavior, and can possibly even lead to violence at home or in school. The solution to this problem is not easy, but one short-term solution is for government regulation of game sales. If the government forces retailers to keep track of which games are being sold to minors, then children wouldnt be able to purchase violent games. Because video games already have a rating system, it would only be necessary for retailers to ensure that under-age children were unable to purchase games with a rating higher than their age limit, much like the way cinemas are handled.

Bibliography: Cesarone, Bernard. Video Games and Children. Ebscohost. Emergency Librarian 22. 3 (1995): 32. Available at: web Holland, Bill.

Senators to Push for Violence Panel. Ebscohost. Billboard 112. 3 (2000): 64. 13 Available at: web Korelitz, Jean Hand. How Can We Ever Know Our Kids? Ebscohost. Newsweek 06 March 2000: 10 - 12.

Available at: web Laprad, David. IDSA to Produce New Marketing Guidelines for M-Rated Titles? Available at: web Minkoff, Jerry. The Battle of the Bits.

Ebscohost. Discount Merchandiser 34. 1 (1994): 66 - 68. Available at: web Herzfeld, Noreen. Video Shootout.

Christian Century, 5 / 4 / 2004, Vol. 121, Issue 9. Mansbridge, Peter. The Bloody Bad Games. From Ontario Statesman, issue April 2003. Guzman, Yang. Controversies over the effects of video games on childrens behavior.

From Wired Magazine, issue June, 2002.


Free research essays on topics related to: aggressive behavior, playing video games, exposure to violence, violent video games, cause violence

Research essay sample on Video Games And Violence

Writing service prices per page

  • $18.85 - in 14 days
  • $19.95 - in 3 days
  • $23.95 - within 48 hours
  • $26.95 - within 24 hours
  • $29.95 - within 12 hours
  • $34.95 - within 6 hours
  • $39.95 - within 3 hours
  • Calculate total price

Our guarantee

  • 100% money back guarantee
  • plagiarism-free authentic works
  • completely confidential service
  • timely revisions until completely satisfied
  • 24/7 customer support
  • payments protected by PayPal

Secure payment

With EssayChief you get

  • Strict plagiarism detection regulations
  • 300+ words per page
  • Times New Roman font 12 pts, double-spaced
  • FREE abstract, outline, bibliography
  • Money back guarantee for missed deadline
  • Round-the-clock customer support
  • Complete anonymity of all our clients
  • Custom essays
  • Writing service

EssayChief can handle your

  • essays, term papers
  • book and movie reports
  • Power Point presentations
  • annotated bibliographies
  • theses, dissertations
  • exam preparations
  • editing and proofreading of your texts
  • academic ghostwriting of any kind

Free essay samples

Browse essays by topic:

Stay with EssayChief! We offer 10% discount to all our return customers. Once you place your order you will receive an email with the password. You can use this password for unlimited period and you can share it with your friends!

Academic ghostwriting

About us

© 2002-2024 EssayChief.com