The Violence of Video Games on Children - Essay Example

Violent video games can have a serious negative effect on children, by giving them aggressive thoughts and actions. Aggressive acts are “acts that make a person more likely to commit a dangerous or harmful act” (McCormick, 2001, 279). Video games make some children aggressive in all of their behavior. Children who like to play video games sometimes try to imitate those things in real life. Video games make children become lost in the game and can be very addictive. In addition, video games make children scared because they have challenges with opponents in the game.

Children who play video games may also experience emotional imbalance or bad dreams when they go to sleep. Because of the use of video games children “behave more aggressively” with their siblings and friends (Whitaker, 2009). When a child plays video games that have aggressive behavior, they will want to repeat that behavior with their siblings or friends. Children typically apply what they learn from violent video games to real life. Violent games reinforce bad behavior in children and can negatively affect the friendly relationship between siblings.

In addition, children can also lack of a sense of their feelings. Children become violent with their siblings or friends because they cannot control themselves and their feelings of anger. Children who cannot get along with their friends without using violence think that they can always get what they want. Also, they feel glad when they make someone cry. Also, sometimes when they can’t win they will take it out on their siblings or friends. Children who play violent video games can thus become very antisocial because they don’t know how to get along with their peers.

Another side effect of violent video games is that children may become less obedient to their parents and teachers. They may think they are smarter than those people and lie to them if they think they can get away with it. Children often need to stay with their parents and siblings so they can talk about real life issues, but video games can distract their attention. This negative behavior can make children stubborn. In addition, violent video games cause children to miss out on valuable lessons from their parents and teachers.

These children often don’t follow school rules or respect the teachers. Once this happens, it is only a matter of time before these children suffer from poor grades due to their decreased focus on studying. Some of these same children will even go to school with having enough sleep and so they will be very tired. Video games can also destroy a child’s personality because it will lead them to not do homework. Some children can forget to do homework because they are so busy playing video games.

Students can also lose interest in other activities. Video games prevent them from exercising because that time is spent playing video games instead. These children don’t read anymore because they have found something that is much more exciting than reading. Therefore, their reading ability begins to suffer. These children also cannot go to play football outside with their friends because they are too busy enjoying time by themselves when they play video games. Furthermore, some children have drawing talent, yet when they ultimately get into video games