Should violent video games be banned or regulated - Essay Example

This paper tends to discuss that violent video games should be banned since they create a negative impact upon the minds of the players, especially when they are at the tender age of adolescence (thesis). Nearly every teenager knows the names of some of the most violent video games like Mortal Combat, Resident Evil, Marvel vs. Capcom, Doom, Manhunt, Dead Rising, Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto, and the list continues. All of these games require the player to kill, shoot, slash, and stab their enemy using bombs, swords, and chainsaw.

They have to kill the police officers to get to the target, hit the pedestrians, split the opponent using chainsaws, and what not. Preteens and teens want to play these games more than non-violent ones, and then, they apply it in their real lives because they are not capable of differentiating the gaming world from the real world. Last decade has shown an increase in violence rate among children in the United States, and studies show that children are increasingly being treated for anger management thanks to the growing use of video games.

Children tend to have less-developed ability of decision-making or critical thinking, and so, they cannot realize what is wrong with what they are viewing. Thus, their minds learn or absorb every act they see. The reason is that violent video games succeed in getting the person involved in the character he is playing, so much so that he starts playing that character in the real life. For example, females are normally portrayed as weaker and powerless characters in video games. When children watch this, they apply it real life because they would have learnt to disrespect women.

This is only an example. There are thousands of different facets of violence and aggression that the players learn from violent video games. The tragedy is that the effect doubles in strength when the player is at the tender age of adolescence. Previous generations used to play doctors, police, thieves, chefs, and the oomph generated by the flight of the imagination would get used up in playing the game physically. But with video games, that energy comes out in the form of frustration, aggression, and violence.

Smith, Lachlan and Tamborini suggest that mature games are more violent that those rated for general audience, and feature child perpetrators with frequent gun violence. When a child watches such violent acts and plays the character using his hands and mind, the energy generated by the flight of the imagination keeps the physical responses from getting expressed. So, when this energy gets its chance, it gets expressed in the real life. This is why children who watch violent video games are violent in their nature too.

For example, parents do not know why their child, who plays Resident Evil on his PlayStation 3, is becoming violent day by day; beats his younger siblings; remains isolated most of the time; and, has complaints coming from his school that he bullies his class fellows. A check on his routine activities will show that the credit goes to video games if he plays some. All of these negative impacts make one claim that violent video games should be banned. Researchers like Bartholow and Anderson have found that teenagers who play violent video games have higher heart rate, get emotionally aroused easily, and are more aggressive verbally and physically than those who play non-violent games.

Thus, the nature of video games played has an adverse