Position paper #12: Do video games encourage violent behavior - Essay Example

Video games and violent behavior Do video games encourage violent behavior? Yes. This has been confirmed by many different researches which have carried out experiments and other forms of data collection on children and teenagers who frequently and mildly indulge in violent video games. All the results indicate that the level of aggression among the children and teenagers who frequently indulge in violent video games has been on the increase and continues to worsen with more involvement in these video games.

Data reveals that these children tend to increase their rate of slapping, beating or even kicking other children whether it is in classrooms or in the play grounds. These children continue finding more and more styles to engage in violent behavior which they get from the different violent video games they watch. They also have a hard time to solve any difficulties with the others without engaging in aggressive behavior. The cognition of these children tends to be focused on violence and how to deal with every situation using violence.

They start viewing the world in a hostile manner and tend to even enjoy scenarios where violence is being used to handle the issues at hand. They get a positive reaction emotional and physical from any form of aggression and this rings the warning bells about the kind of child they will grow up to be (Alexander & Hanson 99). The children who spend more hours playing the violent video games according to the editor of The Telegraph (2012) are the most highly affected and hence become the most aggressive of them all.

They may not understand that they are aggressive or connect the aggression with the videos they play but this is the reality of the situation. Parents should not try ignoring the issue from the beginning thinking the children will be able to differentiate reality and virtual games. The more they engage in the games, the more blurred the line between the two become and soon it completely disappears. Children who live in aggressive-prone homes or neighborhoods are the worse affected. It takes only a few of these violent games to trigger their aggression tendencies which they might have bottled up in the past.

These aggression tendencies are long term and hence their effects long lasting. There is fear that parents are raising a future aggressive generation. The worse thing is that the media companies involved in production of these games are aware of their negative effects and this is the reason they spend much of their money on trying to convince the people otherwise. These violent games which are addictive lead to the children and teenagers seeking more of them and the latest editions and new games in the market.

It is a lucrative market which brings in a lot of cash and hence they cannot want to lose all that by admitting to the public about these effects. This is the reason they invest a lot in covering it all up (Alexander & Hanson 102). Work CitedAlexander, Alison & Jarice Hanson. Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Media and Society. New York: McGraw-Hill Education, 2014. Print. The Editor. Violent video games make teenagers more aggressive, study finds. The Telegraph, October 8th, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.

uk/technology/video-games/9593188/Violent-video-games- make-teenagers-more-aggressive-study-finds.html