The Impact of Video Games on Children or is video games have impact on children - Essay Example

For example, a national conversation ensued regarding what relationship video games had to the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 when two students massacred 13 and wounded 23 before committing suicide. Though many motivations were probably involved, it is not practically feasible to identify exactly what provoked these teenagers to gun down their schoolmates and teachers but violent video games were and continue to be mentioned as a contributing factor. These two students had frequently played Doom, a bloody and brutal firearms game which is used by the U.S. military to instruct the armed forces how to kill with more effectiveness.

To what extent this particular video game influenced the actions of these two high school students has been debated since this tragic incident. The entertainment medium, it is generally accepted, is an enormously influential dynamic in everyone’s lives. “What behaviors children and adults consider appropriate comes, in part, from the lessons we learn from television and the movies” (Huesmann & Miller, 1994). It is logical to expect video games, especially those that depict violence, will have similar and perhaps a more extensive effect on violent behavior.

Currently, few studies exist which have comprehensively examines the connection between violent video games and violent actions by children. As video games are increasingly becoming more explicit and brutal as well as more widespread, additional research is needed concerning the effects on the easily influenced minds of the children who play them and a clearer explanation to parents of the risks associated with these violent games. Not everyone agrees that video games lead to violent behavior.

For example, according to James Potter, the Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner shows alone exhibited more instances of explicit violence than kid’s witness today during an afternoon of playing video games. Watching violent acts, particularly those in