Violent video games and their effects on children - Essay Example

Video games rival other films in terms of original scores, detailed artwork, directors, producers, and story lines (Collier et al 107). This is evident as more movies are based on video games, just as games have long been based on movies (Collier et al 107). There has also been a change of demographics of gamers. For example, there has been a rise of more adults between 18 to 49 years play video games as compared to adolescents (Collier et al 107). This has led to increased popularity of the games.

As a result, there has been the inclusion of more scenes that are violent, nude, and drug use. This has also led to change of orientation of these games with more focus on mature gamers. This in turn, has led to rise of popularity and availability of mature games to children especially through internet retailers. The increased availability of video games has led to concern over their effects on children. A reflection on violent video games in children helps in gaining insight on their effect on children.

Video games lead to aggression and hostility in children. Playing violent video games has been significantly associated with aggressive behaviors (Boyce, Schanding, Burridge and Keller-Margulis 31). The result of analysis carried out suggested that violent videogames are significantly correlated with an increase in aggressive behavior and a decrease in empathy and social behavior in children (Boyce et al 31). The effects were shown to be both short term and long-term. The effects arise due to physiological arousal and hostility that occurs after playing the videogame.

Most the content in the videogames is responsible for the rise of negative behavior. For example, the arousal may occur due to the amount of blood or violence in the videogame. These may significantly influence the aggressive behavior. Another research showed that adolescents that engage in more mature rated games were more likely to