Limiting Violent Games for Kids

There are many kinds of different video games today that are played daily, mostly the ones that include graphic violence and gore. Due to advanced technology and graphics, game developers are able to make video games a little too real. Because of these developments, game ratings are set for each specific audience. But these ratings are recklessly ignored by the young audience due to their desire for the graphics in the game. Many children today are becoming more attached to video games due to intense graphic and animation. By playing these games, they soon develop different behaviors. Being a victim myself, I too have experienced change in my behavior towards others by playing violent video games.

Through my research, I managed to find various proof of how violent video games affect children's behaviors. An article by Jean M. Twenge (2012) explains how violence in video games can develop aggressive behavior to children. She states in her article that "these studies find that playing violent video games does, indeed, cause aggression." (paragraph 6) Another article by Anne Harding (2008) also mentions the same problem but her research includes a much bigger group which makes her article legitimate. She states in her article that "in every group, children who were exposed to more video game violence did become more aggressive overtime than their peers who had less exposure." (paragraph 9) These articles provide recent study of aggressive behavior of kids from playing violent video games.

With the information I gathered related to gaming behavior, I suggest that people should be more observant of their child's behavior when they're playing these violent video games. Parents should be wary of what they let their kids play and make sure that their children don't spend too much time on their video games. I'm not saying we should ban violent video games for children, but to keep an eye out for any suspicious activities that can develop in a child after playing these types of video games.

Resources:

Harding, Anne. (2008, November 3).Violent video games linked to child aggression. CNN
             Health. Retrieved from <http://articles.cnn.com/2008-11-03/health/healthmag.violent.video.kids_1_violent-video-video-games-game-genres?_s=PM:HEALTH>

Twenge, Jean M. ( 2012, December 21).Yes, violent video games do cause aggression.

Psychology Today. Retrieved from: <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-changing-culture/201212/yes-violent-video-games-do-cause-aggression>