Posted: March 23rd, 2023

How video games influence children to be aggressive

How video games influence children to be aggressive

Excessive playing of video games among children has been a key concern among many. Several types of researches have been conducted to shed light on the impact of video games on children’s behavior. It is estimated that girls spend close to an hour and boys spend more than two hours daily, playing these games. Video games lead to aggressive and violent behavior among children. A research conducted by a group of researchers from Dartmouth University among children aged between 9 to 19 years, revealed that children who play video games are more aggressive.

Playing video games promotes violent behavior among both sexes. Although boys spend more time watching video games, the consequences of watching video games are similar to both sexes.  Teens watch these videos more compared to other children. The video games business has gained more popularity and it has grown to be a multimillion-dollar business.

Video games promote aggressive behavior. Some video games have educational content. However, most of them are characterized by violent activities such as the killing of people and animals, violence against women, the use of vulgar language and abuse of drugs and alcohol. Since the kid’s brain is developing. The kids tend to learn these behaviors and try them out in real-life situations.

The World Health Organization outlines the excessive playing of video games as one symptom of people with a mental disorder. This shows that excessive watching of these games affects the brain. According to the National Center for Health Research, playing video games brings about feelings and thoughts of violence. They reduce empathy and heighten aggressiveness.

The characters in these video games possess aggressive behaviors such as the lack of respect for the authority and the law. They use obscene gestures and promote gender and racial stereotypes. It’s difficult for kids to differentiate virtual reality from the real world. They, therefore, take these movies as the gospel truth and think of these characters as heroes. This leads them to adapt to these aggressive behaviors.

Playing video games promotes aggressive behaviors. However, there are different tactics that parents can adapt to limit children from excessively playing these games. First, they should check the appropriateness of the game. Secondly, they should set a time limit in which children should play these games. They should also get engaged to know the experience and the content in these games. Lastly, they should encourage children to engage in more physical activities such as exercising.

References

Funk, J. B., Buchman, D. D., Jenks, J., & Bechtoldt, H. (2003). Playing violent video games, desensitization, and moral evaluation in children. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24(4), 413-436.

Anderson, C. A., & Warburton, W. A. (2012). The impact of violent video games: An overview. Growing up fast and furious: Reviewing the impacts of violent and sexualized media on children, 56-84.

Chuang, T. Y., & Chen, W. F. (2007, March). Effect of computer-based video games on children: An experimental study. In 2007 First IEEE International Workshop on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning (DIGITEL’07) (pp. 114-118). IEEE.