Module Code (FC503)
Class/Group: (Group X)
Module Title (Skills for Study 3)
Assessment Title ()
Assignment Title (Your chosen full title)
Tutor Name: David Bruce
Student ID Number: (200937726)
Date of Submission: (26th July, 2013)
Word count of your essay (1,265)

Internet is a fast developing technology and the popularity of video gaming had been growing in recent years as well. Many people or institutions therefore investigate the negative impacts of video gaming. Since video games often include violence or aggressive language, people often think that video games lead to violent crime such as robbing, bullying and so on. However, Video games do not have direct impact on teenagers’ criminal behaviour because it is not proven that it leads to any criminal activities. This essay will examine the relationship between video games and teenagers’ aggressive behaviour and argue that video games do not assist to any criminal activities. Furthermore, video games also influence teenagers in a positive way.
In recent years, many researchers found that teenagers tent to be more violent in behaviour after playing video games which might lead to crime for instance. Bösche (2010) states that video games lead to both aggressive behaviours and positive cognitions simultaneously.
One of the positive effects of video games is securing players' attention and it can be implemented in education. Ferguson (2010) suggests that the violence and excitement of video games can draw players' attention easily, therefore video games can be used as a medium for spreading positive information. For example, educational tasks can be included in a first-person shooter game which appears to be a life saving mission. Besides conveying the importance of life, practical knowledge can also be spread to gamers.
Moreover, educational games can help teenagers improve their academic results. According to Evans et al. (2013), educational games require players to use mathematical knowledge to encounter problems in order to get victory. It enhances students' curiosity of knowledge because teenagers love to win a game. Researchers found that educational video games increased students' mathematical skills significantly compared to normal students who learn only from text books. This shows that video games can also be effective to help students improve their academic skills and problem solving skills and get a better grade in school.
It is evident that video games does not lead to criminal activities because these two variables appears to be a coincidence but not cause and effect. According to Childstats.gov (2008), the sales of video games from 1996 to 2006 increased rapidly while youth crime rate decreased in a similar scale. Despite it does not prove that video games assisted on decreasing crime rate because it could be a coincidence as well. However, it does proved that video games do not assist on increasing crime rate or influencing criminal activities.
Furthermore, there are many factors lead to aggressive behaviours, it is not appropriate to make video games bear the full responsibility. According to Willoughby, Adachi, and Good (2012), factors assist to teenage violence include parental education, gender, sport involvement, academic performance, school culture, friendship quality and so on. This shows that teenagers are influenced by uncertain amount of factors affecting their behaviours, it is very hard for researchers to indentify the actual cause of each teenage violence cases. Therefore, it is certainly unfair to only focus on one particular factor.
It is also found that prosocial video games can help aggression teenagers lower their aggravated feelings. According to Saleem et al. (2012), researchers found that aggression individuals tent to be less violent after playing prosocial video games. This obviously shows that some particular video games can reduce the level of aggravated feelings rather than increasing the level of violence. It certainly argues that video games lead to aggressive behaviours and thus commit crime.
The above claim that there are no direct links between video games and crime is however not shared by everyone. According to Willoughby, Adachi, and Good (2012), video games lead to aggression and crime has became a social hypothesis, which assumed that video games influence aggressive behaviour, and teenager with aggression problem would play more violent video games, and a vicious spiral will then occurred. Hence, this hypothesis influenced many more people because there are too many people believed that it is true.
However, this is totally not the case because this hypothesis is lack of experimental research support, therefore it is just a claim without prove. Willoughby et al. (2012) argued that experiments only focused on unidirectional effect rather than bidirectional effects, which means it is proven that video games lead to aggression in a certain extent, but it is not proven that aggressive teenagers would play more video games and thus lead to criminal activities. Therefore, this shows that further investigation on bidirectional effects is needed in order to prove this vicious spiral does exist.
Another hypothesis led to a social misconception is that video games are harmful in any circumstances. Willoughby et al. (2012) stated that experiments always focused on whether video games lead to violence behaviour but ignored the frequency of game play. This shows that a misconception occurred because people neglected that how much time spending on playing video games is actually important.
Frequency of game play can make a big difference to determine whether video games are harmful. According to Willoughby et al. (2012), an experiment found that video games could be more harmful as the frequency of game play increases, even if it is a non-violent video game. However, teenagers who played less often tent to have significantly less aggressive index. This shows that the less time spent on video games the less harmful they are. Therefore, if teenagers have good time management on playing video games, it does not lead to aggressive behaviours.
One of the biggest misconceptions of all time is that video games reduce social involvement. It has been argued that gamers are often lack of communication skills because they usually stay in their room playing video games alone. That leads to less opportunity to communicate with people and thus influence to poor communication skills and less self-esteem. According to Barnett & Coulson (2010), gamers are often sitting in a room alone and avoid any social involvement. Therefore, many people are concerned that teenagers nowadays do not communicate with one another than decades ago in the previous generation.
Although this view seemed to be convincing, it might be only true for the last decade but not so true in recent years. This is due to the increasing popularity of internet and social network. According to Barnett & Coulson (2010), many of the massively multiplayer online games nowadays encourage communication in between team mates to enhance team working in order to win the game. Since tactics and team works are discussed among adolescents, it enhance their communication skills because they are not just chatting but discussing ways to achieve goals. For example, video games like role playing games and first person shooter games require a lot of team work, being co-operative with team mates is very important. This help teenagers to enhance problem solving skills, communication skills and leadership skills. Therefore video games do not reduce social involvement but encourage communication instead.
Through this detailed analysis, it is logical to conclude that video games do not assist to any teenage criminal activities because certain video games can help lowering the level of aggravating feelings, enhance social involvement, secure players' attention and enhance academic skills. It is also proven that teenage crime rate decreased while the sales of video games increased but it is not proven that aggressive individuals would play video games more frequently and would lead to any crime. Moreover, there are many different factors affecting teenagers' violent behaviour. Base on the above reason, further investigation is needed to prevent teenage crime and to prevent video games affect adolescents negatively.

Bibliography
Barnett, J., & Coulson, M. (2010). Virtually real: A psychological perspective on massively multiplayer online games. Review of General Psychology, 14, pp.167–179.
Bösche W., (2010). Violent Video Games Prime Both Aggressive and Positive Cognitions. . 22 (e.g. 2)
Childstats.gov. (2008). America’s children: Key national indicators of well-being, 2007. Retrieved from: http://www.childstats.gov/
Evans, M., Norton, A., Chang, M., Deater-Deckard, K. and Balci, O. (2013). Youth and Video Games. Zeitschrift fur Psychologie, 22 pp. 98-106.
Ferguson C. J., (2010). Blazing Angels or Resident Evil? Can Violent Video Games Be a Force for Good?. Review of General Psychology. 14 (2), pp.68-81
Saleem, M., Anderson, C. and Gentile, D. (2012). Effects of Prosocial, Neutral, and Violent Video Games on College Students’ Affect. AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, 38 pp. 263–271.
Willoughby T., Adachi P. J. C., and Good M., (2012). A Longitudinal Study of the Association Between Violent Video Game Play and Aggression Among Adolescents. Developmental Psychology. 47 (4), pp.1044-1057