Unkknownn
10/27/14
The Real Reason

The Real Reason
Video Game Violence has been a controversial topic for many years, Beginning with the simple, classic games like Pac-Man, Centipede and Street Fighter, And continuing today with the more modern games like the Grand Theft Auto series and the Call of Duty series. Adults naturally want to blame something or someone when the violent situations happens. Many factor can be attributed to why a teen or child has committed a crime and people seem to want to steer the focus on video games. There are a lot more factors that play into that like bullying, lifestyle, or the environment they live in. Video games play a small part in the development of child behavior. Creators of video games and stores have put age limits on who can buy their products to keep children away from the games that contains drugs, sex, and violence. This method is the most effective way to help prevent minor from seeing adult content at a young age. Companies like Microsoft and Sony have a paternal control system on their consoles that will not let you play certain type of games without a password. Many moves have been made to limit the underage use of adult video games.
There is violence everywhere in life there is nothing you can link a school shooting, or rape etc. to a video game. There is not one video game that promotes school shootings or rape. The education system needs to educate the student about what this world is because it is not all sunshine and rainbows. There is ugly and kids need to be taught what’s happening in the world. Most cases of a school shooting is bullying, bombings religion or political, rape is usually someone with a medical problem. Picking up a controller and slicing up some zombies after a long stressful day at school is not going to set you on a killing spree because you died at level 9. There are major parts that are ignored because it would be too difficult to fix. If people focus more on child control, community stability, and education, it would benefit more than changing a video game that is played 13.2 hours out of 168 hours a week (Anderson, 2001 ).
Were adults get mixed up about video games and violence is in the definition and how they see it. “Studies show that when children and young adults play violent video games their aggressive behavior increases. 59% of fourth grade girls and 73% of fourth grade boys say that the majority of their favorite video games are violent” (Anderson, 2001). Violence doesn’t have a specific definition that is set to tell anyone what exactly is violence. Violence is the unlawful exercise of physical force or intimidation by the exhibition of such force. Most kids love superheroes, there room is filled with Superman, Batman, and Ironman etc. They beg their parents for the new batman game that is filled with beating up bad guys and saving the world or a girl, is this labeled as violence? This has nothing to do with a child going on a killing spree at school because students are picking on him. Games with real violence are games like the GTA series. This specific type of game includes sex, drugs, money and violence. In order to purchase a game with explicit content the age limit is 18 and the child’s parent age have to be present in the purchase. Many games have parental control that allows user to control and change the game to their liking. Some examples Of this control would be able to enable or disable certain things within the game like blood, music, and language. With these types of controls, the graphic content is controlled. In fact, a recent study showed that “Children who spent more time playing video games were more active overall and playing was not at the expense of other activities. No relationship between video game play and aggressive behavior was found. Children who played video games more often were found to have a significantly higher IQ” (Van Schie, E. & Wiegman). On April 26, 2002, a school massacre happened in Erfurt Germany. A former 19-year-old student fired into the heads of teachers, killing 13 of them. He also killed 2 students, a secretary, and a policeman. It was later learned that the student had been planning this event for over a year. He was attending intense target practicing at Erfurt combat gun club. The games he played were Doom, Ninja, and Counterstrike. These games do have violence in them blood, killing, and weapons. Doom is a scary game based on the comic, in which the characters are stuck on a ship that gets invaded by monsters. Ninja is another game based on a comic and the hero attempts to protect the city from villains and monsters. The last game Counterstrike, is an online game that you can play with and against other players around the world. It is a war based game that’s main objective is to beat the opponent, Whether you choose to kill or capture the enemy depends objectives it all depends on what game mode was selected. None of these games promote school shootings or increase a person’s knowledge of how combat works. Parents need to take more control in their kids life’s because if they were visible in their life it would affect dramatic changes. Something as small as eating dinner with your child can help sculpt his behavior. “Children who together as a “family are more likely to understand, acknowledge, and follow the boundaries and expectations set by their parents. A decrease in high-risk behaviors is related to the amount of time spent with family” (J. Lyttle and E. Baugh, 2011). Any way to can get into your child’s life will benefit them on how they grow up. There should be a structure set in the home that the kids have to abide by so they know right from wrong. Control in the house is a big key. A set of limits or rules need to be emplaced and as they get older and more knowledgeable of life some rules and be dropped or added in order to create a “sense of security and togetherness. “The sense of security and togetherness provided by family meals helps nurture children into healthy, well-rounded adults. Which also has a positive impact on children's values, motivation, personal identity, and self-esteem” (J. Lyttle and E. Baugh, 2011). It isn’t parents alone who can affect change. The community has an influence as well Parents need to be able to rely on the community they live in to play a part in developing children. Places like the schools, and afterschool programs need to be more reliable and careful on how they treat the kids and what goes on at their facility. A lot of bullying happens at school and kids have a hard time attending school because they are afraid of some of the students at school. “Bully/victim problems among six classes of 8–9 year-old and six classes of 11–12 year-old children, attending three middle schools, were investigated by means of Olweus's self-report Bullying Inventory. About 21 per cent of the children reported being bullied” (Boulton, Michael J). This needs to be the main source that should be focused on to help limit school shootings or any crime for that matter. Parents and schools need to be more aware of this and take action. Schools have to be able to more reliable to take care of the students and are stopping the behavior before it escalades and let the parents of who were involved what happen. Parents need to be in there kids life more to witness how the child reacts to school or in front of other children, and do what’s necessary to help the child out in any situation that they get into. Sitting with the child and asking about how school was will get them to open up on what’s going on. Children are getting exposed to things in life earlier than in the past, and that will shape them on how life is, and how they should act because that’s all they know. If you want behaviors to change people have to target the right things to attack and change. Video games should not be a main target but could be used to help look at the bigger picture. That is that community, environment, and family control will drastically change the result in the behavior in kids and limit the crimes that are committed by the youth. Children that are in bad situations have a concrete belief that the way they are living is the best and only way to live life. If a child is growing up in a bad environment that provides them examples of violence, fear, depression, drugs, etc, it will have a major impact on how they develop. If there is usually. that’s how they are growing up and there is usually no structure in there house hold so they are accustomed to acting the way they do. Schools do not do much with a child that has developed disciplinary issues rather than just dumping him or her to a more structured physical school that is certified to be more hands on with a child. The kids in these type of situation are not shown but told what’s going to happen to them. This could improve how they act if parents or guardians showed educated there kid on behavior. A lot of kids see how their parents act and how there community is living and don’t really know another way on how to live.
If you want behaviors to change people have to target the right things to attack and change. Video games should not be a main target but could be used to help look at the bigger picture. That is that community, environment, and family control will drastically change the result in the behavior in kids and limit the crimes that are committed by the youth.

Reference Page
Anderson, C. A. (2001, October 22). The impact of violent video games. Iowa State University: The impact of entertainment media and violence on children and families. Accessed at: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/families/media/program.anderson.html
A. Paredes and K. Shelnutt, Raising Healthy Children: The Importance of Family Meals (FCS8925), Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences (06/2010).
Boulton, Michael J. "BULLY/VICTIM PROBLEMS AMONG MIDDLE SCHOOL CHILDREN." - BOULTON. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
J. Lyttle and E. Baugh, The Importance of Family Dinners (FCS2286), Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences (Archived).
"What Is the Average Amount of Time per Week American Children Play Video Games?" Education.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Nov. 2014.
Van Schie, E. & Wiegman, O. (1997). Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Vol. 13. Children and Videogames: Leisure Activities, Social Integration, and Social Performance, 1175-1194.