Essay Video Games Do Not Cause School Violence

Another case who was perpetrated by the influence of the media was, the mass shooting at the screening of the Batman movie in Colorado in July, 2012 with a result of twelve dead and fifty nine injured people, “James Eagan Holmes as he identifies himself as the JOKER all this has reignited debates in the psychiatric community about media violence and its effects on human behavior”. (Blair, J. 2014 p.39). Adam Lanza, 20 years young, shy, antisocial and a fan of ultra-violent video games, went to his mother's room on Friday morning and killed four bullets as she slept. Then he loaded a semiautomatic rifle, three pistols and several magazines, and went to primary school, where he killed 20 children six and seven years and six adults, before taking his own life when he was surrounded by police, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012. During recent years, the video game industry has boomed, as video games of all kinds have become very popular among young people. Several recent studies suggest that playing violent video games leads to both short-term and long-term increases in aggression-related outcomes for game players, for example, Anderson and Dill (2000) found a correlation between violent video game play and several indices of aggression, including delinquency and self-reported aggressive

Mass shootings plague the world to this day, claiming hundreds of lives in the deadly process. Some of the more infamous occurrences include the Columbine High School, Dawson College, and Sandy Hook shootings. Regardless of the devastation they each caused, a clear distinction lies between these and the dastardly crime claiming almost a hundred lives: Anders Breivik’s mass murders in Norway. For each instance mentioned, prosecutors, defenders, or even the murderer attempt to blame video games as the motivation to kill, particularly stating games such as DOOM, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Grand Theft Auto. Before delving into their motivation, the Connecticut tragedy must first be understood.

At Umpqua Community College, the causes of the shooting revolved around Christopher Harper-Mercer and his mother Laurel. Harper-Mercer was also diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (a type of autism spectrum disorder), which he had many struggles with when he was a child. His mother did not do anything to treat him for it because she learned how to cope with her own autism spectrum disorder. Because Harper-Mercer had Asperger’s, he did not communicate with people very often, except for when he was talking about guns. He had an interest in guns, and his mother knew about this because “she kept numerous firearms in her home and expressed pride in her knowledge about them, as well as in her son’s expertise on the subject” (Healy).

Sternheimer begins with introducing us to a “first person shooter” game called “Doom”(214). With this multi-billion dollar game industry rising, she points out that there are three school shooting cases that the press emphasizes the shooters being “video-game experts” (215) to the game Doom, only making the “critics’ predictions” (214) about video games come true. Sternheimer begins by explaining how video game violence has become “folk devils” (214). This term allows media and politicians to “channel the blame and fear to remedy what many believe to be a growing problem” (214). Politicians are one of the main factors in targeting video games as the leading cause of violent behavior in teens, according to Sternheimer.

Romeo Vitelli, Ph.D., a psychologist in private practice in Toronto, Canada, cites “A new research study published in the journal Psychology of Media Culture takes a comprehensive look at different risk factors of violence, including playing video games. Whitney de Camp of Western Michigan University used data taken from the 2008 Delaware School Survey to assess violence risk in 6567 Grade Eight children. Students were asked about violent and pre-violent behaviour, i.e., “hit someone with the intention of hurting them,” “take some kind of weapon to school or to a school event,” and “carry a gun when you’re not in school.” “According to the study results, playing violent video games didn 't appear to be related to any of the violent behaviours that the researchers examined. For both males and females, the two factors most successful in predicting risk of hitting someone in the previous year were seeing or hearing violence at home and being high in sensation-seeking.”

Removal of the violence in video games is also another possible solution for school shootings. The two teenage shooters involved in the 1999 Columbine High School shooting are said to have been involved with playing violent video games, which is stated in the article “Violent Video Games - ProCon.org.” People think that since there are violent acts in these video games, the children that play them will act out on them and try to recreate them. Researchers at the University of Missouri conducted a study to see how a group a people’s brains were affected by violent and nonviolent video games. After twenty-five minutes of playing these games the researchers showed the group of people different images.

Violent video games have been blamed for everything from bullying to school shootings. Critics of these video games believe they cause people to commit violent acts in real life. These critics, mainly comprised of parents and other responsible adults, don’t agree with what the video games portray. Others say the video games cause less violence and are an outlet for anger and stress. Although violent video games have violent actions in them, teenagers should be able to play violent video games because there isn’t enough evidence to prove they make teens more aggressive, it could prevent violence, and violent video games are a fun and relaxing way to relieve stress and anger.

Video games education is a method of teaching by using electronic games as the learning material. Teenagers from fifteen to eighteen, who have been called as “K-20 students” [1] or Net Generation since mid-1990s, playing video games as pastime leisure and expose to digital multimedia more often compare to the older generation. The issues of implementing video games education has been the subject of debate within education and sociology communities due to its appeal to contemporary students. Discussion among sociology scholars focus on the aggressive behaviour and hostility of youngsters who are involved in a video game in a great length of time and a specific type of games [2]. However, some academics argue that video game becomes an interactive learning platform of social education, especially with players verses players (PVP) games.

Because OR firstly, video games improve a child's ability to follow instructions, especially because many games entail completion of tasks (Gentile et al, 2009). Besides, children improve their problem-solving capabilities because these games have tasks that require quick thinking and use of sound strategies to move from one level or quest to another. Lastly, gamers improve their multitasking capabilities, because many gamers have to juggle different patterns and connect them at the same time to complete tasks (Ryan et al, 2006). Despite these advantages, the weight of violent video games negative effects is alarming, especially because of its long-term effects such mental ill health and

The cause of violent action in the real world are not caused by violent video games. Violent video games have been around since 1976. There was a rating system put into place to let people know what was in the game they were buying. There is research and studies that prove violent video games have nothing to do with crimes all around the world. Even though there are people and politicians who believe that violent video games lead to violent behavior,the research and studies show that that is not the

Some researches admit that violent games may cause adolescents to become tremendous. Studies showed that video games increase psychological awakening, it could also increase aggressive behavior, emotions and thoughts and finally let teenagers lose the sense of helping others. All these effects will be carried by aggressive young people. It’s true that video games are violent, but aggressive adolescents are more likely to be more attracted to it. Some games reward players for doing violent actions, so this will affect them negatively, letting them think that violence is normal.

Bad Effects of Violent Video Games: Most of the bad effects of video games because of their violence they contain. Thus children who play more violent and dangerous video games are more likely to have increased of aggressive thoughts, behavior, feelings and decreased in prosocial helping. The effect of violence video games in children is worsened by the games’ interactive nature. For the repeated cases of violence in video games, the child is in control of the violence and experiences in his own eye by killing, kicking, stabbing and shooting in games. Too much playing of violent video game will make the kid socially isolated.

Video games lower violent behavior, help relieve stress, and do not cause social problems. Teens play video games to take their stress out instead of causing real violence. Kids acting violently towards others, they will go home and they will take their action and frustration out on the type of games they are playing. Also, while teens play online, they build up social abilities, make new friends, and connect with other kids from around the world. Parents and/or guardians always say “stop looking at that screen and stop playing video games.

Evidence shows that several of the school shootings were done by young people that played violent video games. Some of these were The Columbine shooters, Sandy Hook school shooting and the Virginia Tech shooting. Not letting young people play violent video games may stop young people from being

A recent content analysis by the research organization Children Now shows that a majority of video games include violence and about half of the violent incidents would result in serious injuries or death in the "real" world. Claim1 Research involving British primary schoolchildren found that the length of time young people spend playing games, rather than their content, could have an effect on their behavior or school performance. But it concluded that fears that generations of young people are growing up with their development impaired by exposure to violent video games are no more likely to be borne out than previous “moral panics” over television and other media. Playing one-player games is not always negative if you do it moderately.