Video Game Violence

Some people say that kids are attracted to video games not so much by the violence, but because the games present puzzles or problems to solve (Sherry 1). If this is true, then why in a 1998 survey “80% of the video games preferred by young people contain violent or aggressive content; of these, 21% depict violence a

. . .
1% of teens report that their parents have ever prevented them from buying games due to their ratings. “In a “sting” performed by the Attorney General’s staff: their study found that 85% of the children, aged 13 to 16, that were sent out to purchase “Mature” rated video games were able to do so” (FTC report qtd. Therefore older children should be allowed to play video games that contain violence. In some instances there was no effect on aggressiveness,

while other studies showed moderate effects. This is simply not true,

“In a test using subjects aged 13 to 15, with parental consent, 32 video games rated “M” for mature were purchased in 7 different cities. These people also believe that by establishing a rating system with “M” for mature; will prohibit children from buying these games (Ryan 1). There was a trend for the more violent games to have bigger effects, but none of the effects would be called dramatic (Sherry 1-2). “The cognitive aggression test measures the speed at which participants could read aloud words on a computer screen. In another study by the Contemporary Pediatrics, “the majority of the studies show that children do become more aggressive after either playing or watching a violent video game” (Canadian Journal of Psychiatry qtd. The same test reveals higher aggression in male subjects” (Wired qtd.

“The FTC studied the marketing strategies of 118 video games rated “Mature” found that 60 of them…targeted children under 17”(FTC report qtd. Violence in video games makes children more aggressive and hostile; in addition video game violence desensitizes kids to violence, which can lead to violence at school and home. People are naive in thinking that video games that depict violence don’t have an affect on children, by making them more aggressive and hostile, or by leading them to delinquency

and failure in the future.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 1087
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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