It's true that media has a way of influencing the minds of young kids. If so, what exactly are violent video games teaching kids these days? According to a blog by Tom Stafford, "Do violent video games make teens 'eat and cheat' more?", "playing the violent video game Grand Theft Auto made teenagers more aggressive, more dishonest and lowered their self control".
He blogs about a research designed by using 172 Italian high school students, aging from 13 to 19 years old. Half of the group were girls, and half of the group were boys. They all took part in a video game that lasted 35 minutes. Half of the group played Grand Theft Auto games, while the other half played pinball or a golf game. They used M&M's to show self-control, opportunity to cheat during a quiz after playing their game to show dishonesty, and using unpleasant noises towards other player to show aggression. The results showed that the students who played the violent video game had lower scores of self-control, cheated more, and were more aggressive to their fellow player.
Tom's intake in this was "you can't leap to conclusions from a single study...even a well designed one". He says, "we should bear in mind the history of moral panics around new technology and media. Today we're concerned with violent video games, 50 years ago it was comic books and jazz." I agree with what Tom has to say. I do agree that video games have an influence in the minds of children, however I think it's extreme to blame them for increase in crimes. Just like the problem with blaming guns, we can't fix "already crazy" people. As Tom says, "most people who play video games won't commit violent acts." I know many who grow up around video games and are amazing people. However, I'm not sure if I'd want my future kids to be playing it until they were old enough to differentiate from right and wrong.
What do you think? Should we blame violent video games for increase in violent behavior? What's your stance on video games?
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