However everything has good and bad sides. Playing games isn’t harmful when played for a limited time. A YouGov study shows us that 62% of parents care about how long their children are playing games; it is important for them that their children are not playing too much.
Some arguments from people are that children in the past played with toy soldiers. When there was no TV and X-Box or PlayStation, children still played with toys with weapons of war. Violence was already in human behaviour before the new era came up with all the media and games. You can look at the Jamie Bulger case. Those boys who tortured James Bulger to death after repeatedly watching Child’s Play 3 were just 10 years old. Children learn at this age and if they learn something wrong they don’t notice it because they think this is just fun and they are playing a game with a reset button to start again.
Nowadays violence in TV and games is normal and most parents don’t know what their children are playing because every second child has a computer in his room. When it comes to the teens and children who play video games, they think that it is a very fun experience. However, what the parents DON’T see is that the “fun”, yet violent video games, are influencing their children to commit acts of violence. In these video games, youths get the experience of holding a gun and using it for the wrong purposes.
Recent studies show that violent video games increase aggression and violent behaviour. When it comes to the aggressive behaviour, the behaviour can appear after twenty minutes of game play or be repeated in a number of years.
On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold launched an attack on their college in the USA. They murdered 13 people and injured 23 people after which the boys killed themselves. It is not certain as to why these boys did what they did; it is known that Harris and Klebold both enjoyed playing the bloody, shoot-'em-up video game Doom, a game which is licensed by the U.S. military to train soldiers to effectively kill in wars like in Afghanistan or Iraq. For a class project, Harris and Klebold made a videotape that was similar to the version of Doom. In the video, Harris and Klebold were dressed in trench coats, carried guns, and killed school athletes. They acted out their videotaped performance in real life less than a year later.
In another study, violent video games were considered to be more harmful in increasing aggression than violent movies or television shows. Studies showed that aggressive young men were especially vulnerable to violent games and that even brief exposure to violent games can temporarily increase aggressive behaviour in all types of participants, whether 10 years or 30 years old.
However computer games haven’t just bad sides; games are credited while improving children’s knowledge and problem saving abilities. They also helps to improve maths skills and memory. Computer games are reducing tensions because the player is distracted. The gamer knows how to deal with success and failure.
My personal opinion is that, if the world accepts the rules, then parents haven’t to worry. If games rated 18 are only played by 18 years old then nobody has to worry because the juveniles know the difference between reality and fantasy. If younger children play games that aren’t suitable for them then it’s a big problem because it is hard to understand for children that what is in the game is happening is not real. Parents are responsible for looking after their children; what they are playing and watching on the TV. Computer games are addictive. In short, like all social influences, video games can be neutral, good, bad, and often a mix of all of the above. Scientists need to more carefully consider this fact.
References
BBC News Web site in UK
American Psychological Association
Calvert, Sandra L. & Tan, Sui-Lan. (1994). Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, page 125-139.
PC Update Online
YouGov – What the world thinks
N24 (German local TV news channel)