Research Papers / Persuasive Essay On Violent Video Games [3]

Kids should not play some video games

Violent video games can be the cause for children's negative behavior; these video games can disrupt a child's cognitive development, their physiological and psychological well-being, and their behavior. There are many children around the world that play violent video games, particularly in the United States. Among children playing violent video games in the United States, the hours playing have increased from four hours a week to thirteen hours a week. Parents and others around the world believe that these types of video games are changing children's behavior.

Violent video games can disrupt a child's cognitive development. Violent video games may not rot child's brain, but violent video games change the way they think. A new study done by Radiological Society of North America has provided results showing how violent video games change the way children think. The study has children play a game for ten hours a week and then stop for a week. Another group of children were asked not to play violent video games for a two-week period.

The children underwent a functional magnetic resonance imaging, again after one week, and then the children had another imaging test done at the end of the experiment. The experiment these children went through show that violent video games can change the function of the brain that is associated with the cognitive function and the emotional control. After one week of playing the violent video game the experiment showed less activation in the left inferior frontal lobe during the emotional task and less activation in the anterior cingulate cortex during the counting task. When the children did not play the second week the experiment showed that the changes to the executive area of the brain has diminished. This area of the brain is important, it controls the emotions and aggression behavior.

When children play violent video games it can change how their behavior is in a negative way. These violent video games desensitize the children that are playing them. When children become desensitized, their aggression increases, and their empathy decreases. Many video games have a considerate amount of violence in them. Children who observe violent activity tend to follow in suit when he or she is frustrated. Many children's negative behavior can be blamed on the violent scenes in violent video games. When children play an extended amount of violent video games, the become socially isolated.

The violent video games effect the children's physiological and psychological well-being. When children become socially isolated, it means that they do not spend enough time interacting with other member of their lives. Playing violent video games can lead to an increase of aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal, including increased heart rate, and aggressive behavior. The violent video games also decrease in helping behavior and feelings of empathy for others.

The violent video games have changed my nephew's behavior toward others in a negative way. When he gets frustrated he shows a lot of aggression toward people and objects. I have seen my nephew fly of the handle over the simplest task. When he is told to do his chores before he plays his video games he starts slamming objects around and punching things. Violent video games have changed the way he speaks to adults. He will swear at them and he has threatened them as well. The studies that have been done one children to see how violent video games change the behavior of children have proven that young children should not be playing these video games. Seeing first hand how these types of video games changed my nephew in a negative way is proof enough that parents need to be more involved in the type of games their children are playing and follow the ratings on the games. The gaming companies have established rating on the games to show that these violent video games are not meant for young children. It says right on the back of the cases what age group should be playing these games as well as what content is in the video games. Let's be more aware of how these violent video games affect children and start monitoring the games they play.

References:

Kühn, Simone, et al. "Does Playing Violent Video Games Cause Aggression? A Longitudinal Intervention Study." Nature News, Nature Publishing Group.

Peck, Peggy. "Violent Video Games Affect Teenage Brain." WebMD.

Sifferlin, Alexandra. "Violent Video Games Are Linked to Aggression, Study Says." Time.

Sniderman, Zachary. "Violent Video Games Disrupt Emotion and Cognition in Young Men." Mashable.

Toppo, Greg. "Do Video Games Inspire Violent Behavior?" Scientific American.

"Violent Video Games and Aggression." National Center for Health Research.

"What's The Psychological Effect of Violent Video Games on Children?"

"Yes, Violent Video Games Do Cause Aggression." Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers.