Do video games cause behavioral problems? Essay~

Video games are one of the most popular entertainment products on this planet. As such like all media, it gets plenty of attention, however majority of the time video games receive negative attention compared to movies, music, and other forms of entertainment. Usually by the most typical people, for example soccer moms who think their children are not growing up, or perhaps Fox News who has made it their mission to be one-hundred percent wrong, or maybe someone like the lawyer Jack Thompson, who has made several court cases against video game corporation and has since lost every case, and for the last people we have our federal government. The common theory is that video games cause behavioral problems, however I believe it's not. We must not assume it is the root of all behavioral problems.

Many people say that kids playing these M-rated games is what causes them to become mass murderers. This might be true, but let me ask you. Why do the kids have the M-rated games to begin with? Simple answer is the parents who complain about their kids playing these games, buy them for their "angels". Also the general conclusion is that video games cause children to become violent. That is true for some, but not the entire population. You see youth violence has gone down while video games have increased in popularity (go to the first url which leads to an article on the bottom for proof). So if more video games are being played daily and yearly, shouldn't youth violence be skyrocketing. Oh well if you add all the people who play games in the world, the violence goes up. No, sorry to disappoint. But here is a fun fact. The average gamer worldwide is 30-35 years old. Many of the violent games with sexual content, shooting, and murder are usually made for adults. If a child has a game like that, the parents can simply take it away from them, or buy the game. I would like to mention that there is a rating system for these video games, so parents will know whether the game is appropriate for their kids. The rating system has E (Everyone) which means everyone can play it, even kids. There is also T (Teen) as the second rating a game can be given which implies that the game is suitable for a teen or adult, not kids. The last one is the M (Mature) rating, which obviously suggests that the game cannot be played by anyone unless they are at the ages 17 and up. This rating system was made specifically so the parents would be able to keep their children away from these adult products, if the parent cannot say read a box with a letter on it, and figure out what it means, and if they continue to buy M rated games even after they find out how "wrong" it is. Then that is the parents fault, not the game developers fault.

The research for the theory that video game cause behavioral problems to kids also is flawed. Certain studies include a narrow study to find out if games cause violence. Apparently the "test subjects" are removed from any social activities, asked to play the gaming content for some odd hours even if it is something they would not play, and they are also in an environment where gamers would not usually play. This is flawed for some reasons, for they are not allowing any socializing with the test subjects, which may cause them to be isolated. It's also flawed because the research probably does not have majority of the gamers in the United States, which expands to the millions, in order to do an accurate test on whether a game causes behavioral problems or not you would have to use two to three million, not 3,000 to 4,000.

Also these several court cases against the gaming industry usually lead you to believe that video games caused violence and behavioral problems. Jack Thompson has handled plenty of them, but they forget to mention any personal issues involving the individuals who have behavioral problems and blame it solely on video games, without attempting to mention family instability, poverty, unemployment, or a deranged mental illness. They could have had a troubled childhood, with their parents physically fighting twenty-four hours a day. Do they tell you that? No, all they tell you is that "they saw it in a video game". I would also like to comment on the fact that most sane people actually know the difference between fantasy and reality, right and wrong, etc. So if a person who has no psychological problems sees a game of Grand Theft Auto being played, they are going to go steal a car, buy a machine gun, shoot everything in plain sight, get chased by the cops, and go to prison because they saw it in a video game? No, that is not how it works for millions of people around the world who actually know doing that is wrong. I would also like to mention the "facts" of a California court case against video games. What they did was get two briefs, one which states that video games cause behavioral problems, and one brief that says it does not. To conclude whether it does or does not cause behavioral problems, they chose the brief with the most signatures and articles (which the articles may or may not have any facts in it). No literally, they chose quantity over the quality of the research. That is how California concluded that video games "do" cause behavioral problems. That's not really proof for whether video games cause behavioral problems or not.

Obviously many people say video games cause behavioral problems, but people are not looking at other factors of violence or any antisocial things. The movie industry has a million violent movies, filled with many of the same content our video games have. However, I have not heard about any complaining about that. There seems to be a never ending blame for our Country's problems, including violence. However much of that blame should be based on our culture, video games are not the reason for youth violence. Bullying, family instability, social isolation, racism, and loneliness are the true factors for behavioral problems. Video games are said to be the reason because our government cannot blame themselves and the people who commit these acts of violence for the reason youth violence exists. It's time to accept it folks, we all have our problems. These games we play are merely entertainment products, like movies, television, books, and music! (Be aware this was an essay I did for English 10 which of course this assignment got an 86 as a grade even though the teacher disagreed at first with my theory)