It's been a while since I was last on here, but I can't find anything on this topic, I suppose it is similar to the Guns for Kids thread in a way, but I'll post this anyway. Video Games and Violence. We've all heard of stories that lead to the media going on an outrage because of something violent that happened and then blaming it on the video games that that child or person was exposed to. But what are your thoughts? Can video games influence people into violence or are they a good way to vent out anger by mass murdering virtual characters? Here's my bit. No, video games will not influence children into violence, I grew up with the old historical WW2 shooters, sure I thought it was really cool, but I knew that if I even thought of picking up a knife or something to try make it realistic when I played pretend with my cousin, which I didn't , I would get the biggest beating of my life. I think that video games are perfectly all right, even violent ones, however I do not agree with letting young children play violent 18+ video games, they are still young, exposing them to amounts of blood in gore in today's games might have an effect on them. It won't make them violent, but it could traumatise the living daylights out of them. Video games, violent ones, need to come with good parenting is all. The child needs to know that if you do these sorts of things to real people, there will be consequences. If a child hurts his or herself or their friend because they were trying something they saw in a video game, then I'm sorry but the parent is at fault there. I remember when I was still around 7 years old, all the children at school watched wrestling, it was a big thing to 7 year olds, I remember how many children got hurt because they tried to use the moves on their friends. Did the wrestling influence them? Yes, most likely because they thought it was real. I knew better, my parents made it clear to me that wrestling wasn't real, before I watched it, I don't like wrestling in any case so I wasn't in any real danger. So. What do you think? Are video games a massive influence to children? Should parents play an active role in ensuring their child is not influenced? Speak out!
The sad fact is that small children CAN be negatively influenced by violent video games. But never fear, there is hope! A system is in place to make sure parents know whether or not a game is safe for their child! Sadly, many parents are too ignorant to follow this simple system, which may explain why my Borderlands 2 online experience was ruined by a whiny nine year old.
People who supposedly take an influence from video games for mass killings already have psychopathic tendencies, playing violent video games would add fuel to the fire, buts its nonsense that they are to blame. I've been playing violent video games from an early age. My video game casualty count in all games combined could be one million for all I know, but my real life casualty count stands at a staggering 0. If you take away violent video games, then you also have to take away every movie and tv series that has had a shooting, stabbing or brawl in it. We are a species that LOVES to play the blame game, if we didn't have video games, these anti-violent video game activists would find something else to blame such as tv or movies, or the most ridiculous of all, rap/heavy metal lyrics *shudders*.
No there is no correlation. Even if there was, many holy books are far more violent than video games. It's apparently alright to expose children to these at a young age but not video games? So really you've just got to put these things into perspective.
The short version is humanity is inheritly violent an we want an excuse. Violent games are an outlet, but people look at them as influence. It's so sad. That's my thoughts on this subject.
Well, no, that's not it either. Hormones and excess emotion are what causes violence. If you eliminate that, all you have are those with mental disorders. Emotion can get in the way of rational thought if left unchecked. It's fine to have emotion, but that is causing you to make irrational decisions that infringe on other's rights, you need to tone it down.
im talking beyond emotion and mental disorders. I'm talking base human action. We are inherently violent to prove ourselves as the pack alpha, to prey on lesser beings, to take any and all opportunities to survive and seem superior. Human nature is inheritly violent, because we are animals. If anything emotion is the only thing keeping us from being base level beasts.
Well if are talking about our survival instincts, that is only when we are starving and need food. Are we starving modern society? Otherwise, humans can be pretty docile.
No. Are lions starving when a male kills another for control of a pride? A fireant will bite you just because you are there. I don't know where you got the idea that animals only do things to avoid starving to death... And humans CAN be docile. Usually we aren't. However societal standards require us to "not be docile" in a manner that we can't harm someone with.
Humans aren't lions. They are entirely different. The only thing similar between us and lions are that we are both mammals. Even if that were a valid point, I could still argue that the lion is being driven by emotion. The fire ant is biting me to defend itself. Also, we are not similar to a fire ant in any way, shape, or form. Though we are part of the animal kingdom? And have DNA? That's it?
If a child has only video games and no parents, teachers, or friends to influence them then yes, they can get confused about how things work. I've been playing games that involve killing since I was 3 years old. I vent a lot of anger and was one of those kids who would scream "DIE! DIE! DIE!" For the record, I'm a pacifist. Never have I beaten anyone up or considered harming another person other than on a video game. The only time I can remember being directly influenced by a video game was learning how to play real drums after playing Rock Band for so long.
Lions are not driven by any emotion. It's defending itself from something that is not harming it. Being part of the animal kingdom is all that is necessary. All animals are driven by the base force of nature. Instinct. Instinct contains violence. Thank you. Also we are off-topic.
Not really. We are discussing violence (whether natural or video game related) which is very much related. And again lions are completely different creatures from humans. Their mind work differently. Humans can get aggressive and territorial, but again that's just the hormones talking.
I think what he's trying to say is that humans used to be, and in some ways are, like lions. Humans used to be incredibly territorial and traveled in packs/clans. They would kill each other for dominance and food and mates. The basic primal instinct of humanity, which is to have control, has been suppressed, but not entirely removed.
Maybe. But even so, Parents can control the games children play on consoles easily. Look at the rating and don't bloody purchase it for your child. Violent games on the internet? There's only so much a parent can do to block their child from the internet, but then you don't want them growing up exposed to only 'Bear in the Big Blue House', 'Tweenies' etc etc, because then you're coddling them from exploring sensitive subjects in an approachable, safe way. Of course I'm not suggesting to parents that they should buy them every GTA and all of those generic shooting games, but at the same time don't limit their imagination too much. And never let them play Slendytubbies. I cried.
Under extreme circumstances...maybe. Similar to what Janemba said, it is possible for violence to be influenced by video games if we are dealing with an extremely estranged child who's only stimulation comes from violent video games. If violence is all he/she knows, violence is how they will express themselves. Though of course even still, is it the video games themselves causing the violence, or the poor environment? I would mostly say the latter. Anyhow, with the average individual, no it will not cause them to want to go on homicidal rampages. The "video game correlation to violence in reality" argument is literally based upon the same baseline of "evidence" that was shown when comic books were first invented (look up Fredric Wertham). Every time something "new and scary" to parents comes out, such as the rapid advancement of violent imagery in video games; it becomes a mad dash to prove it with SCIENCE! All this leads to is hasty conclusions and rash judgment, clouding the truth and putting more fear into parents (and more fodder for the media). The way the media portrays it, and also when it is brought up after every shooting or tragedy related to guns or general violence is utterly disgusting to me. There is simply no well studied and justifiable evidence. However, what is true is that violent video games can cause short-term aggressive behavior, but still in most cases, would not be detrimental. On the other hand, there are relatively new decently supported evidence and articles out there that have shown that video games, even violent ones stimulate and can improve brain functionality -- specifically in tasks involving reaction time and quick and/or crucial decision making skills. http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_bavelier_your_brain_on_video_games.html
