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Are Violent Video Games Protected By The First Amendment Essay

492 Words2 Pages

Elena Lee
13 September 2015
Prosecutor
Issue #3 – Are Violent Video Games Protected by the First Amendment

Today The California law would have imposed $1,000 fines on stores that sold violent video games to anyone under 18. It defined violent games as those “in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being” in a way that was “patently offensive,” appealed to minors’ “deviant or morbid interests” and lacked “serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.” The video game industry, with annual domestic sales of more than $10 billion, welcomed Monday’s ruling. Leland Yee, a California state senator who wrote the law, said in a statement …show more content…

“ ‘The freedom of speech,’ as originally understood, does not include a right to speak to minors (or a right of minors to access speech) without going through the minors’ parents or guardians,” Justice Thomas wrote. He relied on studies that he said showed violent video games were positively associated with aggressive behavior. This is the wrong fight and the wrong question. What we should be asking for is: what are the positive effects of playing violent video games? We all think childhood is precious and short, and we all want to give our children the best. So, is this a good way to spend a childhood? Of all the different possible activities a boy or girl could participate in, where does this rank? Is it one the top of the list? The middle of the list? Or maybe, is it on the bottom, the very bottom of the list of positive activities? Compare this to reading, playing outdoors, playing sports, playing make-believe, chess, swimming, biking, watching TV, etc. Where does this rank? And if this ranks near the bottom, that's like feeding your kid chips and coke all day, isn't

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Its been fought over for many years that violent video games should not be given to minors, but teens and minors reply in a different way that of to adults and physiologists. But what does the Supreme Court have to say? One child psychologist claims to believe “violent video—games—which have become increasingly interactive and realistic—could lead minors to commit real-life acts of aggression, and that such games are psychologically damaging to them”(Yee 17). In order to understand the Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, one must know that a psychologist believed that violent video games for children lead to aggression later on in life, Each side presented its own view on the case, The impact on this case has changed Americas view on video game distribution to minors.

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Sternheimer begins with introducing us to a “first person shooter” game called “Doom”(214). With this multi-billion dollar game industry rising, she points out that there are three school shooting cases that the press emphasizes the shooters being “video-game experts” (215) to the game Doom, only making the “critics’ predictions” (214) about video games come true. Sternheimer begins by explaining how video game violence has become “folk devils” (214). This term allows media and politicians to “channel the blame and fear to remedy what many believe to be a growing problem” (214). Politicians are one of the main factors in targeting video games as the leading cause of violent behavior in teens, according to Sternheimer.

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Can betrayal lead to a person becoming more scandalous than the one who committed the betrayal? In Hamlet, betrayal seems to be the reason everything else happens. Hamlet must decide exactly how scandalous he is willing to be, after finding out his uncle possibly murdered his father to take the throne. Shakespeare portrays Hamlet as someone who will figure out the truth and someone who will go as far as they need to. Shakespeare uses mood, tone, and irony to develop the themes of scandal and betrayal.

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Video games have been targeted again and again by a ton of people and groups: gun enthusiasts, feminists, religious people, parents, news media, and even the government of the United States. Video games are, in the words of President Donald Trump, “creating monsters!” The US government has always been one of the main enemies of the video game industry. Many laws have been proposed against the sale of violent video games; but in the court of law, judges would often find no reasonable correlation between violent video games and violent behavior. Most of the time laws sent to the Supreme Court were just too vague or a violation of the First Amendment.

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Yet some readers may challenge my ideas about solving this problem by insisting that video games are a form of free speech, that violent video games are actually protected under the First Amendment as other types of media. An article Violent Video Games Are a Form of Free Speech by Daniel Greenberg, an interactive screenwriter, and game design consultant, he argues, “Video games do more than enable the free speech rights of video game developers. Games—even those incorporating violence—enable a whole new medium of expression for players,” (Greenberg, 2015). This data shows that not only books and movies, but video games also a part of freedom of speech. The difference is, movies and books enable free expressions, but video games do more than

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Violent video games have been blamed for everything from bullying to school shootings. Critics of these video games believe they cause people to commit violent acts in real life. These critics, mainly comprised of parents and other responsible adults, don’t agree with what the video games portray. Others say the video games cause less violence and are an outlet for anger and stress. Although violent video games have violent actions in them, teenagers should be able to play violent video games because there isn’t enough evidence to prove they make teens more aggressive, it could prevent violence, and violent video games are a fun and relaxing way to relieve stress and anger.

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Violent video games are not responsible for violent actions in the real world. Violent video games have been around for decades. “One of the first controversial games was Death Race (1976), which had players running over people with cars. Even though the victims did not look realistic—they were just stick figures—the controversy stirred enough concern that the television

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In addition, the structure of today 's video games requires certain types of learning that are very helpful to students, specifically computer skills. This proves, that kids are gaining new knowledge from these games. They also improve hand-eye coordination, and raises players’ self-esteem. The article (Wiley 2016) Science Daily states, “Gaming use was associated with better function in brain circuits critical for learning based on the acquisition of new skills through practice.”

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A recent content analysis by the research organization Children Now shows that a majority of video games include violence and about half of the violent incidents would result in serious injuries or death in the "real" world. Claim1 Research involving British primary schoolchildren found that the length of time young people spend playing games, rather than their content, could have an effect on their behavior or school performance. But it concluded that fears that generations of young people are growing up with their development impaired by exposure to violent video games are no more likely to be borne out than previous “moral panics” over television and other media. Playing one-player games is not always negative if you do it moderately.

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Over the years there has been a big controversy over whether video games are relatively good or extremely bad for children. Video games are super beneficial to a kid’s learning process and have been proven to increase social skills, productivity, and stress. The fear that video games are harmful to a child, is proven through countless experiments that they are actually great for their growth and brain capacity. Video games can increase the social skills in a child, Xbox and PlayStation provide great opportunities for cooperation and competition. Two different studies, one by Katherine Keyes and the other by Vinay Devnath, both have proved that the use of video games can increase the social skills that many children can’t grasp, “Video game playing is often a collaborative leisure time activity for school-aged children, and these results indicate that children who frequently play video games may be socially cohesive with peers and integrated into the school”( Keyes, PhD).

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There are games that literally replicate and give people the ability to score points for doing the very same thing that these students are doing inside schools, where you get extra points for finishing someone off who’s lying there begins for their life.” ( 6) There are several ideas that say young people benefit from these violent video games “Surprisingly, playing video games can help our physical, mental, and emotional health.” It helps them to improve hand eye coordination and thinking ability. These benefits are not worth the risk of being influenced by violent video games. (7) All in all the research and officials say that violent video games affect how children, teenagers and young adults act.

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Children around the world play adult content video game And many parents say it is bad for their children; however video games can actually help their children learn. Approximately 90% of children in the United States play video games, and more than 90% of those games involve mature content that often includes violence (Park, 2014). There are those that believe video games are detrimental to society, however playing video games including those with mature content can actually be beneficial to both individuals and society by increasing knowledge expanding the ability to react positively at real life situations and improving cognitive thinking skills. Children that play video games not only have the potential to increase their ability to learn right from wrong, and to improve their cognitive thinking skills the game can also increase a child’s knowledge.

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Children are able to develop and practise motor skills and bodily movements through physical plays. During some cognitive games, such as board games and educational toys, children can improve their mental fitness and brain function. Play also provides opportunities for children to develop their communication skills by making friends and negotiating with others. It helps children extend their language and improve social ability. I believed that play is essential to children’s education that cannot be minimized and separated from learning.

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Because OR firstly, video games improve a child's ability to follow instructions, especially because many games entail completion of tasks (Gentile et al, 2009). Besides, children improve their problem-solving capabilities because these games have tasks that require quick thinking and use of sound strategies to move from one level or quest to another. Lastly, gamers improve their multitasking capabilities, because many gamers have to juggle different patterns and connect them at the same time to complete tasks (Ryan et al, 2006). Despite these advantages, the weight of violent video games negative effects is alarming, especially because of its long-term effects such mental ill health and

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