Video Game Violence Essay

The video game industry has surpassed both the music and movie industries in sales. In fact a big trend in gaming culture right now is First-person shooters, a style of gaming that allows players to identify as a shooter. As popular as these violent games are, this type of media is an offense to children’s growth and mental health. Even Jack Hollingdale and Tobias Greitemyer in their article The Effect of Online Violent Video Games on Levels of Aggression have “identified that violent video games increase levels of aggression”(Hollingdale and Greitmeyer). Additional legislations limiting the amount of violent content in video games are crucial in order to prevent minors from harmful exposure to violent language and images and to curtail replication

On December 14, 2012, before murdering his mother twenty-year-old Adam Lanza trespassed on to Sandy Hook Elementary and killed six teachers and twenty children. After investigators searched his room for motives “many homed in on his collection of violent video games, seeing his play of so – called first – person shooters” (Should the Gov). These findings draw a clear connection between horrible crimes and violent video games. After the sandy hook tragedy Frank Wolf a long time critic of violent video games had this to say about the incident “As a parent to pretend these violent video games don’t make a difference – its crazy”(Should the Gov). Records show that Lanza played a computer game School Shooting, a single player first person shooter where one plays as a trespasser gunning down children in the cafeteria before the player has to defend them selves from S.W.A.T officers. “Scientist have conducted numerous studies into the psychological effects of such games over the years, though no ironclad consensus has emerged about their potential connection to real- life violence”(Should the Gov). But for Adam lanzas case witnesses will think otherwise, especially when putting his choice of Video Games into consideration. Later on it was mentioned that Lanza was diagnosed with the mental

First person shooters allow the player to identify as the character committing violent acts. First person shooters have been tested by the General Aggression model utility that “has identified that violent video games increase levels of aggression” (Hollingdale and Greitemeyer). Exposing graphic content to youths can desensitize especially, warp their idea of real life. In Chris Suellentrop’s article Playing with our minds… States that even “some members of today’s military do view video games as a mean of honing fighting skills.” (Suellentrop). There is no harm in playing Grand Theft Auto a hand full of times; however playing day in and out takes a psychological toll on child’s life. Consistent play can hinder children’s communicative skills even though they can talk online with a headset. The important thing is that a child uses “Observational learning” (Suellentrop) and having repetitive graphic images flash consistently can increases risk of aggressive