Violent Video Games Causes Aggressive Behavior

“Dude! Did you see me blow that guys head off with that bazooka? That was so cool! Lets see if we can get two heads this time with one missile!” said the seven year old who has been playing Grand Theft Auto 5 for the past twelve hours straight; eyes glued to the to the screen with no signs of stopping anytime soon. Games similar to Grand Theft Auto 5 such as, Call of Duty, Gears of War, Fallout, Assassins Creed and many others, are all filled with blood, gore, foul language, nudity, and death. These games are also all rated M, “for mature audiences only” or for people who are age seventeen and older. Although games like this are only to be sold to people of the right age, this doesn’t stop younger children from getting their hands on them. In my personal experiences, it is extremely easy for a child underage to get their hands on an M rated video game. All I had to do was ask my parents to buy it for me. In a study done by Palo Alto Medical Foundation, who took 1,102 children that played video games, discovered that, “Although most parents checked the censor’s rating before allowing their child to purchase it, 50 percent of boys and 14 percent of girls favored games with an "M" (mature) or "AO" (adult-only) rating, which implies a high degree of violence” (Violent Video Games & Aggressive Behavior). With adolescents getting their hands on these games so easily and by how much they enjoy playing them, I believe that the graphic violent actions in M rated video games causes these adolescents to behave more aggressively in school and at home.

            It is said that children are more likely to imitate someone they identify with and that they learn better through repetition, participation and the rewards system (Violent Video Games & Aggressive Behavior). Violent video games connect to each one of these ways of learning for adolescent children. Many violent video games have the player completing missions such as assassinations, muggings and robberies, which are completed over and over again. This has the effect on children to repeat these violent behaviors in the future and it is more likely for them to act more aggressively if they see people they are connecting with doing it.

            Also, when completing the violent missions nothing bad ever happens to the player. Everything goes as planned, no one is punished for their actions, and they receive a reward for what they did. In the real world there are consequences for actions like murder and theft. Having a child grow up learning that there are no punishments and receiving a reward for bad actions makes it seem acceptable in their eyes. This can only lead to an outburst in aggressive behavior at school and home. Evidence of this is shown in a study done by Gentile, Lynch, Linder & Walsh, where they took 607 kids keeping in mind the same learning habits for children as I stated above. What they found was that children who play these games, “tend to be more aggressive, are more prone to confrontation with their teachers, may engage in fights with their peers…” and, “see a decline in school achievements” (Violent Video Games & Aggressive Behavior).

Another study was done by, Professor Craig A. Anderson, where he discovered that “young people who play lots of violent video games behave more violently than those who do not. For example, in the most recent study of this type, exposure to video game violence during late adolescence accounted for 13-22% of the variance in violent behaviors”. To put it in perspective at how big this number really is, he introduced the fact that “smoking accounts for about 14% of lung cancer variance” (Violent Video Games Increase Aggression and Violence).

            These violent video games are clearly the cause of major behavior issues in adolescent children. The studies done by Gentile, Lynch, Linder & Walsh and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation shows that the majority of children (62% and 50%) would much rather play violent video games. Clearly it is not good for their development (Journal of Adolescence) and parents need to get more involved by pay more attention to what their children are playing for video games because if they don't and as the facts show, those violent video games will increases aggressive behavior in their children at both home and school.

Works Cited

Anderson, Craig A. Violent Video Games Increase Aggression and Violence. N.p.: n.p., 21 Mar. 2000. PDF.

Gentile, Douglas A. Journal of Adolescence. N.p.: Academic Press, 22 May 2004. PDF.

"Violent Video Games & Aggressive Behaviors." Violent Video Games. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.