Violent Video Games are Harmful on Teenagers Research Paper

Violent Video Games are Harmful on Teenagers - Research Paper Example Before, parents worried about the presence of danger in their surroundings. Nowadays, their problems have come home. There are now the dangers of the vast availability of violent news, movies and the current highly debated violent video games. Video games are not only available to adults but to children and teenagers as well. They are easily sold and bought online and for parents whose only dream is to provide for their children’s needs, who work hard and not spend enough time with their children; such situation becomes a threat to their family. One might ask why this should become a concern to parents and the community as a whole. As human beings, it is the responsibility of every individual to ensure a safe environment. Although one could not indeed eliminate all the dangers in the society, minimizing them is the most feasible remedy for a safe and peaceful world. One means of doing this is to ban all violent video games not only among children but also among teenagers becau se exposure to violence in something they enjoy encourages them to be violent. Violent video games are harmful on teenagers. There area a lot of arguments on whether video games are harmful on teenagers or not and this paper aims to prove that they are indeed harmful. What are violent video games in the first place? According to Liptak, the law defines them as those â€Å"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 is â€Å"patently offensive,† appeals to minors’ â€Å"deviant or morbid interests† and lacks â€Å"serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value† (nytimes.com). Justice Antonin Scalia seems to ridicule such definition with his statements, â€Å"What’s a deviant violent video game? As opposed to what? A normal violent video game? Some of the Grimm’s fairy tales are quite grim, are you going to ban the m, too?† (Liptak). Sure, the justice has a point however there are still a lot to consider about video games as compared to fairy tales and movies. Looking at the problem as it is can indeed seem to be simple but careful consideration will prove that this issue is not just a question about reading or seeing violence. First, as Justice Stephen G. Breyer said, â€Å"Common sense should allow the government to help parents protect children from games that include depictions of ‘gratuitous, painful, excruciating, torturing violence upon small children and women’† (Laptik). Before computers and video games, arguments have been about children’s exposure to violent television. Some researchers believe that a steady diet of violent television may change a child’s standards about violence- the child comes to see violence as more acceptable, more appropriate, and more prevalent in daily life (Bootzin, Bower, Zajone & Hall, 442). Observational learning h as such a great effect on children that the violence seen expressed by people, compounded by the violence seen on television, makes violence seem like a normal, daily affair. A person’s perception can be distorted by what he sees. â€Å"The significance of observational learning is highlighted by studies of the effects of televised violence. For example, the amount of violent content watched on television by eight-year-olds predicts aggressiveness in these children even fifteen years later† (Bernstein, Penner, Stewart, & Roy, 697). These are very significant in the study of the effects of violent video gam