Are video games really to blame for violence in teenage boys? (crime, school)
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Are video games really to blame for violence in teenage boys?
I don't think they're entirely to blame. I would logically assume that people who are frequently violent are mentally unstable, and that they need psychiatric help.
Not all school shootings are the result of boys playing violent video games. Violent video games have definitely influenced aggressive behavior in teenage boys, but not all aggressive behavior in teenage boys is caused by playing violent video games.
Teens who are bullied are prone to resorting to violence. I think the Virginia Tech shooter was bullied because he didn't speak English very well, and I'm sure that played a part in his decision to do what he did. It's really sad to be honest.
Oh, by the way, I'm seventeen years old, and all the video games I have contain lots of violence.
All the games for my PS3:
Call of Duty 3 (My PS3 can't read the disc for this game anymore. I think it has to do with the age of the game and the console itself.)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty: World at War
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed 2
Prince of Persia
All of the Call of Duty games and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 contain violence with the use of firearms, grenades, bombs, and knives. Uncharted: Drakes Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves contain violence with the use of firearms, grenades, and hand-to-hand combat. Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed 2 contain violence with the use of swords, knives, and hand-to-hand combat. Prince of Persia revolves around spectacular sword fighting.
Parenting is to blame for violence in kids. I would doubt that todays kids are anymore violent than those of decades past, but since some parents would rather not actually raise their kids, issues don't get dealt with at home and can spiral out of control.
It's called an "excuse." Our society these days appears to be based on the concept of responsibility avoidance--and the easiest way to achieve that is through the creation of an excuse. Would anyone like to bet that there isn't going to be some enterprising psychotherapist who starts advertising himself as the foremost expert in treating "Video Game Syndrome." (Pretty colored pills to appear on the market shortly!)
i concur with the other posters in this forum, the game chicken (race two cars towards each other, see who flinches first) was invented before video games.
guys have been blowing Moderator cut: language up for years before GTA 4 came out.
but yes the parents who suck at parenting blame it on video games because crime didn't exist before pac-man was terrorizing, raping and pillaging those ghosts.
and don't even get me started on pong, that game leads to suicide (if only because i can't win)
Last edited by Green Irish Eyes; 07-03-2010 at 10:17 AM..
Reason: Please let the language filters do their job.
I'm going to approach this from the perspective of a dad of 3 adult kids, all in their 20s...
First of all, individual personalities play a part. One of our sons has a shorter attention span and would never play any video or computer games for more than a couple minutes at a time. Then he'd be off to the next activity. Our other son would start playing and could not break himself loose without having either his mom or me literally turn the game off. I would imagine that one of them would have been more prone to have unhealthy problems with video games.
Second, as parents we refused to use video and computer games as babysitters. Electronics cannot replace parents, nor should they.
Third, we limited our kids' gaming time. This was made easier by the fact that internet wasn't available when our kids were little, and we really couldn't afford a Nintendo. So they just didn't have unlimited access to video/computer games. I suppose that if either of them was "addiction prone" they just didn't have that tendency fueled.
Fourth, spending too much time playing any video/computer game DID negatively affect one son's behavior. It was kind of weird, but if he spent a Saturday morning honed in on some game, he'd inevitably become agitated, angry, argumentative and belligerent. So obviously, for SOME kids, these games have a marked influence in their behavior.
Fifth, all 3 of our kids were very involved in a lot of other activities. They have always had a lot of friends to interact with.
Ironically, our son who was never overly interested in video/computer games is now an IT/Audio-Visual/Computer Supervisor. Weird.
No. There was rampant violence before the advent of video games.
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