Can Video Games Make Kids More Violent Essay

Can video spicys make kids more violent? A new study employing state of the art chief- starening technology says that the answer may be yes. Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine say that brain scans of kids who played a violent video game showed an increase in emotional stimulus and a corresponding decrease of activity in brain areas involved in self-control, inhibition and attention. Does this mean that your stripling will feel an uncontrollable urge to go on a shooting rampage later playing Call of Duty? Vince Mathews, the principal investigator on the study, hesitates to make that leap. But he says he does think that the study should encourage parents to look more closely at the types of games their kids are playing.Based on our results, I think parents should be aware of the relationship mingled with violent video-game playing and brain function. Mathews and his colleagues chose both action games to include in their research one violent the other not. The first game was the high-power but non-violent racing game Need for Speed Underground. The other was the ultra-violent first-person shooter laurel of Honor Frontline. The police squad divided a group of 44 adolescents into two groups, and randomly assigned the kids to play one of the two games. Immediately after the play sessions, the children were given MRIs of their brains. The scans showed a negative effect on the brains of the teenagers who played Medal of Honor for 30 minutes. That very(prenominal) effect was not present in the kids who played Need for Speed. The solitary(prenominal) difference? Violent content.Whats not clear is whether the activity picked up by the MRIs indicates a inactive or worse, permanent effect on the kids brains. And its also not known what effect long-acting play times might rescue. The scope of this study was 30 minutes of play, and one brain scan per kid, although further research is in the works. OK. But what about violent TV shows? Or violent films? Has anyone incessantly done a brain scan of kids that have hardly watched a violent movie? mortal has. John P. Murray, a psychology professor at Kansas State University, conducted a very similar experiment, employing the same technology used in Mathews study. His findings are similar. Kids in his study experienced increased emotional arousal when watching short clips from the boxing movie Rocky IV. So, why is everyone picking on video games? in all likelihood because theres a much smaller body of research on video games.They just havent been around as long as TV and movies, so the potential set up on children are a bigger unknown. Thats a scary thing for a parent. Larry Ley, the theatre director and coordinator of research for the Center for Successful Parenting, which funded Mathews study, says the purpose of the research was to help parents make informed decisions. Theres enough data that clearly indicates that game violence is a worry, he says. And its n ot just a problem for kids with behavior disorders. But not everyone is convinced that this latest research adds much to the debate particularly the game development community. One such naysayer is Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association. Weve seen other studies in this field that have made dramatic claims but turn out to be less persuasive when objectively analyzed. The ESA has a whole section of its Web site dedicated to the topic of video game violence, which would suggest that they arse around asked about it a lot.And theyve got plenty of answers at the ready for the critics who want to lay school shootings or teen aggression at the feet of the game industry. Several studies cited by the ESA point to games potential benefits for developing decision-making skills or bettering chemical reaction times. Ley, however, argues such studies arent credible because they were produced by hired guns funded by the multi-billion-dollar game industry. Were not s tressful to sell parents anything, he says. We dont have a product. The video game industry does. increasingly parents are more accepting of video game violence, chalking it up to being a part of festering up. I was dead-set against violent video games, says Kelley Windfield, a Sammamish, Wa.-based mother of two. But my husband told me I had to start liberalization up.Laura Best, a mother of three from Clovis, Calif., says she looks for age-appropriate games for her 14 year-old son, Kyle. And although he doesnt play a lot of games, he does tend to gravitate towards shooters like Medal of Honor. But she isnt concerned that Kyle will become battleful as a result. Thats like saying a soccer game or a football game will make a kid more aggressive, she says. Its about self-control, and youve got to rent it. Ley says he believes further research, for which the Center for Successful Parenting is trying to arrange, will prove a cause-and-effect relationship between game violence and off -screen aggression. But for now, he says, the study released last week gives his organization the ammunition it need to prove that parentsneed to be more aware of how kids are using their free time. Lets quit using various Xboxes as babysitters instead of doing healthful activities, says Ley, citing the growing epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States. And who, really, can argue with that?