Introduction In the past, there were not any technology games. The past generations were playing simple games, and their parents were not afraid of the games that they were playing. However, people have been developing games with more technology. In the past few years, manufacturers have been making video games, but they are for both adults and children. These kinds of games have both positive and negative attitudes, so they can be either helpful or harmful for us. Nowadays, the companies that are making these video games are focusing on children because they are the majority who are buying their products. Some of the video games have good contents, but most of them contain violence. Are video games safe for children to use? Video games can affect children’s behavior in particular because it is easy to get into their minds, so these kinds of games should be rated by the industries and selected by the parents. Also, there should be limitations and supervision to save them from any negative effects that they could get from these videos. The start of video games Video games have gone through many changes since they appeared. According to Anderson, Gentile, et al. (2007), in the 1970s, video games appeared, but the violent games came of age during the 1990s (5). In that time, violent video games became the most popular. Anderson, Gentile, et al. (2007) state, “Starting in the late 1980s video game producers experimented with what the public would accept in video games. Gradually it became clear that games sold better if they contained more violence” (5). After they became popular and the industries sold their games, they started making these kinds of violent games more realistic. The change in video games Violent video games started to become more realistic. Anderson, Gentile, et al. (2007) say, “In 1992, Wolfenstein 3D, the first major “first-person shooter” game was released” (5). In this game, the person who shoots would be as if he is inside the game. After this game, the producers added more and more polygons per a second to improve the graphics of the games. Anderson, Gentile, et al. (2007) believe that Sony PlayStation processed 350,000 pg/s, and Sega Dreamcast processed over 3 million pg/s. Then, PlayStation 2 processed 66 million pg/s, and Xbox increased it to 125 million pg/s (6). PlayStation 3 increased the polygons to be 1 billion pg/s (6). So, these types of video games became better in their graphics and more popular. Statistics By the time video games became popular, many parents came up with questions including: Who are the people who play video games? What kinds of games do they play? What do their parents think about it? There are some statistics that show video game usage among American teens. Harvard Mental Health Letter (2010), believes that 97% of teenagers play video games, and 75% of teenagers play racing and puzzle video games with little or no violence (3). On the other hand, 66% of them play action video games; some of these contain violence. The percentage of parents of young video game players who say that the games do not affect their child one way or the other is 62% (3). These statistics show that many parents approve of video games, and they do not have problems with that. However, 38% have some concerns about them. Causes of playing video games Many people ask what causes children to play video games. What will the children get from them? There are many causes that lead kids to play video games. Clark and Scott (2009) say that video games let the kids have fun, and the kids can learn and discover many new things while they play video games. They can make friends. Also video games take the stress away and keep the children away from the real world (59-86). These reasons are also mentioned by Kutner and Olson (2010, 112): • It helps me make new friends. • It is just fun. • It helps me forget my problems. • It helps me get the anger out. These are some causes that lead children to play video games. In fact, children might get some effects by playing video games. Video games influence children behavior Video games can influence children’s behavior because it is easy to get into their minds just by letting them love video games. Clark and Scott (2009) state, “game addictions are behavioral addiction on steroids so to speak… the games designer actually did most of the work that went to fabricating that illusion” (92). They flood the brain and body with a lot more stimulation than other things. If the games have violence in them, the children will be influenced more by their behavior. Harvard Medical School (2010) states, “violent video games as one of many influence behavior”. These violent games can also increase the aggressive behavior. Gentile (2003) states, “playing violent video games increase aggressive behavior. Studies measuring aggressive behavior after playing violent video games have shown that aggressive behavior are increased compared to playing nonviolent video games” (414). These kind of games can also cause health problems. Video games cause health problems These kinds of games could cause a lot of problems According to Harvard Medical School (2010), because video games promote participation and enhance role-playing, they may hurt. These games can be more harmful if they contain violence. Harvard Medical School (2010) states, “exposure to aggressive behavior or violence in video games and other media may, overtime, desensitize youth by numbing them emotionally, cause nightmare and sleep problems, impair school performance, and lead to aggressive behavior and bullying”. Despite the fact that video games have negative sides, they also have positive sides. Video games improve children’s skills and thinking Video games can improve children’s skills and thinking. Prensky (2006) states, “The way you learn to do things depends mainly on the games control mechanism… a player is not going to be doing much that physically resembles real life the learning is mostly mental” (65). They can improve their mentality to take the right and fast decisions for the games. They also can help in their real life. Prensky (2006) states, “The kind of decision that kids face in their games are not about what to do and how to get past obstacles. They are also decision about themselves whether their skills are good enough, whether to go it alone or get help, whether to get more practice. Decision we all face daily in life” (62). These games help the children not to make lots of mistakes in life. Prensky (2006) states, “teaching physicians recognize that his having played video games earlier in his life led him to make fewer mistakes than non-player” (77). So, by rating and selecting video games, children will prevent worse things from happening. Improved in academic performance and stress releasing Students’ academic performance could be improved by video games. Hastings and Karas, et al. (2009), declare “Our study found that playing certain types of games, specifically educational games, may have positive outcomes, such as good school performance and fewer attention problems” (647). It also can take the stress away and bring fun to the children. Within the article “Colwell (2007) suggests that computer game play in adolescence may serve to meet needs such as the need for a fun challenge, stress relief, and companionship” (Hastings and Karas, et al., 2009, 647). Therefore, these video games could help in enhancing the academic performance, having fun, and taking the stress out. Rating and selecting video games Video games have positive and negative consequences on any one who plays them, but they will affect children more than adults because children will become addicted to the video games. The industry of video games should rate their products in order to let the children have fun and not get negative effects. ProCon.org (2015) declares, “Playing video games contribute to the $21.53 billion domestic video games industry. More than the half of the 50 top selling video games contain violence.” Therefore, if one assumes that children continue to play this kind of video games, they would have an aggressive attitude toward people. According to Anderson and Gentile (2007), bring positive video games to your kids and do not bring negative video games (162). Thus, the parents have to choose good video games for their kids, so they will not affect them negatively. What parents can do There are some steps that parents should do to prevent the negative sides. Anderson, Gentile, et al. (2007) state, “parents also can be advised not to use video games as a reward, punishment, or babysitter for their children. Further, parents should be encouraged to provide alternative forms of entertainment for their children, including playing outside, reading, or playing board games as a family (Johnson, 1996)” (647). Also, they could do other things that help the children. Harvard Mental Health Letter (2010) states: Parents can protect their children from potential harm video games by following a few commonsense strategies-particularly if they are concerned that their children might be vulnerable to the effects of violent content. These simple precautions may help: • Check the ESRB rating to better understand what type of content a video game has. • Play video games with children to better understand the content, and how children react (3). Parents also have to not put video games in children’s rooms, and they must put limitations if they do not want any negative effects to appear in their children. Harvard Mental Health Letter (2010) also states: • Place video consoles and computers in common areas of home, rather than in children’s bedrooms. • Set limits on the amount of time youths can play these games. The AAP recommends two hours or less of total screen time per day, including television, computers, and video games (3). So, these kind of solutions will prevent the children from playing video games as much as possible. Summary of the sub-questions Video games can cause many types of players to play them. Also, they affect many things inside or outside us. They can influence the behavior of anybody, but particularly children because they are the majority who play video games, and it is easy to trick them. Video games can have both negative and positive attitudes on the person. It can lead a person to deal with people in a terrible way, or it can lead one to communicate in a better way. Video games can cause health problems, or they can improve a person’s thinking and skills. They also can improve academic performance. So, both the industries and the parents can prevent addiction by rating the video games and selecting the types that they buy. Parents also could protect their children by doing some steps. Conclusion In conclusion, video games are something that companies made for people to have fun, but everything has consequences. Some video games could have long-term positive effects while most of them could have long-term hurtful effects. It is not hard to get to the children’s brains and change their attitudes from the video games; therefore, the industries who are making these video games have to put ratings on the games to know what is good for children. Also, the parents should select what is good for their children to play with and put limitations and supervision. If video games’ makers created the ratings and parents selected them and did the solutions, video games would be safer for children. Kids will have fun, and the video games will not affect them in a negative way. References Anderson, C.A., D, Gentile, D.A., & Buckley, K.E. (2007) Violent video game effects on children and adolescents. New York: Oxford University Press. Clark, N., & Scott, P. S. (2009). Game addiction: The experience and the effect. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Gentile, D, A. (2003). Media violence and children: A complete guide for parents and professionals. Westport, CT: Praeger. Hastings, E. C., Karas, T. L., et al. (2009). Young children’s video/computer game use: relations with school performance and behavior. Issues in mental health nursing, 30(10), 638-649. Harvard Mental Health. (2010). Violent video games and young people. Harvard Mental Health Letter, 27(4), 1-4. Harvard Medical School. (2010). Violent video games and young people. Retrieved November 30, 2015 from http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/harvard_mwntal_health_letter/210/october. Kutner, L., & Olson, C. (2010). Grand Theft Childhood: The surprising truth about violent video games* *and what parents can do. NYC: Simon & Schuster Prensky, M. (2006). “Don’t Bother Me Mom- I’m Learning!” St. Paul, MN: Paragon House. Procon.org (2015). Violent Video Games. Do video games contribute to youth violence? Retrieved November 30, 2015 from http://www.videogames.procon.org/. Introduction In the past, there were not any technology games. The past generations were playing simple games, and their parents were not afraid of the games that they were playing. However, people have been developing games with more technology. In the past few years, manufacturers have been making video games, but they are for both adults and children. These kinds of games have both positive and negative attitudes, so they can be either helpful or harmful for us. Nowadays, the companies that are making these video games are focusing on children because they are the majority who are buying their products. Some of the video games have good contents, but most of them contain violence. Are video games safe for children to use? Video games can affect children’s behavior in particular because it is easy to get into their minds, so these kinds of games should be rated by the industries and selected by the parents. Also, there should be limitations and supervision to save them from any negative effects that they could get from these videos. The start of video games Video games have gone through many changes since they appeared. According to Anderson, Gentile, et al. (2007), in the 1970s, video games appeared, but the violent games came of age during the 1990s (5). In that time, violent video games became the most popular. Anderson, Gentile, et al. (2007) state, “Starting in the late 1980s video game producers experimented with what the public would accept in video games. Gradually it became clear that games sold better if they contained more violence” (5). After they became popular and the industries sold their games, they started making these kinds of violent games more realistic. The change in video games Violent video games started to become more realistic. Anderson, Gentile, et al. (2007) say, “In 1992, Wolfenstein 3D, the first major “first-person shooter” game was released” (5). In this game, the person who shoots would be as if he is inside the game. After this game, the producers added more and more polygons per a second to improve the graphics of the games. Anderson, Gentile, et al. (2007) believe that Sony PlayStation processed 350,000 pg/s, and Sega Dreamcast processed over 3 million pg/s. Then, PlayStation 2 processed 66 million pg/s, and Xbox increased it to 125 million pg/s (6). PlayStation 3 increased the polygons to be 1 billion pg/s (6). So, these types of video games became better in their graphics and more popular. Statistics By the time video games became popular, many parents came up with questions including: Who are the people who play video games? What kinds of games do they play? What do their parents think about it? There are some statistics that show video game usage among American teens. Harvard Mental Health Letter (2010), believes that 97% of teenagers play video games, and 75% of teenagers play racing and puzzle video games with little or no violence (3). On the other hand, 66% of them play action video games; some of these contain violence. The percentage of parents of young video game players who say that the games do not affect their child one way or the other is 62% (3). These statistics show that many parents approve of video games, and they do not have problems with that. However, 38% have some concerns about them. Causes of playing video games Many people ask what causes children to play video games. What will the children get from them? There are many causes that lead kids to play video games. Clark and Scott (2009) say that video games let the kids have fun, and the kids can learn and discover many new things while they play video games. They can make friends. Also video games take the stress away and keep the children away from the real world (59-86). These reasons are also mentioned by Kutner and Olson (2010, 112): • It helps me make new friends. • It is just fun. • It helps me forget my problems. • It helps me get the anger out. These are some causes that lead children to play video games. In fact, children might get some effects by playing video games. Video games influence children behavior Video games can influence children’s behavior because it is easy to get into their minds just by letting them love video games. Clark and Scott (2009) state, “game addictions are behavioral addiction on steroids so to speak… the games designer actually did most of the work that went to fabricating that illusion” (92). They flood the brain and body with a lot more stimulation than other things. If the games have violence in them, the children will be influenced more by their behavior. Harvard Medical School (2010) states, “violent video games as one of many influence behavior”. These violent games can also increase the aggressive behavior. Gentile (2003) states, “playing violent video games increase aggressive behavior. Studies measuring aggressive behavior after playing violent video games have shown that aggressive behavior are increased compared to playing nonviolent video games” (414). These kind of games can also cause health problems. Video games cause health problems These kinds of games could cause a lot of problems According to Harvard Medical School (2010), because video games promote participation and enhance role-playing, they may hurt. These games can be more harmful if they contain violence. Harvard Medical School (2010) states, “exposure to aggressive behavior or violence in video games and other media may, overtime, desensitize youth by numbing them emotionally, cause nightmare and sleep problems, impair school performance, and lead to aggressive behavior and bullying”. Despite the fact that video games have negative sides, they also have positive sides. Video games improve children’s skills and thinking Video games can improve children’s skills and thinking. Prensky (2006) states, “The way you learn to do things depends mainly on the games control mechanism… a player is not going to be doing much that physically resembles real life the learning is mostly mental” (65). They can improve their mentality to take the right and fast decisions for the games. They also can help in their real life. Prensky (2006) states, “The kind of decision that kids face in their games are not about what to do and how to get past obstacles. They are also decision about themselves whether their skills are good enough, whether to go it alone or get help, whether to get more practice. Decision we all face daily in life” (62). These games help the children not to make lots of mistakes in life. Prensky (2006) states, “teaching physicians recognize that his having played video games earlier in his life led him to make fewer mistakes than non-player” (77). So, by rating and selecting video games, children will prevent worse things from happening. Improved in academic performance and stress releasing Students’ academic performance could be improved by video games. Hastings and Karas, et al. (2009), declare “Our study found that playing certain types of games, specifically educational games, may have positive outcomes, such as good school performance and fewer attention problems” (647). It also can take the stress away and bring fun to the children. Within the article “Colwell (2007) suggests that computer game play in adolescence may serve to meet needs such as the need for a fun challenge, stress relief, and companionship” (Hastings and Karas, et al., 2009, 647). Therefore, these video games could help in enhancing the academic performance, having fun, and taking the stress out. Rating and selecting video games Video games have positive and negative consequences on any one who plays them, but they will affect children more than adults because children will become addicted to the video games. The industry of video games should rate their products in order to let the children have fun and not get negative effects. ProCon.org (2015) declares, “Playing video games contribute to the $21.53 billion domestic video games industry. More than the half of the 50 top selling video games contain violence.” Therefore, if one assumes that children continue to play this kind of video games, they would have an aggressive attitude toward people. According to Anderson and Gentile (2007), bring positive video games to your kids and do not bring negative video games (162). Thus, the parents have to choose good video games for their kids, so they will not affect them negatively. What parents can do There are some steps that parents should do to prevent the negative sides. Anderson, Gentile, et al. (2007) state, “parents also can be advised not to use video games as a reward, punishment, or babysitter for their children. Further, parents should be encouraged to provide alternative forms of entertainment for their children, including playing outside, reading, or playing board games as a family (Johnson, 1996)” (647). Also, they could do other things that help the children. Harvard Mental Health Letter (2010) states: Parents can protect their children from potential harm video games by following a few commonsense strategies-particularly if they are concerned that their children might be vulnerable to the effects of violent content. These simple precautions may help: • Check the ESRB rating to better understand what type of content a video game has. • Play video games with children to better understand the content, and how children react (3). Parents also have to not put video games in children’s rooms, and they must put limitations if they do not want any negative effects to appear in their children. Harvard Mental Health Letter (2010) also states: • Place video consoles and computers in common areas of home, rather than in children’s bedrooms. • Set limits on the amount of time youths can play these games. The AAP recommends two hours or less of total screen time per day, including television, computers, and video games (3). So, these kind of solutions will prevent the children from playing video games as much as possible. Summary of the sub-questions Video games can cause many types of players to play them. Also, they affect many things inside or outside us. They can influence the behavior of anybody, but particularly children because they are the majority who play video games, and it is easy to trick them. Video games can have both negative and positive attitudes on the person. It can lead a person to deal with people in a terrible way, or it can lead one to communicate in a better way. Video games can cause health problems, or they can improve a person’s thinking and skills. They also can improve academic performance. So, both the industries and the parents can prevent addiction by rating the video games and selecting the types that they buy. Parents also could protect their children by doing some steps. Conclusion In conclusion, video games are something that companies made for people to have fun, but everything has consequences. Some video games could have long-term positive effects while most of them could have long-term hurtful effects. It is not hard to get to the children’s brains and change their attitudes from the video games; therefore, the industries who are making these video games have to put ratings on the games to know what is good for children. Also, the parents should select what is good for their children to play with and put limitations and supervision. If video games’ makers created the ratings and parents selected them and did the solutions, video games would be safer for children. Kids will have fun, and the video games will not affect them in a negative way. References Anderson, C.A., D, Gentile, D.A., & Buckley, K.E. (2007) Violent video game effects on children and adolescents. New York: Oxford University Press. Clark, N., & Scott, P. S. (2009). Game addiction: The experience and the effect. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Gentile, D, A. (2003). Media violence and children: A complete guide for parents and professionals. Westport, CT: Praeger. Hastings, E. C., Karas, T. L., et al. (2009). Young children’s video/computer game use: relations with school performance and behavior. Issues in mental health nursing, 30(10), 638-649. Harvard Mental Health. (2010). Violent video games and young people. Harvard Mental Health Letter, 27(4), 1-4. Harvard Medical School. (2010). Violent video games and young people. Retrieved November 30, 2015 from http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/harvard_mwntal_health_letter/210/october. Kutner, L., & Olson, C. (2010). Grand Theft Childhood: The surprising truth about violent video games* *and what parents can do. NYC: Simon & Schuster Prensky, M. (2006). “Don’t Bother Me Mom- I’m Learning!” St. Paul, MN: Paragon House. Procon.org (2015). Violent Video Games. Do video games contribute to youth violence? Retrieved November 30, 2015 from http://www.videogames.procon.org/.
Purchase answer to see full attachment