Writing Assessment 2

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Eric Jackson Professor Granillo English 101 12 February 2019 Writing Assessment #2 Video games are a common hobby nowadays. Many people of all ages play video games in various forms. But are video games as innocent as many make them out to be? From titles like DOOM to Grand Theft Auto, many video games are extremely violent. An even more disturbing trend is the rise of mass shootings in recent years which have coincided with the rise of these violent games. Such a trend is disturbing and begs the question if video games are the cause of this. Studies have shown that violent video games increase aggression in children and that many school shooters have played violent video games as well. These games must be censored, taxed, and prohibited from purchase by minors. Many popular games nowadays such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto portray graphic violence, swearing, and sexual content which is making the target demographic of teenage boys desensitized to such things. As cited in an American Psychological Association report, 90% of children play some form of video game in america with 85% of video games having some form of violence. This disturbing statistic shows the ease of access children have to violent video games and disproportionate exposure they recieve to such content. The report goes on to further state that “Twelve of the 13 experimental studies that examined the effects of violent video games on affect indicated negative outcomes for adults”. This just further shows that violent video games do cause aggressive behavior in children at an overwhelming margin. In

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the end, violent video games are too easily accessible for children and are turning them into aggressive, desensitised delinquents. There is solid evidence that violent video games cause violence to manifest in children as many school shooters played violent video games. One example given in an NBC report about a school shooting in Minnesota stated that the shooter followed a “video game-like script” as he gunned people down. This terrible situation highlights the dangers that video games present. Such a situation is very reminiscent to a level in a Call of Duty game where you gun down an airport full of people. There is little question that these perpetrators are inspired by violent video games and the horrible acts that they see in them. Measures must be taken to protect our children from such horrors by regulating these awful games. Some may argue against the obvious and say that violent video games have little to no effect on childhood aggressive behavior and school shootings. A Psychology Today article cited that in response to an American Psychiatric Association report, 230 scholars published an open letter calling the report alarmist. These scholars were obviously mistaken as the APA report cites a number of legitimate studies that show that violent video games cause violence in children. Many people are also condemning recent legislation in Pennsylvania to tax violent video games claiming that there is no association between violent video games and real world violence. Many of these people are ignoring the fact that the funds generated from this are going to go towards protecting schools and mental health and will decentivise people from buying violent games. All in all many people defending violent video games don’t seem to care about the negative impact that it is proven to have on our children.

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In conclusion, violent video games are a detriment to society and cause aggression in the many children that play them leading to such acts as school shootings. The must be regulated if we are to contain this scourge