Video Game Violence

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Josh Atkins

English 1302

9 October 2006

Professor Austin

Video Games Taking The Heat For Parents And Politicians Everywhere

Video games have come a long way since they first made an appearance in the 1970's. As the years come and go, technology becomes faster, cheaper and more powerful which causes video game technology to become more visually impressive and easier to mass-produce to the public on a global scale. Games today are capable of unimaginable feats of unprecedented realism and a complete presentation almost perfectly resembling real life. It is the extreme realism of today's games that scares parents and politicians to fear that video games are slowly affecting those who play by causing short-term cases of aggression, especially in children and/or teens. Parents and politicians accuse games for some instances of violent behavior in children and critics deem video game developers and publishers responsible for releasing such untamed, mature content to children. With the increasingly overwhelming criticism of the public, many states have attempted, and in some cases have actually passed, certain restrictions on certain kinds of games. Many bills have been proposed to congress passing new restrictions on game content and the way games are sold with acts like the Truth in Video Game Rating Act, the Family Entertainment Protection Act and the Video Game Decency Act. However, the fault does not lie with the gaming industry and the rating system, but with the consumers, themselves, for not understanding that the variation of content in games is parallel to that of movies, music or television, and must be treated with the delicate knowledge that some content is not suitable for certain people or certain age groups.

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Almost identical to any other form of media out there, whether it is movies, music or television, there are certain laws and restrictions that the game developers must abide by in order to censor their content to certain ages. For instance, in order to see an R-rated movie, you must be at least seventeen years old and show a driver's license proving your age. Video games are no different. Beginning in 1994, certain video games like "Mortal Kombat" and "Primal Rage" were released which contained bloody scenes and gruesome killings between characters that sparked outrage in parents everywhere. The government responded and created the ESRB or Entertainment Software Rating Board, which would be responsible for reviewing each game based on its content and give it a rating accordingly. There are seven different ratings that a game can receive, the most used are "E" for everyone, "T" for teen and "M" for mature. Besides the rating, each game is also given a short description of its content for things like blood, gore, nudity, strong language and so on. Each rating has an age restriction that prohibits a person from purchasing it whom does not meet the required age, thus making it impossible for a child for example, that is fifteen years old, to purchase a "M" rated game without a parent there to buy it for them, (http://www.esrb.org). This is what makes the whole situation ironic because parents complain of the content in games and how it is too explicit and mature for children when it is clearly rated "M", and they are the ones who put it into their children's hands. "Eighty-seven percent of game players under the age of eighteen report that they got their parent's permission when buying or renting games, and ninety-two percent say their parents are present when they purchase games," (Lowenstein). Parents are responsible for their own children and what they are

playing, not the video game industry. Parents must understand that there are different kinds of games, some games were meant for kids, and some were not.

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There have been countless studies and research by scientists to see if they can prove that there are negative effects due to playing video games. "Fortunately, each side in the battle over video game violence has new research it can use to wallop the other," (Macmilian). The majority of studies done seem to agree on three conclusions. The first, playing violent video games for even a short period of time can affect behavior. Secondly, boys and girls respond differently to playing violent video games. Lastly, some children are more at risk than others to be adversely affected by playing them (Preston). One thing does remain certain out of all the studies done, "Most (studies) have found little to no connection, although, some studies found a small, casual correlation between aggressive people and violent media," (Ferris). Therefore, any change in behavior that does occur is only short-term. There is undisputed evidence proving that kids are not implementing what they might learn from video games out into the real world. Based on recent statistics in the United States, violent crime rates