Video Game

My eleven year old son, is absolutely obsessed with video games. He would play games for hours and hours if would let him. He has a Nintendo Wii, PlayStation, DSI, and a laptop. He drives us crazy talking about games constantly. In his second grade year his grades began to decline; so my wife asked for a conference with his teacher. His teacher advised us that all he wants to do is talk about games, and draw pictures of video game characters. It was then we discovered that we had a serious problem with his video game obsession. We placed limitations on his time for video games. We noticed that there was an almost immediate change in his grades and attitude.

The video gaming industry has exploded in the past years. Charles Piot states, that "over fifty percent of the homes in the United States own a video games, another ten percent rent them" (Piot, page 1). With the increase in demand games have become ever more realistic and violent. Numerous amounts of studies have being conducted on the effects of video games on the teen culture. Douglas A Gentile publishes some of the studies in Pediatrics for Parents. "Video game habits are correlated with risk factors for health and poorer academic performance. When video game play is analyzed for violent content, additional risk factors are observed for aggressive behavior and desensitization to violence" (Gentile, June 2004). Other effects of gaming include childhood obesity, somatic complaints, and disruptions in sleep patterns. Many problems can stem from childhood obesity such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiac disease. When I was a child we enjoyed our days playing outside, riding bicycles, and play ball. We were healthy and full of energy. Children now spend their days playing games and watching television. It is no wonder that childhood obesity is a national epidemic. Media violence and video games have also being found to have profound psychological effects on children.

The journal of experimental Psychology states that, "Hundreds of studies have shown that exposure to media violence increases aggression. Media violence is believed to increase aggression, at least in part, by desensitizing viewers to the effects of real violence. Media violence initially produces fear, disgust, and other avoidance-related motivational states. Repeated exposure to media violence, however, reduces its psychological impact and

Eventually produces aggressive approach-related motivational states, theoretically leading to stable increases in aggression" (Bartholow and Bushman, pg. 1). Children learn from modeling, and the examples that are provided for them. Many games such as grand theft auto provide horrible examples. Many adults are also addicted to video games, and this makes their children believe that it is ok to play games all day.

Many people point the finger at the video game industry and blame them for some of the major events that have taken place in our schools in the last few decades. When columbine took place the fingers went to pointing immediately at the video game industry. Many people claimed that the realist violence in games is what caused the aggression and violence that took place. In recent years a lot of attention has being brought to bullying in schools. A lot of people blame media violence and video games for this behavior. Some of these problems