Videogames Persuasive Speech

In today’s society the entertainment industry is being attacked from many angles. Television is being criticized by showing images of violence and aggression, music is being ridiculed for explicit lyrics, and within the last decade the issue of videogame violence and children has come to the attention of the mass media. The media, politicians, and many parents are blaming videogames for violent acts among children and those less than 18 years of age. But could videogames be the sole cause of violent crimes among children? In the fall of 2005 I took a course here at Coker called Videogames вЂ" Analysis and Research. The most popular topic discussed in our class was Violence and Aggression as a result of Violent Videogames. We studied research conducted by many studies concluding that violent videogames is not a direct cause in aggressive youth behavior. Surprisingly it is actually the opposite. Many children feel that videogames is an outlet for their stress and angry emotions. Cheryl K. Olson, ScD, Lawrence Kutner, PhD, and Eugene V. Beresin, MD have done research on this topic and published it in the Psychiatric Times. They presented children and adolescents with a list of 17 possible reasons for playing video games. More than half cited creative reasons for play, such as "I like to learn new things" and "I like to create my own world." "To relax" was chosen as a reason to play by the majority of boys and close to half of girls. "To get my anger out" was selected by 45% of boys and 29% of girls; 25% of boys and 11% of girls said that they played to "cope with anger." Violent video games might provide a safe outlet for aggressive and angry feelings. This use of video games to manage emotions came up repeatedly in focus groups they conducted with 42 young adolescent boys. A typical comment was, "If I had a bad day at school, I'll play a violent video game, and it just relieves all my stress." They found that Children also play violent electronic games for predictable developmental reasons, such as rebellion, curiosity about the forbidden, and testing the limits of acceptable behavior in a safe environment. "You get to see something that hopefully will never happen to you," said one boy of their focus groups. "So you want to experience it a little bit without actually being there." In both surveys and focus groups, boys described video game play as a social activity. Although most boys played games alone at times, most also routinely played with one or more friends. Just 18% of boys and 12% of girls surveyed said they always played alone. Those statistics also debunk the idea that videogames are for adolescents that are socially neglected. That videogames are played by children that have no social life. Videogames are most often played with friends and in large groups. In computer gaming such games as World of Warcraft connect you to thousands of people around the world, to chat and form alliances with. It is also possible that videogames receive so much scrutiny because video games are more realistic than ever before. Realism in video games is at an all-time high. It's absolutely astounding to think that only 20 years ago, we were amazed by the colors in Tetris or the sharp animations of popular Nintendo Entertainment System titles like the original Super Mario Bros. Times have changed considerably. In today’s gaming world, one can see blood and gore like never seen in gaming before. Some sources say this desensitizes children. Even though most scenes of violence in videogames do not even come close to the acts of violence children can witness by merely flipping on their television. In my opinoin adults do not give children enough credit in realizing the difference between reality and virtual reality. If the child does not understand this differece who is really to blame? Videogames or the parents?I have absolute proof that video games are not the cause of this supposed epidemic of youth violence in America. Ready? There is no epidemic of youth violence in America. The whole concept is a lie manufactured and distributed by the media. Kids are not killing each other more frequently than they used to. In fact, it turns out the opposite is true. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke of the game, "Grand Theft Auto, which has so many demeaning messages about women, and so the game encourages violent imagination and activities, and it scares parents. But did Hillary check her sources. Of course, she did not. This graph did not flash up across the screen proving her point. It does not take a genius to figure out that violent crime is at the lowest it has been in a good thirty years. GRAPH 1 This graph is directly taken from the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics. Politicians are merely doing what they do best, making the US public believe that one thing directly causes something else and they are going to fix it. They want the votes. One of the most public figures who has been attacking the video game industry for its apparent irresponsibility and over-the-top violence is Jack Thompson. Thompson is an American attorney and activist, and in addition to attacking the video game industry, he has also spoken out against the sex and violence shown in movies, rap music, and other forms of entertainment. He describes himself as a Christian conservative and a Republican. Many die-hard supporters of the video game industry see Jack Thompson as an enemy and an opponent to their hobby. They have proclaimed that many of the things Jack Thompson says are unfounded, citing that Thompson jumps to conclusions without any substantial evidence. With the Virginia Tech massacre, for example, Thompson was quick to say that the murderer probably played video games, particularly Counter-Strike (a first person shooter game). Later, we found out that Seung-Hui Cho did not play games.

This first graph is the overall violent crime rate, and I am discussing youth violence here. So I found the data sorted by age, and it turns out that through 2002, youth homicide actually dropped across the board, the only increase being among adults. I found a quote directly from the Department of Justice, "Recently, the offending rates for 14-17 year-olds reached the lowest levels ever recorded."

The lowest levels ever recorded. In other words, the Playstation era has, in fact, produced the most non-violent kids ever. But I thought video games were training children to kill?

This next graph shows that non fatal related violent crimes has also decreased since