Violent Media Images And Video Games Results In Violent Behavior

Reaction Paper

October 28, 2004

Violent Media Images and Video Games Results In Violent Behavior

Can violent media images and video games result in violent behavior? The answer is yes. For a few decades now hundreds of researchers have take time to research the relationship of media images and video games to violent behavior in children. In the next few paragraphs I will discuss why media images and video games result in violent behavior in children. This paper will also provide some important factors that adults should know about media images and video game violence.

It has been researched that media images and video games can be harmful and damaging to children's minds. Most children watch 21-23 hours of television per week (Media Violence 1). Within the 21-23 hours of watching TV a week children are looking at 3-5 violent acts per hour (Media Violence 1). "By the age of 18, the average American child will have viewed about 200,000 acts of violence on television alone" (American Academy). Now imagine being a child and watching 200,000 acts of violence, and not being able tell the difference between real life and fantasy. There are many media images and video games that seem real to young children. Not only are these children confused but they are being traumatized by viewing these images.

Media images and video games affect children in many ways. One of the first signs that children begin to depict is aggressiveness. Children begin to portray the acts of violence that they have observed from watching media images and video games on their friends, which then leads to physical arguments. The second affect that media images and video games have on children is that children feel an addiction of wanting to see more media images or video games of violence because they find it cool or the way of life.

I am a true believer that media and video game violence has a great affect on children. There have been real life examples that depict violence acts due to media images and video games. A great example of all of this would be the Columbine High School, shooting. This act of violence occurred on April 20, 1999 when two heavily armed boys walked into the Columbine High School in Colorado and shot to death 12 of their fellow classmates and a teacher before they turn the violent act on themselves. When the Columbine case was investigated, authorities came to find out that the boys spent numerous of hours playing a video game called "First Person Shooter". Apparently the boys modified this video game to look like the layout of Columbine High School, using copied yearbook pictures of fellow students as the shooting target.

I am a strong believer that this video game had a powerful connection to the Columbine shooters act of violence. I believe that the Columbine shooters were brainwashed as they played "First Person Shooter" (video game). This realistic video game encouraged the two shooters to take the violence to school just like they played for numerous of hours.

Another perfect example of violent media images would be wrestling. I have found that many viewers such as myself find wrestling to be violent. There have been many incidents were children have tried imitating