[Nathan]

What effect do you think violent video games have on children? Do you think they contribute to agressive behavior? Do they make kids numb to violence and more violent?

[writehandgirl]

Originally Posted by Nathan

What effect do you think violent video games have on children? Do you think they contribute to agressive behavior? Do they make kids numb to violence and more violent?

While I believe that parents should be vigilant about keeping track of what they're kids watch, play, and read, I don't believe that violent films or videogames make a bad kid. I think bad parenting leads to mislead young people who resort to violence.

[MJ7]

Maybe not always to aggressive behavior, but could promote laziness and anti-social behavior. Uhgg! My brother was addicted to Ever Quest for years! Met a girl on there too (rolling eyes). He became moody and depressed and whenever anyone shared their concerns he became either withdrawn or defensive.

I would rather my son not play game that decapatate humans--or anything for that matter. There are some REALLY sick games out there and certainly don't need to be filling children's heads. I think you do need to be watchful of your kids. Not to say every kid will turn out to be a murderer like the kids that were responsible for the Columbine masacure (I believe Dungeons and Dragons was their thing).

My son (who will be 5 in a couple months) can play good old regular NINTENDO. He enjoys Mario. I think video games should only be allowed in moderation for kids in general.

[seeemilywrite]

I dont think video games make kids violent. I do think violent children tend to gravitate toward violent video games. I would rather a violent kid get out that violence in a video game rather than on another child however.

[scrapbookguru]

I definitely do not agree that the actual video games creates a violent child. I also do not agree that a child who plays video games becomes lazy. It's about the parenting techniques used.

If a child is allowed to sit in front of a violent video game all day, yes, chances are they will become lazy (not to mention develop social problems). I believe children who become violent, usually learn the behavior from a more "real" source than a video game.

Parents really need to stand up and take responsibility for how they raise their children and stop blaming video games and society.

[MatthewRaymond]

I see it as a one part of a combination of factors. I never enjoyed playing violent video games as a kid. Of course, they weren't many that stack up to the ones we have today. But in general, I would say that violent video games and television (let's not forget that) can certainly reinforce whatever violent conditioning a child has undergone. Remember. Most of the hardwiring is done as an infant. I grew up in a relatively peaceful environment and so violent environments seemed strange and uninviting to me. Still do.
My children are not violent, although I do let them play a shoot 'em game from time to time. What worries me more is that the fast, loud, and incessant pace of video games will eventually make them fast, load, and incessant.

[DeirdreLouisville]

Yes. It is well established by extensive research that repeated exposure to violent imagery reduces the stress reaction to such images, reduces the reported empathy level of the viewer to the abused (in the game or movie or whatever image source is used).

In the "real" world, outside of "research"-- exposing people to violence to make them more amenable to committing violent acts has been around for a long time. Those societies that practice systmatic torture train their new torturers by having them first watch mild torture, then more severe and then begin participating. The US military uses violent video games to help condition soldiers for combat.

The idea that one could watch thousands of hours of violence or play hundreds of hours of games where one bludgeons/decapitates/maching guns "enemies" but suffer no affect at all is just absurd.

[ticklemedana]

I used to think boys will be boys and they'll just gravitate to violent stuff, anyway -- you know, playing with toy guns, playing army, that kind of thing is well and good, but then my boys became teenagers and they brought home a game called Saint's Row, and after five minutes of watching them play it it was the most violent thing I'd ever seen, I had them turn it off and I marched down to the local video store and gave them an earful about letting 13 year-olds rent that stuff. Kids can rent just about anything in almost all of these video stores, the ratings stuff is a joke. I took away my kids' video store account and signed up with an online rental company called gamefly.com, and on this site only I know the password, so whenever they want to rent a game they have to get my approval first. Maybe it sounds kind of harsh, but people in this thread are talking about not letting your kids get desensitized to violence, and parents taking responsibility for what their kids are exposed to -- this is a good way to do it, I think.

[shazbo]

its life voilence is every where you can not protect your children from it all the time . its on tele in the street at school . i dont think they can learn it from a game

[ginnipher]

I think it's more of a factor of seperating fantasy from reality. Some people can, and some people can't. I don't believe that it can make a bad person though. I play violent video games all of the time, and you don't see me going out and killing random civilians, do you?