Introduction
Gamers are strongly encouraged to use video games, particularly a sizable portion of American children’s lives. According to statistics, more than 90% of American youngsters play video games, and 95% do so without adult supervision (Simmich et al., 2019). This can only mean that over 90% of American children are exposed to unsupervised video gaming. Many children engaged in video gaming are between 12 and 17 years of age (Menear & Ernest, 2020). In this case, the concern is that there are different categories of games, some of which have been identified as harming gamers.
Video Game Classification
The first category includes friendly games that are purely for fun and do not have any adverse or concerning effects on gamers. The second category includes violent games, which comprise 85% of all major trending games in America (Menear & Ernest, 2020). These games are so widespread and readily available that every child in America is believed to have played one or two before they reach 15 years old.
According to experts, adolescents between 12 and 17 years prefer violent games (Pagani et al., 2022). Video games affect not only adolescent gamers but also the entire gaming fraternity. Therefore, the argument here is that violent video games, to an extent, have increased American society’s crime rate.
Additionally, violent video games are identified as one of the leading contributors to the ever-worsening problem of gun violence. There is no denying that playing violent video games makes players aggressive. Experts have identified violent video gaming as a virtual training session for teens who later act according to the training they have undertaken in real life. Various studies have been conducted on this subject and concluded that violent video gaming plays a key role in gun violence in America (Ferguson & Smith, 2021).
Impact of Violent Video Games on Crime Rates
Although the gaming industries deny any direct connection between gun violence and violent video games, statistics from other research institutes state otherwise (Jiang et al., 2022). The already available and reliable information from different sources clearly shows that aggressive video games result in brutal behavior, which is common among Americans. This can be related to ever-increasing mass homicides, shootings in schools and shopping centers, and street shootouts (Esposito & Perez, 2022). Violent video games are also associated with increased physical aggression among different members of society. The aggression has contributed to an increase in the rate of crime being committed.
Furthermore, violent video games largely influence crimes in the current world. It is not possible to think of the problem of gun violence and mass shootings without talking about violent video games. The stand on this issue is that violent video games shape the crime graph in America. Based on video games, children have become mass murderers and criminals because of what they have been exposed to (Wilson & McGill, 2018).
Children who play violent video games assimilate those scenes and start to mimic them in their real lives. No other explanation can be given as to why a 12-year-old child would slaughter their parents or be involved in a mass shooting (Menear & Ernest, 2020). Therefore, video game addiction is a possibility for kids and teenagers, as they can find it challenging to limit how long they play. The idea is that the problem of gun violence can only be solved if people focus on what children learn in school and at home.
Proposed Solutions
To address the effects of violent video games on American society, it is crucial to have a controlled gaming environment for children. Children should not be allowed to engage in unsupervised gaming, as they often have no idea what content is suitable for them. Parents should closely monitor their children’s gaming habits, as their behavior can change over time (Wilson & McGill, 2018). It is the best step to minimize the effects of violent video games. It is a parent affair. It does not matter what games are on the market; what matters is what individual children are exposed to. The other solution to the problem is a government-controlled gaming environment.
The government should take the initiative to protect the public, especially children, from harmful content. The gaming industry needs to be restricted and required to develop more friendly games or games with fewer effects on gamers (Wilson & McGill, 2018). Imagine a scenario where a video game has a negative influence on an adult gamer, which could have a more severe impact on younger age groups. The government should completely ban violent games with intense adverse effects.
Therefore, considerable effort must be made to ensure that gamers are not severely affected by violent video games. Since games are clearly a contributing factor to the increased problems American society faces, taking measures to mitigate such effects is important. There is a direct association between negative outcomes related to socio-cultural and understudied ethnicity and violent video games (Koehler et al., 2022).
Conclusion
Violent video games expose players to so much violence that they end up being aggressive in real life. Some of the issues happening in America today remain mysteries, and experts believe that addressing this problem requires more than just ordinary parenting; parents and the government need to be vigilant about what children are gaming and endeavor to protect the entire population (Davis, 2021). Therefore, aggression is a psychological condition, whereas violence is a physical act. Although some individuals worry about the potential negative effects of violent video games, there have also been reports of possible benefits.
Finally, playing violent video games should not ever be against the law. There may be some negative consequences, such as increased aggressiveness, and some favorable benefits, including improved problem-solving abilities. Some claim that violence in video games can be harmful. Violent video games have certain unfavorable effects. However, investigators have not established that violent video games cause deaths and mass shootings.
References
Davis, D. B. (2021). Antebellum American culture. Penn State University Press.
Esposito, L., & Perez, F. M. (2022). Killing for recognition: Mass public shootings in the era of hyper-neoliberalism. Theory in Action, 15(3).
Ferguson, C. J., & Smith, S. (2021). Examining homicides and suicides cross‐nationally: Economic factors, guns, and video games. International Journal of Psychology, 56(5), 812-823. Web.
Jiang, Z., Qi, K., Zhao, Y., Liu, J., & Lv, C. (2022). Other-dehumanization rather than self-dehumanization mediates the relationship between violent video game exposure and aggressive behavior. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 25(1), 37-42. Web.
Koehler, D., Fiebig, V., & Jugl, I. (2022). From gaming to hating: Extreme‐right ideological indoctrination and mobilization for violence of children on online gaming platforms. Political Psychology. Web.
Menear, K. S., & Ernest, J. M. (2020). Comparison of physical activity, TV/video watching/gaming, and usage of portable electronic devices by children with and without autism spectrum disorder. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 24(12), 1464-1472. Web.
Pagani, L. S., Jalbert, M., & Derevensky, J. L. (2022). From 1 year to the next: Video gaming lifestyle predicts subsequent psychosocial risk in adolescent boys and girls. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health. Web.
Simmich, J., Deacon, A. J., & Russell, T. G. (2019). Active video games for rehabilitation in respiratory conditions: Systematic review and meta-analysis. JMIR Serious Games, 7(1), e10116. Web.
Wilson, G., & McGill, M. (2018). Violent video games in virtual reality: Re-evaluating the impact and rating of interactive experiences. In Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (pp. 535-548). Web.