Video Games Are Bad For Children Essay

Parents want to know if video games are bad for their kids, but the evidence just makes them confused. Psychologist Jay Hull from Dartmouth College says, “Most of popular media puts the most emphasis of concern on aggression, but aggression is just the tip of the iceberg.” Hull says that other negative behaviors could include binge drinking, smoking cigarettes, and unprotected sex. His study, published Monday in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, shows that teens that regularly play Manhunt and the Grand Theft Auto series are more likely to take those risks. Hull previously led a study that looked at the relationship between violent video games and reckless driving habits. Hull says that playing games that promote “acting evil” can distort the sense of right and wrong. In the study, he found that teens that played violent video games were more likely to drive recklessly. However, teens that played violent video games that had noble protagonists were less likely to engage in risky behaviors. In another study, scientists found that playing video games one hour or less per …show more content…
play video games. Video games that are “pro-social” reward players that build towns or help others. Studies also show that video games with violent content can increase aggressiveness in teens. In 2010, the Kaiser Family Foundation did a survey and found that kids age 8 to 18 devote seven-and-a-half hours to entertainment media. In interactive games, players are encouraged to identify with and role play their favorite characters and move up in levels as the character masters skills and wins. Gentile & Anderson state that playing violent video games can increase aggressive behavior because the violence is repeated through the game and that repetition has been effective in teaching. Research also shows that children who played violent video games at the beginning of the school year were more aggressive than those that played them at the end of the school