The Effects Of Violent Video Games On Children

In recent years, video games have been rapidly growing in popularity, especially many violent video games for child and adolescents, that go unregulated to the age group is playing them instead of who they were meant for being a mature audience, which are beginning to show many short, or long term effects correlated with increased aggressive behaviours. Desensitization and cognitive learning have shown effects in children due to violent video games. Violent video games can cause physiological effects in youth that include: delayed sleep, increased heart rate, and altered cognitive responses to violence. Aggressive behaviour, in youth, can be a result of repeated exposure to these video games which can have short, or long term effects. Violent video games have been a popular choice of entertainment for youth that can cause adverse effects on their development for instance: …show more content…
Therefore, in “young minds with fewer existing encoded cognitions can encode new scripts, schemas, and beliefs via observational learning with less interference and effort than adults” (Bushman, Husesmann & Rowell, 2006). Exposure to different violent video games consistently through their childhood and adolescent years has more severe desensitizing effects, as well as cognitive learning in children. Cognitive learning can still be taking place in children because they are still developing their cognitive processes which can be altered by exposure to a variety of justified violent acts portrayed in different video games. Therefore, adults are less effected by violent video games in the long term, but have mainly shorter term effects, for example increase heart rate, and altered sleep. Altered cognitive processes show the long term effects on children, but there may more short term effects that cause behavioural issues in their grade school