References

Anderson, Craig A., and Dill, Karen E.. "Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life." Journal of personality and social psychology 78 4 (2000): 772. Web, 10 Oct 2013

Bavelier, Daphne, et al. "Brains on video games." Nature Reviews Neuroscience 12.12 (2011): 763-768.

Web. Oct 15 2013

DeLisi, Matt, Vaughn, Michael G., Gentile, Douglas A., Anderson , Craig A., Shook, Jeffrey J., “Violent Video Games, Delinquency, and Youth Violence: New Evidence”, Sage Journals, October 17^th 2012, Web, 13 Oct 2013

Dill, Karen E., Dill, Jody C., “Video game violence: A review of the empirical literature, Aggression 

and Violent Behavior”,  3  4, Winter 1998, Pages 407-428. Web, 11 Oct 2013

Dill, Karen. “Sex Is Too Obscene for Kids, but Violence Isn't? Brown v. Entertainment Merchants”. Psychology Today. June 27, 2011, Karen E. Dill - Shackleford, Ph.D., Web, 12 Oct 2013.

Ferguson, Christopher J., et al. "Violent Video Games and Aggression Causal Relationship or Byproduct of Family Violence and Intrinsic Violence Motivation?." Criminal Justice and Behavior 35.3 (2008): 311-332. Web. 14 Oct 2013

Ferguson, Christopher J., Kilburn, John. "Much Ado About Nothing: The Misestimation And Overinterpretation Of Violent Video Game Effects In Eastern And Western Nations: Comment On Anderson Et Al. (2010)." Psychological Bulletin 136.2 (2010): 174-178. PsycARTICLES. Web. 14 Oct. 2013.

Montag, Christian, et al. "Does excessive play of violent first-person-shooter-video-games dampen brain activity in response to emotional stimuli?." Biological psychology 89.1 (2012): 107-111. Web. 14 Oct 2013

Saleem, Muniba, et al. "Violent Video Game Effects On Aggression, Empathy, And Prosocial Behavior In Eastern And Western Countries: A Meta-Analytic Review." Psychological Bulletin 136.2 (2010): 151-173. PsycARTICLES. Web. 13 Oct. 2013.

Tear, Morgan J., Nielson, Mark. “Failure to Demonstrate That Playing Violent Video Games 

Diminishes Prosocial Behavior”, Plos One, July 3, 2013, Web, 12 Oct 2013

Conclusion

At the end of this batch of collected data, I hope that you parents reading this are much less worried about their kids. Violent video games, although not entirely benign, are not as great a threat as many make them out to be. I dearly hope that you all take my work into account when making decisions for your children. Remember: Always make sure that your child is playing games appropriate to their age in your house. If their similarly-aged friends play such games with their parents permission, don't try to convert them. Just show concern, and make suggestions for the safety of their children. You could even refer them to this blog. 

 

Don't stop here in your search for answers! For more focused research from actual professionals, I am publishing references to my sources. And there is more information on this topic to come in the world of science.

Thank you for reading! Adios, concerned parents!

Criminal Influences and Violent Video Games

Christopher J. Ferguson asserts that, “[I] do not believe that these studies ... provide meaningful information related to [violent video games] and youth violence.” (Much ado about nothing...) We know that video games affect aggression in youth, but what about real world violence, such as that of Columbine and other serious youth violence?

The chart above depicts research done by the criminal justice system for trends in crime, mostly related to the causation of the crimes. As you can see, there is a near perfect negative correlation between video game sales and the rates of youth violence. Not what you expected? Me neither.

To add to that, we see that video games is the lowest influence when it comes to serious crimes, easily trumped by causes involving disorders and just being violent in general. In another article by Ferguson, “it is argued that the pathway to violent criminal acts occurs through a com-

bination of innate propensity (e.g., genetics or brain injury) and exposure to violence in the

family.” (Casual Relationship...) Playing video games and seeing a possible digital role model participate in it is one thing. Being exposed or subject to violence involving family, those you love, care for, and look up to, is another totally different experience. Real life encounters will always be more influential than that of encounters on the screen.

Earlier, in my disclaimers, I cautioned you not to let children with special needs to play violent video games without the express permission of a doctor and/or a psychologist. The statement above is one reason why I included that. Some children are already innately violent because of disruptions in their development, and exposure to violence on the screen could make it all the worse.

Are we overestimating the effects of violent video games?

The study of the effects of violent video games is still in its infancy, despite years of research. The studies conducted can only really detect immediate effects of violent video games. I will not dispute whether or not video games affect children. We already know it does. However, is the effect all it's cracked up to be? Or are we just scaring ourselves? 

 

Christopher J. Ferguson comments on the work done by Craig Anderson. The correlations that Anderson reports to be “positive and statistically significant” (Anderson, Effects of violent video games....) are not significant enough. The positive 0.15 correlation found by Anderson is, by definition, a small correlation, in contrast to a large correlation (+/-0.5) or a medium correlation (+/-0.3). 

 

Additionally, studies such as this test for immediate aggression following the play of violent video games. It doesn't test whether or not this child will commit serious violence to those around him. If this aggression spike isn't residual, there is little risk of children committing spontaneous acts of violence.

Proven negative effects of violent video games in common and uncommon studies

Studies done to record the effects of video games usually go as such: randomly selected subjects within certain age groups are collected and made to play certain video games and studying the immediate effects upon the subject's personality and social behavior. They study the effects with questions after the playing of the game. 

 

A study conducted by Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Bushman conducted a basic, meta-analytic study on those who play video games. Studies such as this one look for correlations between aggression and playing violent video games. They found that “short-term exposure to violent video games causes at least a temporary increase in aggression.” (Anderson, Effects of violent video games....).

Another study employed a situation where the person asking the questions dropped a pencil, and recorded whether or not the subject picked it up or not. If the subject helped out with the pens, it was considered a prosocial act. According to the study by Morgan J. Tear et al., “[s]ignificantly more participants who played the prosocial game helped gather the pens (67%) than participants who played the violent game (28%) or the neutral game (33%).” Violent games are, so far, not affecting subjects in a good way.

While employing an MRI machine, Chris Montag studies his subjects' brain activity. Using an fMRI, he reads the subjects' reactions through their brain waves when they are shown different pictures, some from the popular first-person-shooter (FPS) Counterstrike, ranging from pleasant pictures to unpleasant, violent pictures. “[T]he unpleasant ... pictures might not have only produced negative emotions in all participants of our study but also triggered a cognitive defense mechanism in the control persons to repress unwanted negative emotions,” asserts Montag. He is worried that exposure to violent scenes portrayed in violent video games dampen emotional responses to disturbing scenes. It is the nature of any living thing to adapt to its surroundings, even humans. If we are exposed to scenes of death that we create via our video game controllers, would we get used to such an action or scene?

Background Data

Before we get into the facts, there are a couple more bases to cover. Such as what kind of games are worse than others? Games are measured in two scales: degree of violence, and type of social promotion. Many often associate violent games with anti-social games, but not all violent games are purely anti-social. 

 

Let's compare the games Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty. 

 

Both violent games that is extremely popular on the video game market. In the Call of Duty games, its violence “reflects a morally defensible intent to survive, or avoid death.” (Tear, Failiure to Demonstrate...) So while Call of Duty is violent, it is a game of survival. Grand Theft Auto, however, is a game of wanton violence upon defenseless civilians, law enforcement, and the occasional gangster here and there. Because of the immorality of the actions done in Grand Theft Auto, it is categorized as an anti-social game.

Personal Experience

I grew up with video games. At age 6, I bought a Nintendo Gameboy, complete with Pokemon and Super Mario games. I stayed with Nintendo for years. Nintendo, of course, is an extremely family friendly game company. Most of its games are rated under that suited for a teenager. My parents were strict and kept me away from violent games. I sense that this was much easier back then, since violent video games didn't have nearly the level of hype that they do today. Still, this was a good decision on their part. Now, these days, I own an Xbox 360, a more mature console, but I can handle the violence now. 

Pokemon Editions Red and Blue

Super Mario Land

As an older cousin to a child that grew up with an Xbox 360, I now know my parents fear of the effects of violent video games on children. Along with the Xbox came Call of Duty (I forget which one) and my little cousin Andrew loved it. He even played the multiplayer mode with his friends. For a while, he seemed to change. His manners were less cordial, and his humor a little darker. I told his mother, my aunt, that letting him play these games was not the best idea, but now that his friends had it and invited Andrew over to play it with them all the time, stopping him from playing it here would have little effect.

 

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, A recent game of the Call of Duty series

To keep a closer eye on him, I started playing these games with him to keep him on a leash, so to speak. When he got worked up over the game, I calmed him down. I did my best to tone down his dark humor. I like to think that it helped him. Now, my cousin is in middle school, and he is very well adjusted with his peers and school. I no longer have any fear for him.

Because of this episode, I believe that much of this fear of violent video games is lots of uncertainty. What danger there is, it can be kept at bay when paid attention to. If your children play these video games, supervise them. If you can, go as far as to join them in their playing. No child is ultimately doomed to future violence and anti-social behavior if they have you to look after them.